“It doesn’t and I’m fine,” I said and sat down and opened the menu.
She averted her eyes from me and the beautiful smile she had flashed at me quickly fell from her face as she continued looking at the menu.
Once we had finished dessert, and they had refilled the coffee, Joe sat back and took hold of my mother’s hand. He looked at both me and Leah and smiled. “So, Anna and I have something we want to share with you both.”
“So, share it,” I mumbled under my breath, “You’ve kept us here for over an hour and a half.” Mom glared at me, the look from her I knew all too well. Leah giggled.
“I have asked Anna to marry me.” As soon as the words left Joe’s mouth my eyes shot up from the floor. “She has said yes.”
I felt like my world just spun out of control at a million miles per hour.
“We are getting married next Saturday, we don’t want to wait any longer. I know for both of you this will be a big change.”
Leah looked at me, she looked no happier about it than I did. “Where are we going to live?” she asked twirling her finger in her hair.
“Anna and I have been looking, and we have put an offer in on a house across town. We should know in a few days, it’s a nice four-bedroom home. Neither of the houses we own now can’t accommodate all of us.”
“We’re moving?” Leah gasped. “I don’t want to move.”
“Leah, it’s not the end of the world, it will be a good move,” Joe said.
I sat there listening as they droned on and on about how in love they were. They were getting married in front of the JP, blah blah blah. Leah sat there looking just as disturbed as I was. As soon the check arrived and this torturous dinner was finally at its end, I excused myself to go outside to wait. I had just walked out the front door of the restaurant when I heard my name.
I turned around and saw Leah striding toward me. “I’m not thrilled about this either. Maybe we could be friends?” she said those green eyes looking up at me.
How could I be friends with this girl? When I had seen her for the first time I had instantly gotten hard. “We shall see.” That was all I had time to say because Mom and Joe were coming.
“You kids getting along okay?” Joe asked.
I said nothing before I climbed into the car and slammed the door. Mom kissed Joe goodbye and finally climbed into the car. As we reversed out of the spot, I saw Leah sitting in the front seat of their van; she smiled and waved. I scowled back. We drove home in utter silence.
I wasn’t happy about any of this—the wedding or moving in with Joe and Leah. I needed to make that little girl’s life a living hell, because if I didn’t, there would be no way I could live at home for the next year and keep my hands to myself.
FOUR
Leah
I sat in my now empty room, nothing could have prepared me for all of this. A wedding, a new stepmother, the guy I had a massive crush on is my new stepbrother and to top it off now we had to move. Seemingly overnight everything had changed. It was no longer just Dad and me.
After Dad and Anna told us at dinner and ruined Logan’s and my life, they were married in front of a JP the following weekend just as they had said they would be. Two weeks later, they got word that their offer was accepted, and the new house was theirs. Dad hired a company to come in and pack up both houses.
Dad had sold the only home I had ever known and now I had to say goodbye before starting a new life on the other side of town. I looked at the four walls of my bedroom, tape marks from the posters I had hung sat there. In a split second I went from loving my life to hating everything about it. The only thing I was even the slightest bit happy about was that I now had an older brother.
My best friend, Jenna, had an older brother, and he always protected her, always looked out for her, and I was hoping it would be the same for me. Logan, however, didn’t seem too thrilled with this arrangement, but I was still hoping that we would become good friends.
“I want you to be on your best behavior Leah. Anna has been having issues with Logan. Don’t make this difficult,” Dad said as he took a sip of the coffee he had stopped to get before we followed the moving truck across town to the new house.
I scowled, he did not understand how I felt about all this, because he hadn’t asked me. I was so angry at him for not talking about all this first, but I kept my mouth shut. When we pulled into the driveway, the first thing I saw was Anna. She was struggling with a box trying to pull it from the back of her van. Dad put the car in park and jumped out shouting at Anna to leave the box that he would get it. She turned and gave us a wave and a big smile, I waved back as I climbed out of the car.
As soon as Dad got to her, he wrapped her in his arms and kissed her pulling him against him. “Everything going okay?” he asked her.
“As well as it can be I guess,” she said.
“Is he still acting up?”
Anna was just about to say something when Logan rushed out of the garage, walked over to the van and tore the box from the back of the vehicle, ripping a hole through the side of Anna’s box of cleaning supplies. “I told you I got it, Mom.”
“Hi, Logan,” I said trying to smile even though I felt like crap.