Stepbrother Dearest by Penelope Ward Read Free Book Online Page A

advantage of me?

    Greta: You’d better be kidding. No! I was taking off your shoes, drunkass.

    Elec: Kinky. A foot fetish?

    Greta: You’re not serious…

    Elec: ;-)

    Greta: Aren’t you supposed to be on a date?

    Elec: I am.

    Greta: Then, why don’t you pay attention to her?

    Elec: Because I’d rather bug you.

    A phone call interrupted my thoughts before I could text him back. It was Bentley. Crap. I wasn’t sure whether to pick it up.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey, Greta.”
    “Hi. What’s up?”
    “Elec isn’t there, is he?”
    “No. Why?”
    “You left your jacket in my car the other night. Can I come by and give it to you?”
    “Um…sure. I guess that would be okay.”
    “Great. I should be there in about twenty minutes.”
    I hung up and noticed that Elec had sent several more texts while I had been on the phone with Bentley.

    Elec: Actually, my date is a dude.

    Elec: A dud! I meant to type my date turned out to be a dud.

    Elec: LMAO

    Elec: #notadude #eleclovespussy

    Elec: Where the fuck r u?

    Laughing hysterically, I typed.

    Greta: Sorry, that was Bentley. He called. I left my jacket in his car the other night and he’s dropping
    it off.

    A couple of seconds later, my phone rang.
    “The fuck he is! You’re not letting that guy into the house.”
    “He’s just dropping off a jacket.”
    “Call him back and tell him he can leave it on the doorstep.”
    “I’m not gonna do that. There’s no reason to. Whatever happened is between you and him.”
    The call dropped. No, he hung up!
    He had some nerve trying to tell me what to do like that without a good explanation.
    Ten minutes later, my feet flew off the couch when the front door opened.
    Elec was out of breath. “Did he show up?”
    What the heck?
    “Not yet. Why are you here?”
    “You didn’t sound like you were paying attention to me. So, I had no choice but to come home.”
    “If you won’t explain to me why you want me to stay away from Bentley, how do you expect to me
    listen to you?”
    He ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
    The doorbell rang, and Elec beat me to the door and opened it.
    Bentley’s face turned white. “What are you doing home? She said you weren’t here.”
    Elec swiped my jacket out of Bentley’s hands and slammed the door in his face. Then, he locked it.
    “I’m going after him. Get out of my way,” I said.
    He crossed his arms in front of the door. “You’ll have to get past me. And can’t you hear his car taking
    off right now? He’s a fucking sissy.”
    I let out a breath and gave up, deciding to move past it. I didn’t really want to see Bentley but remained
    annoyed by Elec’s controlling behavior. He didn’t have a right to interfere in my life when he only closed
    himself off to me in return.
    The tension in the air was thick as I walked back over to my plate of food on the coffee table. We didn’t
    speak for several minutes before I broke the ice. “There’s some takeout Chinese on the counter if you want
    some.”
    Elec still looked irate and didn’t respond. He walked over to the counter, grabbed the container of lo
    mein and started inhaling it.
    “Hungry? Didn’t you eat on your date?”
    He slurped a noodle into his mouth. “Nope.”
    “Was she upset that you basically abandoned her?”
    “No,” he said with his mouth full.
    Leaning my elbows against the counter, I asked, “If you didn’t eat, what did you do? Or do I really want
    to know?”
    “Um…Riley wanted to go bowling.”
    “I thought you said her name was Kylie.”
    He grinned guiltily as he bit into a spring roll. “Whoops.”
    Unsure of what to make of that, I rolled my eyes at him and reached for the last spring roll before he
    inhaled that, too. I took a bite. “I’m getting a movie on Netflix if you want to join.”
    He stopped eating for a moment and then just glared at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “It doesn’t matter how shitty I treat you…you still