Entangled by Ginger Voight Read Free Book Online Page A

“You were going to marry my dad in January, but now that he’s not available anymore you’re kissing my uncle instead. Should I tell my mom to keep a close eye on Derek, or is he too poor for you?”
    “That’s enough, Jonathan,” Alex snapped, taking both Jonathan and me by surprise. “Apologize to Rachel.”
    “No,” Jonathan said. “She’s the one who should apologize to me. She ruined everything.”
    “She didn’t do anything,” Alex gritted between clenched teeth. “Your father…”
    I cut him off before he could go on. “I’m sorry, Jonathan. You’re right. I broke my promise to you and it screwed everything up. No matter how much I’d like to, I can’t go back and change anything. All I can do is move forward and try to make it up to you the best way I can.”
    “You can start by keeping your hands off my uncle,” Jonathan retorted.
    “That’s not you decision to make, little man,” Alex interjected. “Believe it or not, the world doesn’t revolve around you. People around you get to do what is best for them; it has nothing to do with you. And you’re not required to sign off on these decisions like everyone in the universe has to craft their lives carefully to make you happy. That’s a bullshit move, Jonathan,” he told him, and Jonathan’s eyes widened from the rough language. “If you want to control people, then you can’t love them. You don’t want a family. You want an audience.”
    Jonathan was not used to his favorite uncle talking to him in such a way. He flung the full glass of liquid onto the hardwood floor until it shattered. Alex didn’t even move.
    “Pick it up, Jonathan.”
    “No!” Jonathan repeated with a petulant tip of his chin.
    “Fine. Then go pack your stuff.” Jonathan stared at him open-mouthed. “If you can’t treat this house and everyone who lives here with respect, you can go back to your mom, back to public school and possibly a military academy, where no one knows you or gives a shit about you. But you’re done punishing the people who love you the most, who have turned their lives upside down to help you. I’ve already been down this road and I’ll be damned if I do it again. If you want to be an ungrateful little shit, you can do it elsewhere. I’m done.”
    They had a long standoff as Alex waited for Jonathan to make up his mind. Finally Jonathan walked around to the utility closet to withdraw the broom and dustpan. He had just cleaned up the last of the glass when Millicent and Max walked in. Alex used that opportunity to head back down to the stables. Jonathan was subdued for the rest of the afternoon. When Millicent suggested that he help with dinner, he offered no lip. He quietly assisted her as she puttered around the kitchen.
    She and Max led most of the conversation during dinner. Alex was uncharacteristically quiet as we ate, which only unsettled Jonathan further. He wasn’t used to his uncle’s disapproval, which was palpable as sat around the kitchen table.
    Alex turned in early that night. Jonathan followed suit, clearly upset by the events of the afternoon. Yet he made no decision to leave, and in fact, the next morning he kept his ear buds out of his ear and managed to do one of my assignments. It was on breeds of horses, which I suspected he tackled so his uncle wouldn’t be so mad at him anymore. He walked down to the stables and drew sketches of Alex’s different horses, which he turned in to me that afternoon.
    “These are beautiful,” I said, but he only nodded. He slipped from the library and went off in search of Max and Millicent, the only two people in the house he suspected weren’t mad at him or considered him a jerk. By Thursday, he was still picking and choosing which assignments he would complete, and barely said a word to me good or bad. It was Millicent that he turned to in a conversation I overheard that afternoon when she was helping him pack.
    “ Uncle Alex hates me now,” Jonathan had confided