Page 37 of Summer Ever After
“Are you going to be able to get them home okay?” I asked.
“We’ll be just fine.” Jessica checked her watch, a vintage Cartier. “Are you heading home with your stepsister?”
Chloe answered for me. “Yes. She’ll be just fine.” She used Jessica’s exact wording and mirrored her tone.
“Ok. Bye.” Jessica waved and joined up with the other girls waiting by the doorway. “Bye, Rosie.” They shouted and then the three of them disappeared down to the docks.
Chloe dug her fingernails into my forearm. “You’re not going to be fine at all, Rosie.” She yanked me and held onto my arm in her death grip until we were at the car. My paper bag with my lunch sat on the passenger seat. “I rode my bike.” I pointed to the bush where I’d stashed the old ten-speed.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight. You can come and get it tomorrow, that is if Mom lets you out of the house. She’s going to lose her mind when she finds out that you skipped work to go drinking with those losers.”
“That was Jessica Starling. My boss.”
“That was Laird Starling’s daughter?” She started the car. “Get in.”
I slid into the passenger seat and put my lunch on my lap and rubbed my arm where the half-circle indents from Chloe’s nails still burned bright red. As we crept down the dirt road, Chloe took out her cell phone and called Christina.
When we pulled into the driveway Christina was standing in the doorway in a fluffy pink robe. “You’re in so much shit.” Chloe shut off the engine and snatched the lunch from my lap. She handed Christina the keys to the car as she strode past her and into the trailer.
Christina was at the passenger door before I got out. She yanked it open and then pulled me from the car. “You quit your job at the factory?” she hissed.
“I thought that if I got the job at the island I wouldn’t have to work two jobs.” I could’ve sworn this was our agreement.
Christina shoved me with both hands hard enough that I slammed against the side of the car. “Oooof.” I wanted to rub my tailbone but was too afraid to move. Christina had that look in her eye, the one she got before she went psycho.
“The island job is just for the summer. What happens in the fall?”
Emboldened by the draft beer, I pushed away from the car so I was standing upright. “Hopefully you’ve snagged your next victim and I don’t have to work eighty hours a week to keep this leaky roof over our heads.”
Christina shook her finger at me. “You watch your tone. You know that I decide whether or not you get your inheritance. Me.” She pointed to her chest. “One word from me and all of that money is donated to charity and you don’t see a cent.”
I still couldn’t believe that my dad left Christina in charge of my inheritance and that I had to wait until I was twenty-five years old to get it. “The job can go into the winter.” I crossed my arms and tried to make myself smaller. Threatening Christina wasn’t going to make my life any easier.
“Good.” Christina shoved her hand into the pocket of her robe. “I was able to talk to your boss at the factory, and you can keep that job part-time through the summer, going back to full-time in the fall.”
I inhaled sharply. Working didn’t bother me, I actually liked it, but I needed some time to study and to well, sleep.
“Is there a problem?”
Appealing to Christina’s social climbing side was the only way to get me out of the factory job. “They need me to work extra hours for their masquerade ball. I think I will even get overtime. If I’m working at the factory, I won’t be able to work at the ball.”
Christina’s evil glint seemed to fade and was replaced with a joker-like smile. “Can you get us tickets to the ball?”
I turned my palms up. “I don’t know. I think that they’re offering a discount to locals who want to go to the event.”
“Tell you what.” Christina rubbed her chin. “Get me two tickets to that ball and you can quit the factory job…for now.”
I had no idea if I could get tickets, but the roll of cash along with some of my savings might be enough for at least one. “I’ll get you one.”
“Two.” Christina stepped toward me. “Laird Starling has a son that would be perfect for Chloe.”
I hadn’t thought much about Jessica’s brother. In fact, the only thing I knew about him was that he was older than her and skipped out on the regatta. I highly doubted that he was perfect for Chloe, but in Christina’s world, anyone who was in line to inherit a billion-dollar fortune was Chloe’s type.
“Alright. Two. I will get you two tickets to the ball.”
Christina’s smile widened. “Good.”
I exhaled, and thinking that the conversation was over started to walk to my shed. “Where are you going?”
