My Not So Wicked Stepbrother (My Not So Wicked Series Book 1)

by Jennifer Peel

  “Your mom was the coolest.” Jenna stared into the fire, now ugly crying.

  “Yeah, she was,” Brad agreed.

  “She was my most memorable patient.” Sawyer didn’t want to be left out.

  I gave him a meaningful look. If it wasn’t for my mother, I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t have had the worst and best year of my life with the man who owned the amber eyes that looked so dang sexy in the fire.

  Sawyer gave me a closed lipped smile. “I know I didn’t know her well, but I do know how much she loved her daughters. I don’t know if she would want me to say this, but I think you were her favorite.”

  “Oh, hands down,” I laughed through my tears. I knew that wasn’t true. My mom always said she loved us equally but differently. I do believe, though, that she and I had more in common, so it made our relationship easier. Don’t get me wrong, my mom could dress up just as fine as my sisters, and boy could she wow, but she was most comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt like me. She didn’t mind getting dirty, in fact, she encouraged it.

  I noticed Shelby got awfully quiet and curled into herself, staring into the distance as if her thoughts were a million miles away. I almost asked her what was wrong, because despite the fact that my mom wouldn’t have liked that she was impeding her plans for me, Mom never overlooked the opportunity to help someone, even if she didn’t like them.

  Before I could, Brad jumped up. “I say we have some cake and toast Shannon Carrington, mom to us all and mother of one of the best people I’ve ever known.” Brad gave me his most charming smile.

  I waved him off. “You’re a goof, but I love you.”

  Brad pointed at me. “For that, you get the second biggest slice of cake.” Brad was one person who could eat more cake than me, though I was always ticked that he seemed to lose weight from the effort while I was guaranteed to have another dimple on my butt tomorrow. Oh, well. No one was seeing my naked butt anytime soon, so I might as well enjoy myself. I knew Mom would want me to, and she’d think my dimples were cute no matter where they were.

  ~*~

  After the lovely night of tributes to my mother, it was time to hit the hay. This was where things got awkward. Since Shelby didn’t have a sleeping bag and no one had brought an extra one, Aspen and I put what we had together for the three of us to sleep together. We laid my bag unzipped on the bottom and used Aspen’s bag for the top, as well as two blankets, one of mine, and one Sawyer had chipped in for the cause. He was the cause, so it was only right.

  We had to put Shelby in the middle because she had no body fat and basically no pajamas, unless you counted the fire red negligée she’d brought. Did she think she was going to parade around in that in front of Sawyer? Feelings of hate were starting to bubble up again even though she was super grateful I let her wear my sweatshirt to bed. I, on the other hand, was wearing thermal underwear with pandas all over them. I wasn’t planning on showing those off to Sawyer. Aspen was more cutely dressed in hot pink flannel pajamas.

  I was more than ready to go to sleep by the time we settled into our makeshift bed in the flashlight-illuminated tent and got way too cozy for comfort, but Shelby had other ideas.

  I had just closed my eyes when I heard the sniffling. She even did that cutely.

  “Shelby? Are you okay?” I whispered.

  “I’m so sorry.” Shelby turned toward me. “It’s just, it sounds like you had such a nice momma. I wish I could have known her.”

  Aspen sat up a bit and even in the dark I could tell she was giving me a look like what should we do?

  I wasn’t sure what to say. Sure, Mom would have been nice to her, but she also would have done her best to make sure Shelby kept her paws off Sawyer. “What about your family? They’re from Roswell, right?” It was the best I could come up with.

  She sniffled and nodded her head. She had to take a minute to think and compose herself. “Well, to be honest, my family, we . . . well, we don’t always see eye-to-eye.”

  “Is that why you moved here?”

  “Not exactly, but it has something to do with it.” She seemed hesitant to say anything.

  It made me all the more curious, especially considering where she lived and her current job. I didn’t want to act nosy though, so I closed my eyes, thinking that was the end of it. Nope.

  “You see, I was engaged.”

  Oh.

  Aspen and I both popped up and propped ourselves up on our elbows, intrigued by this revelation. I’d wondered about that tan line on her wedding finger.

  Shelby pulled the covers around her tighter as if she needed the comfort. “A few years ago, at a concert my parents wouldn’t have wanted me to be at, I met Ryder.” Her voice hitched with the pronunciation of his name. Immense loss sounded in the change of her tone when she said his name.

  We would get to that in a moment; what I wanted to know first was why did her parents care what kind of concerts she was attending? “Shelby, how old are you?”

  “Twenty-eight.”

