“O-kay,” I drawled. “How 'bout, I fingered her in the backyard to get a rise out of her family and now they more or less hate me?”
She let her jaw drop open, before saying, “You, what? Vinnie, what the hell!”
I shook my head, chuckling brusquely. “It wasn't exactly like that, but ... yeah, it was, uh, not one of my finer moments.”
“You have to apologize to them!”
Leveling her with a hard glare, I said, “No way. I mean, maybe one day, when this shit blows over, but not now. Her sisters are ...” I rubbed my fingers over my bristled chin, searching for the words. “They're ... difficult, I guess is the best way I can put it. They're judgmental as fuck and they've been sayin' shit about me since before I even met them. So, like, I'm not sayin' that what we did was okay, 'cause it wasn't, but if I owe them an apology, they owe me one, too. And until they're ready to give it to me, I ain't giving them shit.”
Jenna crossed her arms, considering what I'd said, then nodded. “What don't they like about you?”
“Honestly?” She nodded. “It feels like everything, but I'm thinkin' it's more along the lines of, I don't meet their standards. I have a shitty past, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and I dunno, I'm not going off and playin’ golf with Daddy to impress him or some shit. I think that rubs them the wrong way.”
“And Andy's a good girl,” Jenna pointed out.
Snickering, I shook my head. The events from the day before were proof of how wrong she was. “Well, maybe at one point ...”
“Right. Before she met you.”
I pursed my lips, letting that sink in. Then, I nodded. “So, you think I corrupted her, too.”
Jenna groaned and rolled her eyes. “I didn't say that. I'm sayin', maybe she lived a sheltered life or she always played it safe or ... I dunno, whatever. But then, you come along and you ...” She snorted. “Well, let's just say you've never played it safe, and you’ve introduced her to a whole new world.”
“Okay, Aladdin,” I laughed, shaking my head.
She groaned again and grabbed the ladle, stirring the sauce. “I'm just sayin', it might've been a long time comin' for her. Everything she's doing with you, maybe she was always destined to do it and you were just, uh, there to open the door to rebellion or somethin’. Her family might blame you for it, when really, her bad girl side has always been begging to come out.”
I laughed, reaching out to grip her shoulders. “Sis, just say I corrupted her.”
She laughed as I shook her gently. “Fine. You're the devil and she signed her soul over to you.”
“Thank you. That's all I wanted, just a little bit of credit,” I said, laughing, as my phone buzzed with a text.
I pulled it from my pocket and saw it was from Andy.
Andy: So, I don't know how to say this but ... what we did last night, I want to do it again. Can you get more? Like, I don't know how you go about doing that but I figured you do. Obviously.
Andy: Also, I'm being vague in case anybody else sees this, haha. You know what I'm talking about. Okay, I'll see you later and hopefully we can do that stuff again. Love you so much.
I stared at the screen, not knowing what to say or what to do. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. But why hadn't I assumed she'd enjoy it and want to do it again? I knew how this story went, I had lived it before, so why hadn't I suspected it would happen to her, too?
Because she's a good girl, the devil on my shoulder whispered, or was. But you’ve ruined that, haven’t you?
It struck me then that there was no devil, sitting on my shoulder and whispering his sweet nothings into my ear. There was only me. A devil in disguise.
“What's up?” Jenna asked, reminding me I wasn't alone.
“Oh,” I forced a smile and stuffed the phone back into my pocket, “just my favorite client.”
She laughed. “She beggin' you to corrupt her a little more?”
“Yeah,” I muttered, as I headed out of the kitchen, while a sickening feeling twisted in my guts. “Somethin' like that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
VINNIE
It had been a couple of weeks since the party at her parents' place, a