Page 11 of His Coveted Obsession

I left him to his thoughts and headed upstairs to my sister’s room. She had her door closed, so I knocked on it. “Annie?”

“Go away!”

“Please let me in, Annie Boo.”

After a moment, she finally opened it and rushed to her bed, grabbing a pillow to hug.

My fifteen-year-old sister was my favorite person in the world. We were really close, especially after Mom died, so I hated it when she was upset. I took care of her as Dad grieved. She was adorable, too, with dirty-blonde hair that was cut into a pixie cut, but the bangs were long and fell to the side of her face. She also wore glasses like me. But her glasses sat on her bed as the tears fell.

I sat next to her, pulling her into a side hug. “I’m sorry he did that.”

She sniffed and nodded. “It was all I had of her, besides pictures and some clothes I can’t fit into yet. But that ring was so special. I wanted to wear it when I got married one day.”

I brushed away her fallen bangs and wiped some tears from her face. “It’s not the same, but we’ll make sure you have a ring one day.”

“Why is he like this, Tommy?”

“It started as a coping thing when Mom died. Now it’s an addiction, like any drug. We can’t get him to stop. We can only tell him how it makes us feel. Play into his guilt.”

“I guess.”

To change the subject, I asked, “How was school today?”

Annie shrugged. “It was fine.” Then she grinned at me, her blue eyes still red and wet. “But I aced my algebra test. I got a hundred on it.”

I hugged her tighter. “God, I’m so proud of you. Your grades are always good, better than mine ever were. You’re going to do great things, Annie Boo.”

She sniffed again and rested her head on my shoulder. “So are you. You’re going to be a nurse one day, get a home of your own, and you won’t have to live here anymore.”

“And as soon as I do, you’re coming with me.”

“Okay. Good.”

Her sigh was heavy. “I… miss Dad. You know… how he used to be.”

“Me, too.”

Dad used to be fun and full of life. My parents hadn’t been wealthy, but they’d been happy and loved us. It was clear Mom had been the glue that held us together. Without her, we’d been permanently fractured.

I kissed her head and told her goodnight, as I headed to our shared bathroom to shower before bed, since I had to be up early in the morning.

I was still hungry, but I’d lost my appetite after everything that went down tonight.

Before my shower, I quickly stashed the cash underneath the old wood flooring behind my bed. It was a space I created to keep Dad away from my stuff. I planned to deposit the cash into my bank account for safekeeping after work tomorrow.

Thenextmorning,thecoffee shop was busy as usual, dealing with the rush before everyone headed to work, needing their caffeine fix. I tried my best to keep up, but with an extra person working, it wasn’t as bad as it was yesterday morning.

My stomach twisted a bit as I anxiously waited for Easton to come by and get his chai tea and his cinnamon roll.

When seven in the morning rolled around, there he was. God, he took my breath away with his perfectly cropped hair on the sides, but long on the top, swooped back. It looked like pure silk. His nose was aristocratic, and he exuded elegance in his navy-blue suit and pale blue tie. He looked like one of those models you saw on the cover ofGQ. Easton oozed elegance and class.

There was no way he’d like me back. He waswayout of my league. I was probably nothing to him, but he sure was nice to look at.

I got his chai tea ready and ordered, sent ahead so he wouldn’t have to wait, and his roll was being warmed up. It was the least I could do.

“Hi, Easton!” I said, much too excitedly, when he stepped up to the counter, making my face flush. He looked at me with those intelligent, pale brown eyes, which seemed to penetrate my soul. Jeez, they were pretty.

“Hello, Thomas,” he said, without looking at my name tag, in a perfectly smooth voice, which wasn’t too deep or too high. He was only about an inch taller than me, making him about five-foot-ten. While he wasn’t too broad, he exuded the strength of a much bigger man.

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