Page 6 of Bad to the Bone

“Yeah, right. You need to know whether or not I will be keeping an eye on you. And the answer is yes. I’ll be watching you,” Shannon interjects, lending her special brand of bullshit to help smooth over the situation.

“Well, who is going to keep an eye out for me. I could need supervision. You don’t know what I may get into with you two not around,” Kim adds, wiggling her eyebrows and striking a pose.

Shannon and I make eye contact and then burst into laughter. The idea of Kim as a seductress is too ridiculous to take.

“Hey, I can be sexy. I have very powerful animal magnetism. I caught you, didn’t I?” she wraps her arms around my waist and hugs me hard.

“Sure did,” I kiss the top of her head.

“Come on, let’s eat before my lasagna gets dried out,” she says, pulling me into the kitchen. Shannon shoots me a worried look and follows closely behind.

“I made the salad,” she whispers as she passes me.

What I am served resembles lasagna but fails to hit the mark on almost every level. Instead of ground beef there is some sort of brown protein crumble. What it lacks in meat it makes up for in cheese. It’s safe to say that it’s the kind of food that sticks to your ribs, and any other surface it comes in contact with. But it’s not the worst meal I’ve ever had. And the conversation more than makes up for it.

Twenty minutes into dinner I have forgotten about the things that worry me. I forget to care about the mystery behind Shannon’s relationship to my father. I forget to care about how Kim will feel about it all after I tell her. I forget that the woman holding my hand and kissing my face could very well be related to me in some crazy way.

What I can’t shake is the feeling that we all belong together. Shannon, Kimberly, and me. We are a family. Every time Kim leans over and looks at me with those clear, deep eyes, I know that no matter what happens next, I can’t ever leave her. No matter what my father does, I can’t ever let him break her heart.

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