Cast Off by KC Burn Read Free Book Online

hanging offense to miss one of the family’s birthday parties. The spouses didn’t get a big party thrown at the pub, but Ian was certain once the grandkids turned sixteen, they’d be included in the birthday schedule too.
    “Are you bringing a date to Erin’s birthday party?” His mother held out such high hopes that her youngest sons would settle down.
    Ian swallowed wrong and almost choked. His mother’s high hopes would now be pinned solely on him, because Kurt and Dylan, both out of the blue as far as Ian was concerned, had found people to settle down with. He was the only one left.
    “A date? No.” He squeezed out the words between sputters. Erin’s birthday party was ridiculously too soon to consider such a thing. Once this confession was out of the way, he might be able to consider dating, but first he’d have to learn how.
    “I told you, Mom. He’s such a slut.” Caitlyn scraped another helping of vegetables onto her plate as she spoke.
    “I’m hardly a slut.”
    “Well you must be doing something wrong, otherwise those poor women you date —and I use the term loosely—might come back for seconds.” Caitlyn’s teasing, sharper and more pointed than Dylan’s, and right on top of the unwelcome realization that his entire family had found something he’d never dared try for, lit the fuse of his anger.
    “Are you picking on me because you don’t want anyone to notice you’re so much fatter than Colleen?” His sisters had both gotten pregnant at the same time—again. Apparently the twins couldn’t do anything separately, but the fatter insult was nothing more than a stab in the dark.
    He didn’t expect Caitlyn to burst into tears as her husband Mark murmured to comfort her, or the rest of the family to glare at him. Fortunately, the tears didn’t last long, but the glare Caitlyn directed at him with red-rimmed eyes should have shriveled his balls.
    Caitlyn threw a roll at his head, which then dropped on to his empty plate. “If you’re not a slut, you’re definitely an asshole.”
    “What did I do?”
    Kurt looked rather uncomfortable and wouldn’t meet his eyes. Dylan just laughed softly at his predicament, and both his parents turned stern, disapproving looks on him.
    Only his dad bothered to answer his question. “I don’t know why you’ve been avoiding us, boyo, but if you hadn’t you’d already know this.”
    There it was, the expected arrow of guilt, right through the heart. But that didn’t stop his momentary panic. Was there something wrong with his sister? Why hadn’t he paid more attention?
    “What? What’s wrong?”
    “Caitlyn’s having twins and Colleen isn’t.” Again, his dad was the one who answered.
    Ian waited, wondering what the terrible follow-up was. After a moment, he realized there wasn’t one. “You’re kidding, right? That’s it?”
    “You know your sisters are happiest when they’re doing things together,” his mother said as though she thought this was normal.
    “But they don’t have control over this. Why get so upset?”
    “You’ll learn, boyo, when you’ve got a pregnant wife of your own.” Great. His dad was now on the “let’s get Ian settled” bandwagon.
    “Please. He’s probably impregnated half the city by now and he still can’t get a girl to stick around.” Caitlyn’s tone was more derisive than ever and sparked his wild swirl of emotions.
    He stood up and threw the roll back at her. “I haven’t gotten anyone pregnant and I don’t want a fucking girl to stick around. I’m gay, dammit.”
    The second the words flew from his mouth, he wished he could claw them back, prevent everyone from hearing them. Kurt smothered a snort of laughter.
    Awesome. Kurt found his marvelous confession amusing. Once again, something he hadn’t been able to do as well as the baby of the family.
    “Ian Seamus O’Donnell.” Shit. His mother was truly pissed if she was trotting out his full name.
    He spun on his heel and headed for the