  So a few years younger than us, but come on.

  “My birthday is on Valentine’s Day, the day I got engaged,” she cried.

  Of course she was born on Valentine’s Day. It wouldn’t have surprised me if Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty herself, hadn’t hand carved this woman in her image and sent her down from the heavens.

  “What happened?” I tried to sound more sympathetic than curious.

  She sat up and took the sleeping bag and blankets off Aspen and me. She pulled her knees up to her chest, along with the covers. This forced Aspen and me to do the same if we wanted to stay warm. Nights at this elevation were chilly no matter the time of year.

  Shelby gathered her thoughts while resting her head on her knees. Even in the dark I could see the tears trickle down her beautiful face. And those thick, long eyelashes of hers? I’d found out earlier in the day they were all real.

  Shelby let out a meaningful sigh. “Ryder wasn’t my parents’ ideal boyfriend or husband for me. He was a little rough around the edges and he didn’t have the right . . . credentials,” she hesitated to say.

  “Credentials?” Aspen asked.

  Shelby bit her lip as if she knew what she was about to say was a bit snobbish. “His education, financial situation, and family ties were less than desirable to my parents.”

  “But you didn’t care?” I had to ask. Though Sawyer had an impressive resume, I couldn’t let him be with someone who would think less of him because he wasn’t properly bred.

  Shelby shook her head with a sad smile. “Not at all. Ryder,” she swallowed, “was, or at least I thought he was, the smartest, funniest man, and when he wanted to be he was all gentleman, but he was a tad unconventional.”

  Both Aspen’s and my eyes said, what?

  Shelby fidgeted a bit. “Although he never had any formal higher education, he was real smart. He worked for a software company. He was like a Bill Gates.” Her voice shined with pride.

  “Did he own the company?”

  “Oh, no. That might have made it better for my parents, but Ryder was happy without those kinds of pressures. He believed life was too short to spend it living at work. Well, until the end, except I don’t think he was really working like he said he was.”

  Now we were getting to the crux of it.

  “Ugh,” Aspen spat. “I know where this is going. Men are vile pigs.”

  Shelby nodded. “They can be.” She pulled her knees tighter to her. “My momma and daddy hired a private investigator and there were pictures of him with this woman while he was on a business trip.” She full-on started to bawl.

  People really hired private investigators? I thought that was just in the movies.

  Aspen was good enough to wrap her arm around Shelby. “It’s better that you found out before you married the cheater and had a baby with him.” Resentment and regret wove through Aspen’s words. She never regretted having Chloe, but she wished for a different father to help raise her daughter. Lel
and was, for the most part, an absentee father. He hadn’t lived around here for a long time and he only paid child support when it suited him. Aspen’s parents had stepped in and helped raise Chloe. She was with them this weekend.

  Shelby nodded. “I suppose so. I just don’t know how I could have been so fooled. For three years I gave him my life and defied my parents, all so we could be together,” she choked out.

  “I’ve been there,” Aspen growled.

  “He’s why you moved here?” I asked. This way I would know who to properly hate when Shelby rode off into the sunset with my man.

  Shelby turned my way and wiped her eyes. “Yes,” she didn’t sound so sure.

  I tilted my head, asking for more clarification.

  Shelby lifted her head. “You see, my momma’s family are the Hobbs.”

  I sat up straight. “As in Hobbs Eye Centers?” As in one of the largest eye store chains in the country?

  Shelby gave a tentative smile and a slight nod. “That would be correct.”

  “Whoa,” Aspen whistled.

  “Does Sawyer know that?”

  Shelby shook her head. “I didn’t think it would be good to spread that around. I don’t want people to look at me any different. My parents thought it would be best if I got as far away as I could for a while, and this is about as far west as our stores go, so they worked it all out.”

  Wow. They must have really hated this guy—and me, inadvertently.

  “It’s not really what I would like to be doing. I have a master’s degree in nursing. I was a midwife for a hospital in Roswell. It wasn’t exactly what my parents wanted me to do. They always hoped I’d go into the family business. I’m here trying that out.” No wonder she lived in such a nice place. So, I guess she wasn’t growing marijuana on the side like I first figured.

  “How do you like it so far?” I asked.

  She took in a breath and let out some shudders. “Everyone has been real nice at the center.”

  I bet they had.

  “And it’s interesting, but I miss working with mommas and their babies.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I love babies. I wanted to have a house full of them. I thought Ryder wanted that too.” Her tears came again. This explained why she had been so excited for Jenna and Brad’s baby even though she didn’t know them.

  This time I put my arms around her. I wanted those same things too.

