“Is everything okay?”
I shut the door behind me. “It is now.”
“Come here,” she said, sitting up and smiling at me.
“Gladly.”
I crossed the room, ready to forget about my problems.
Chapter Seventeen: Rebecca
I was exhausted the next morning, like I was every morning since Reid started sneaking into my room at night.
It was the sweetest exhaustion I had ever felt.
I was half awake and still thinking about Reid as I stumbled downstairs, dressed for the early shift at work, my hair pulled up into a tight bun. I poured a cup of coffee and sat down at the table to try and get myself together before I left the house.
I had no clue where he had gone the night before when we had been so rudely interrupted. He didn’t say when he got back and I didn’t have much of a chance to push him before his mouth was all over me again.
And when I woke up, he was already gone. His room was empty and his boots were gone.
I knew it probably had to do with the smuggling. I was still having trouble rectifying that in my mind, trying to come to grips with Reid smuggling prescription drugs from Canada, but it seemed like with every orgasm it got easier and easier.
I sighed, sipping my coffee. It was like he was fucking the criminal into me. In my past life, out at school, I couldn’t have imagined ever being with someone involved with drugs, let alone smuggling them. But Reid was Reid and he had something special about him.
Plus, it helped that every dime he made went to his mom’s cancer treatment. Scumbags didn’t spend all their time and money on their sick moms.
Still, I was the good girl. The straight-A student. I was going to graduate school soon. I’d barely smoked pot, let alone took pills. It was such a cliché, but it was the truth.
Reid was changing something in me. I felt more open, freer.
“What are you smiling about?
I looked up with a start. “Hey, Dad. You scared me.”
“Scared you? It’s not a big house,” he grumbled as he poured himself some coffee.
“Why aren’t you at work yet?”
“Getting a late start this morning.” He sat down across from me. “Mill had some repairs overnight.”
“Anything cool?”
“No. Unless you find hydrothermal cooling techniques cool.”
“Can’t have ‘hydrothermal cooling’ without ‘cool,’ right?”
He cocked his head and then laughed. “Good one. I’m a little dense this morning.”
“How’s everything else going? I feel like I barely see you.”
“Good. Busy at the mill. A few guys got laid off so I’ve been picking up their slack.”
I frowned. “Should we be concerned?”
He waived his hand “Not at all, sweetie. Everything is fine.”
We lapsed into a short silence and I sipped my coffee. My dad looked ragged, exhausted, probably even more tired than I was. I barely slept because I was too busy having sex with my stepbrother every night. He didn’t sleep because he was too busy working all the time, trying to support the family.
“By the way,” he said, cutting into my thoughts. “You been hearing some weird noises at night?”
My heart almost stopped. “Uh, what kind of noises?”
He shook his head. “I’m not really sure. Maybe like animals or something.”
“I don’t know. I’ve been sleeping pretty soundly.”
“Yeah, okay. Probably just my imagination. Be careful though, might be some rabid bear around here or something.”
“Sure. I’ll be careful.”
I took a sip of my coffee to mask the embarrassment that was flooding through me. I couldn’t believe he had just said that. We did not sound like animals!
Then again, I’d rather him think those noises were animals and not Reid making me come over and over again. Fortunately, he was a heavy sleeper and probably was never awake enough to really understand what he was hearing.
“Anyway, I need to get going,” I said, standing up.
“Okay. Have a good day.”
I finished off my coffee, put the mug in the sink, and started off toward the front door.
“Oh, and hey, Rebecca.” I looked back at him. “It’s really good having you home.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Dad.”
“See you.”
I waved and headed out as fast as I could. Hopefully I wasn’t going to run into any rabid bears.
I plopped down in the booth, my feet killing me, a warm mug of coffee in my hand. It was cup number three, if I was counting right, but it wasn’t doing anything to cut through the heavy exhaustion weighing me down.
Lindsey looked up from her phone, bags under her eyes. She looked tired, too, though I didn’t know what was keeping her up. She was already halfway through her mug.