AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Grandpa opens one eye and then stands, walking over to Dean. “Looks good. Thanks,” Grandpa Bob says, upon inspection of the area. He fishes a quarter out of his pocket and hands it to Dean. “Don’t spend it all at once.”
Dean takes it out of his palm and laughs. “What a livable wage!”
I do my best to smile, but I really want to get in Dean’s face and confront him about his continual lies. Something may be sizzling between us, but Dean’s hiding something. I know he is. I just don’t have enough evidence to call him out on it…yet.
I leave the boys to their conversation and head back inside to get started on dinner.
“Well?” Mina asks when I enter the kitchen. She looks much better now. Her eyes are dry and not nearly as red.
“He denied trying to get his hands on our property,” I say, grabbing some chicken thighs from the fridge.
“But Dylan said—”
“I know,” I say to Mina. “I know. Don’t worry, honey. Whatever he’s up to, I won’t let him get away with it.” I wrap her in my arms. “Dean Cornel has met his match. You can trust and believe that.”
As I speak, I’m wringing my hands together like some kind of cartoon villain, making her laugh.
Chapter fifteen
Dean - Coral, the War Horse
I’m happy that it seems as though I successfully fibbed my way through that encounter with Mae, but I’m not a complete monster—and I actually feel bad for deceiving her in the first place.
But I’m not able to dwell on that much because loud thunder and lightning suddenly boom above me.
Coral and I are not lucky enough to make it back inside before the rain starts, and we get completely soaked.
“Jeez!” she says, shaking water from her hair.
“Let me get you a towel.”
“Thanks.”
I use one to pat myself off as well.
“Hey, Dyl?”
“Yeah?” I hear from his room.
“Okay. Just making sure you’re inside. It’s storming like crazy outside.”
“Whatever.”
“I swear, that’s his favorite word,” I whisper to Coral.
She just rolls her eyes and nods. “Hey, count your blessings. Soon he’ll start using even more colorful language. Trust me. My sweet little Jerad went from responding to everything with ‘whatever,’ to cussing up a storm in what felt like less than twenty-four hours.”
“Dylan better not. I’ll wash his mouth out with soap, just like my mama did to me.”
“She did not.”
I open my mouth widely. “I bet you can still see some of the bubbles.”
We laugh together.
Then, she says she’s going to get back to her house, but another loud crack of lightning indicates that that might not be the best idea.
“Why don’t you just stick around here until the weather clears a bit?”
