Page 14 of Sinful as They Come
“Yeah, you wanna come?”
Eyes widening, Brodie waved a hand at me. “Her daughter’s a sweetheart. She braided my hair the other day. But her son? No. No way. That kid’s evil.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“He threw arockat me. On my first day here. Can you believe it? He’s a menace to society. He reminds me of you when you were that age.”
I snorted, holding up the can of spaghetti. “We can have this for dinner. I gotta go, they’re on their own. I’ll see ya later.”
My cousin shouted out a goodbye as I made my way next door. Lindsey’s place was the same size as ours – a little too small and a little too cramped along with being a little too run down, but we both knew there wasn’t much we could do to fix all those little things. Swinging open the door, I instantly felt two fists colliding with my stomach. Tiny, little fists that belonged to Lindsey’s son Caleb and weren’t doing much damage, but that didn’t stop him.
“Mom said you were gonna look after us,” he said, still punching at me. “Are you?”
“I am,” I said. “Quit with the hitting. Where’s Summer?”
“I’m here!” The sound of two little feet patting on the carpet met my ears as Summer joined us in the living room. “Hi, Sawyer.”
Caleb and Summer looked exactly like their mom: all big, blue eyes and red hair and wide smiles. Good kids with a good mom, and I wished Lindsey hadn’t been given such a shitty deal at life.
“Hi.” I sat down on the brown couch with Caleb quickly chasing after me. “You gonna hit me all night?”
“You know I wanna play hockey when I get big,” he said. “Gotta know how to fight to play hockey.”
“You also gotta know how to play hockey to play hockey.”
He shrugged at me. “It can’t be that hard.”
“Your hair is so long,” Summer said with a soft gasp, kneeling on the couch next to me, her little fingers tugging at my hair. “Can I braid it?”
“Uh…” I said, but she was looking at me with those big eyes, and just like with her mom, I couldn’t ever say no. “Go for it.”
“I’ll go get my stuff!” Summer took off into her room, leaving me alone with her brother who was still practicing his punches.
“Don’t throw rocks at my cousin,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“Why?”
“It’s bad.”
“You used to throw rocks at people. Where do you think I learned to dothat?”
I paused for a second. “Those people deserved it. Brodie doesn’t.”
“I just threw one.”
“Don’t throw any more at him.”
Eyes rolling, he kept hitting at me. “Fine. Whatever.”
Summer came back, laughing away as she ran her little, plastic comb through my hair so hard and fast she almost yanked my head off. “I’m gonna give you a French braid, okay? I learned it at school.”
“You goin’ to hairdressing school already?”
“No.” She laughed. “I learned it at recess. It’s really easy, I’ll show you.”
I had no idea what she was doing – or what a French braid even really was – but I let her have her fun, even when she almost ran the comb against my eyes.
“Can we go for a drive in your truck later?” Caleb asked.
