AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I just need to hope that “anything” isn’t River’s baby sister, who already has enough going on right now.
River comes over to check on me, standing behind my chair. He pushes my hair to the side and kisses my neck from behind. “Can I get you anything?”
“I’m okay, thank you.”
He looks to Julianna. “And you, Miss Preggers? You want juice or something? Romeo to give you a foot rub?”
“Actually, could you get me a jar of pickles from the fridge and a straw?” she asks, flashing a hopeful glance his way.
River nods, keeping a straight face, until Romeo appears. “Your wife wants some pickles and a straw.”
Romeo smirks, looking down at her. “More pickles?”
“Is yours not good enough?” River jokes, laughing under his breath at his own joke.
Romeo goes after him, the two play-fighting.
“I’ll never get my pickles,” Julianna sighs, so I get up and head into the kitchen to go and retrieve them for her. When a pregnant woman wants something, you make sure she has it.
“And who do we have here?” asks a smooth, deep voice belonging to a man about my age, wearing jeans and a white T-shirt with a navy cap. He slides over to me with nothing but confidence in his green eyes and, as the young people call it now, rizz. “You are fucking gorgeous. Where have you been all my life?” He moves to put his arm around me.
Jeremiah lifts his head out from behind the fridge door and laughs. I didn’t even notice him there. “She’s River’s.”
The man drops his hand and moves to the other side of the room faster than Usain Bolt. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea,” he explains, wincing, while a drunk Jeremiah just laughs at him again. He turns his cap backward, and it looks even better on him that way.
“That’s Jag. Ignore him—he’s a prospect,” Jeremiah says, still rooting around in the fridge, pulling out more alcohol.
“Nice to meet you, Jag,” I reply, grinning, while he leans back on the counter, looking like he’s going to be sick. I turn back to Jeremiah. “Can you pass me the pickle jar, please?”
He arches a brow, but reaches in and hands me the giant jar. I grab a straw off the table and head back out.
“You’re not going to tell him, are you?” Jag calls out, sounding both hopeful and terrified. I shake my head, and he sighs in relief.
As I walk back over to Julianna, everything is starting to fall into place. After seeing him in the garage, I now understand why everyone is so scared of the man I love.
Chapter Ten
River
While Bella and Julianna disappear into the bathroom together, Romeo’s mother, Aunty Victoria, finds me alone in the kitchen and comes for a chat.
“How’s my sister?” she asks, taking a sip of her drink. She’s gone hard on the spirits tonight, and I wonder if there’s a reason for it, or if she’s just in the mood to party.
“She’s good,” I reply, pulling a chair out and sitting down. “She’s happy. You should give her a call sometime.”
“I tried,” she admits, shrugging. “She doesn’t want to have much to do with me, it seems. We used to be close. We were more than just sisters—we were best friends when we met your father and my husband. I pretty much took care of her for her entire life.”
That is not the version of the story that I heard. “Really? I thought she was more the caregiver.”
Aunty Victoria laughs and takes another drink. Her hair is messy, her makeup smeared and it looks like she’s had a rough night. “Maybe, maybe. But she owes me. She knows why. You know we never talk about Robert anymore. But he’s not Voldemort—why can’t we talk about him? He did exist, you know.”
“Oh, trust me. I know,” I mutter.
The bastard haunts me and he always will. He was an abusive man, with a bad temper and a drinking problem, and he made our lives hell.
Until one day I fought back and sent him to his own hell. Now we are all living our best lives without him.
Victoria grabs the chair next to me and sits down, her drink spilling in the process. “She always worried about you, you know. With everything that happened. You took it all on. You shielded Matthew and Corey, and you protected her as best as you could.”
