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“Okay, so he’s crazy big, like huge and kind of scary, and he said that he’d agreed for me to stay with him, so I was staying with him. I tried to argue, well, I planned to argue, but then we were in his truck and miles from town before I thought of anything to say.”
“Okay, you’re kind of freaking me out now. Do you want to be there, or do you need a rescue? I can call Betty; I’ll activate the Barnett bandwagon and have them all swoop in to save you if you need me to.”
“No, no.” I wave my hands in front of the screen. “I’m fine, I promise I am. And actually, he knows the Barnetts, and you, apparently.”
Her brows furrow. “I don’t know anyone called Oscar.”
“He goes by Oz now.”
Mouth dropping open, her brows shoot up to her hairline, and she looks more like a cartoon than she ever has before. “Your evil stepbrother is Oz?” she shrieks.
“He’s not my stepbrother.”
“Fine, your stepdad’s son—which totally means he’s your stepbrother—is hot firefighter Oz?”
I nod.
“Holy fuck. He seemed so nice. Is he a sociopath and the nice guy appearance is just a front?” she asks excitedly.
“I guess people can change in fifteen years,” I say, trying and failing to sound nonchalant.
“Bullshit, people don’t change. Has he been an asshole?”
“Not really,” I sigh. “But he’s bossy and scary and…” My cheeks heat as I remember the way it felt to feel the evidence of his arousal against my stomach.
“Oh my god, you fucked him!” Octy screams, clasping her face in her hands.
“I didn’t fuck him,” I protest, albeit a little weakly.
“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” she singsongs.
“I did not have sex with him,” I say a little more urgently.
“Hmm, but you want to, don’t you? Holy shit, you want to bone your stepbrother, god, it’s like a book, that’s so hot,” Octy gushes.
“I do not want to bone…” I wrinkle my nose at the word. “My stepbrother.”
“Tell me everything, every detail. My vagina is as dry as a nun’s cunt after Abel the asshole’s bullshit, I need some salacious details to help me get my motor running again.”
Abel is Octy’s ex-boyfriend. I never met him because he wasn’t interested in meeting any of Octy’s friends. He was a dick to her, and although she’ll never admit it, he really hurt her. He pursued her relentlessly, but the moment they started dating, he made it his mission to break her down. He criticized her appearance, her style, her job, and her relationships with her friends. He systematically tried to change all the amazing things that make Octy, Octy.
She broke it off with him when Betty offered her the job here in Montana, but I know he still calls and texts her regularly. She’s not crazy enough to take him back, but I know his verbal abuse has affected her more than she’s willing to admit.
“Etta, details,” she whines, flashing me the baby doll eyes she knows I won’t be able to refuse.
“Nothing’s happened…well, not really. He met me at the bus station and brought me to his place. For the first hour or so, he was angry and cold and distant, which is kind of what I was expecting. He hated me when we were kids, and I know he only agreed to have me stay at his place because Bruce forced him to.”
“But…” Octy prompts excitedly.
“But then he made me dinner, and he started being…well, kind of bossy, but not in a really mean way.”
“Bossy, how?” she asks cautiously.
“He told me I hadn’t eaten enough, then made me eat more.”
“I mean, that’s kind of…” She trails off, and I laugh.
“Weird. But also, kind of sweet…right?”
