Chapter 21

I hope you get a mosquito bite between your toes.

-Ruthie to Sterling

Ruthie

“You look a little green,” I said, trying hard not to smile.

“That’s because I’m fucking hung over,” he growled.

“You were the one to set up this time. Why didn’t you just reschedule?” I asked.

“Because I didn’t think that it’d be that bad,” he answered.

“Sterling,” I said slowly. “You drank a fifth of whiskey all by yourself. What’d you think was going to happen? And the sad thing about it all was that you drunk dialed your mother and not me. I mean…who does that?”

“I used to be able to do that and wake up and run five miles the next morning,” he grumbled.

I snorted.

“When you were what, eighteen?” I asked. “And you still ran today.”

“I ran down the road and had to walk back. That’s what took me so long,” he confided.

I closed my eyes and smiled as I thought about that.

“I’m sure they’ll understand if you want to reschedule,” I hesitated. “Although, last night, you kept going on and on about how excited your mother was to speak to you.”

“Shit,” he sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

He bailed out of the car, and we started walking up the front walk of a huge house that Able had told me he’d rented temporarily.

They usually lived in South Dakota, but had taken up temporary residence here for the summer in what originally had been an attempt to get closer to me.

And was now an attempt to get closer to the both of us.

“There are kids watching us,” I whispered to him.

He looked up, and it was freaky as hell to see kids that had both of our features.

“You know,” he said under his breath. “That’s what our kids are going to look like.”

I nodded.

It really was weird.

The kids had my gray eyes, but Sterling’s dirty blonde hair.

Sterling’s nose, my dimpled butt chin.

“We must’ve gotten all of our features from our parents,” I surmised.

“Yeah,” he said. “Jesus Christ, look at the girl.”

The girl was smiling, and she had my smile down to a T.

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “How are we ever going to explain this off to our friends?”

“We’re going to have to move to Arkansas,” he teased.

I slapped his arm.

“Shut up!” I laughed as we arrived at the door.

The boy opened the door before we even made it to the door to knock.

He swung it open wide.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” we both replied back.

“Are you my brother and sister?” He asked.

We both nodded.

“God, you’re real,” a woman said from beyond the door.

We both moved our eyes from the little boy in front of us to the woman standing behind him.

She was in what I would call the entryway to the entrance.

The room was freakin’ massive, like one of those ones you’d see on HGTV’s Dream House.

I was scared to step on the carpet, it was that nice and extravagant.

And they were renting this place?

“Come in, come in,” the woman rushed out, pulling her smaller son’s hand so he backed up so we could make our way inside.

Able appeared in the doorway and my heart skipped a beat at the sight of him.

He was really intimidating, and that air of intimidation surrounding him backed up his claims of being an independent contractor.

He probably only had to show his face and the people were scared to fuck with him.

Not that Sterling was any less intimidating; he just knew how to turn that ‘power’ as I liked to call it, off.

He could talk to damn near anybody.

Stranger on the street.

An old lady in the grocery store.

The teller at the bank.

Able, though, looked like the type of person that people ran away from.

“Glad y’all could make it,” Able said in his deep voice.

I smiled shyly at him.

“Would y’all like something to drink?” The woman asked.

“No thank you, Mrs. Spiers. We just got done eating at Whataburger,” I answered.

I almost brought my drink in, but I was pretty sure that the house might fall down around my ears if I brought a fast food cup into it.

“Oh, I made lunch. Oh well, there’s dessert!” She cried, turning around to head to the kitchen.

Sterling and I stayed frozen in the entrance, both too scared to follow.

“Did she think we were eating here?” I asked Able.

He shrugged. “Call her Ann Marie, and yes, she thinks everyone that comes to our home is hungry.”

Sterling’s hand tightened on mine, and I looked up at him.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head, his eyes looking pointedly at the two kids in front of us.

“What’re y’all’s names?” He asked them.

“Dalia,” the little girl answered.

“Dylan,” the boy answered.

“How old are y’all?” I asked.

“I’m ten,” Dylan answered. “And Dalia is twelve.”

“Cool,” Sterling said. “What was for lunch?”

“Tuna fish,” Dylan answered. “Even though we all hate it.”

I blinked.

I wasn’t very fond of it either, but if I had to venture a guess, the tuna fish was for Sterling’s benefit.

He loved it and ate it like it was the best thing on earth.

Something about it being healthy, filling, and cheap.

But whatever.

His mother must’ve remembered how much Sterling liked it, because she made it even though the rest of them disliked it.

Which said something.

I gestured to the kitchen with my eyes; Sterling sighed, taking the hint.

He moved past us, and I admired his ass as he walked stiffly past me.

“Daddy, she’s watching his butt. I thought you said they were our brother and sister,” Dylan said, sounding amusingly confused.

I rose an eyebrow at Able, wondering how he’d explain that to them.

I smiled when he didn’t know what to say.

“Sterling and I are getting married,” I said. “And I happen to like looking at his butt.”