want to lose you, I don’t know what the hell else to do.
“Rex Toberman!” a female shrieks from the lawn, and I pull back to find—
“Scarlett?” I jump back from the girl in my arms to find Sabrina as the recipient of that apologetic kiss I just doled out. “Crap.” I close my eyes a moment.
“Not only is your mother a gold digger, but you are an asshole!” Scarlett jumps back into her car and speeds away while I stand there stunned like the asshole I’ve just become, watching as the night swallows her whole.
“Well, that was rich.” Sabrina heads inside without waiting for the invite.
“If you’re looking for more of the same, you can leave. I didn’t realize it was you.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of the conundrum that wet and wild tongue of yours just landed you in.” She gives a little wink as she sits and spreads her arms wide over the back of the sofa. “I’m not interested in sloppy seconds.” Her eyes narrow in on mine, her features sharpen hard as flint. “I’m not leaving until you fill me in on everything I need to know about Lynette Toberman. Who is she really? And is she even your mother?”
Bitter…It’s What’s for Dinner
Scarlett
I’ve encountered deception and betrayal before, mostly at the hands of my sister. I was spoon-fed heartbreak and bitterness after my parents’ divorce, but not through any fault of theirs directly. But this? Rex keeping things from me about his mother? And to think I let that boy have his way with my body, repeatedly, in any and every pornographic manner.
“Tell me again what you think you saw?” Daisy strokes my hair with caution as if I’ve gone feral.
The door bursts open, and Piper and Cassidy pile in.
“I’ll kill him.” Cass swoops onto the bed and wraps her arms around me. “I’ll take one of those fancy hunting knives you’ve got lying around, and I’ll lop his balls off.”
Piper sits across from me and picks up my hand. “You can hang them off your rearview mirror like a pair of shriveled up ornaments. He obviously doesn’t have any use for them.”
“Lock the door,” I grunt to Daisy. “There’s no way in hell I want to see his face.”
“What the hell just happened?” Cassidy barks it out, loud and demanding.
“I don’t know. I went over and saw him with my sister. They were kissing at the door.”
Cassidy clucks her tongue. Her head inches back a notch. “You think they got a thing going?”
“No. God, I don’t know. It just caught me off guard. I freaked out and ran. It’s Duncan all over again.”
Piper gives my hand a violent tug. “Who the hell is Duncan?”
“That’s her ex.” Cassidy knows all my ins and outs, and even though we were separated for a time, she’s still up on the highlights and lowlights that life has brought my way. “He was a moron. Never really loved her.”
“Cass!”
“It’s true, Scarlett. If that boy had an ounce of true affection for you, he never would have done the sister switcheroo.”
Piper stiffens. “What sister switcheroo?”
Cassidy nods as if affirming their worst suspicions. “Sabrina is older and far more wicked. She snatched poor Duncky from right under Scarlett’s nose, and now that idiot is bound and gagged to marry the wench.”
“What a witch!” Piper is ready to smash a bottle over my sister’s head, and I don’t blame her. I’m right there with her.
“For our entire lives, Sabrina treated our relationship like some ridiculous competition. We’re sisters. We shouldn’t have to compete, especially not for men. It’s as if she never got the memo.”
“Oh, hon.” Cassidy’s voice softens. “It wasn’t all your lives. You and she were thick as thieves up until your parents split.”
A dull laugh strums through me. Cassidy remembers my life with better clarity than I do.
“She’s right.” I clear my throat. “Sabrina and I were best friends up until the battle lines were drawn. She always felt as if I sided with our father, and once my mother remarried and moved away, the rift between us grew. She hated that I was close to our dad. She tried to make him angry with me, and, when that didn’t work, she conceded that I was his favorite. Of course, she thought my brother got preferential treatment, too, just for the simple fact he’s a boy. But me? My dad and I are close, but neither one of us has ever shut Sabrina out. If anything, she’s done it to herself.”
Daisy