  Shelby turned into me and cried on my shoulder. “Y’all have been so nice to me. I was afraid to move to a new state all by myself, but you all have made me feel so welcome. You even let me borrow your clothes and sleeping bags. Y’all are just so sweet.”

  I looked at Aspen over Shelby’s head; we both were wide-eyed. I wasn’t exactly sure we had been nice to her, or even welcoming. I mean, earlier in the day I wanted to rip her arms off and push her into the river.

  Shelby continued to snuggle right into me, taking comfort. Once she quit crying, she took a cleansing breath. “You know, I think Colorado could really be a new beginning for me. I think I’d even like to give Sawyer a chance.”

  My arms fell away from her while my heart stopped beating.

  “What do you think of him, Emma, being his stepsister and all? Is he a wicked stepbrother?” she teased. “Or is he a man who is true to his word and character?”

  I turned away from her with tears in my own eyes now. Sawyer was of the not-so-wicked variety, and I had never known a man truer or kinder than him, but that was none of Shelby’s business.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Emma, Emma, wake up.”

  I better have been dreaming, or more like having a nightmare. All I could hear was some cute, man-stealing voice frantically calling my name, and on top of that I was being poked.

  “Please wake up.”

  One of my eyes popped open. It was still dark, but I could feel Shelby’s minty breath in my face. How did she manage to avoid morning breath? She really was a freak of nature.

  “What time is it?” I croaked with probably stale breath. Us non-goddesses lacked the minty breath gene.

  “I’m so sorry. It’s around 4:30. I’ve been dying for like an hour and I need your help.”

  I sat up groggy and rubbed my eyes, careful not to touch my wounds. “Are you sick?”

  Shelby sat up too, shivering and shaking her head. “I know this is going to sound silly, but . . . I’ve never peed outside. I don’t know how.”

  “You haven’t peed the entire time we’ve been up here?”

  She shook her head. “No, and I’m dying. I can’t hold it anymore.”

  What did she want me to do about it?

  “Can you please show me how?”

  I was going to kill Sawyer. At the very least, he was not riding home with me and neither was the blonde who was ready to explode.

  “Please,” she begged.

  “Sure,” I sighed. “Let me get my shoes on.”

  She kissed my cheek. “You’re the best, thank you.”

  Before I knew it, we were traipsing in the outdoors with only my flashlight for light before the butt crack of dawn, trying to find a spot Shelby felt comfortable peeing in. I kept telling her no one was awake, so it didn’t matter as long as it was level, but the girl said, “My bladder will get shy if it’s not in private.” I rolled my eyes, not even caring if she saw.

  Shelby was gripping my arm as we hiked to a level and private spot among the willow bushes. With every rustle in the wild grass and trees, the girl jumped and squeezed my arm.

  “Don’t worry, any animals are more afraid of us than we are of them.”

  “I’m going to have to disagree.” She shook.

  I pointed with my flashlight to a “private” spot for the princess. “This should work.”

  She let go of my arm. “Okay,” she said through gritted teeth, “what do I do?”

  I couldn’t believe I was having to give her outdoor peeing lessons. “See how the ground is mostly level. Keep your feet pointed downhill so you don’t pee on yourself.”

  “Pee on myself?”

  I shrugged. “It happens if you’re not careful.”

  “Well, how do I be extra careful?”

  I needed some Dr. Pepper before I had these kinds of conversations. “It’s not that difficult.” I tried not to be snippy. I couldn’t imagine holding my pee for as long as she had. If she didn’t get a UTI, I was going to be surprised. “Just pull your shorts and underwear down to right at your knees, spread your feet at least shoulder width apart, and squat all the way down. Make sure your thighs touch your calves.” That may be difficult for her since her thighs were more like bean poles. “Then you can do the rest. I’ll turn around.”

  “Don’t do that. I need the light.”

  I wasn’t going to watch this woman pee. “I’ll hold the flashlight over my shoulder.”

  “Oh. Okay. But what do I wipe myself with?”

  “If you’re only peeing it’s best just to air dry. Any toilet paper you use you would have to pack out.”

  “Are you serious?”

  As a freaking heart attack. “You should always leave a campsite as clean or cleaner than you found it.”

  She nodded, unsure with that assessment. “Well, okay. Here goes nothing.”

  I turned around but kept shining my flashlight on her.

  “Oh Mylanta,” she shouted, “it’s cold on my wooha and bum.”

  I had to hold back my laugh.

  “I hope I’m doing this right. Do you want to check before I start?”

  “I’m good. I’m sure you’re doing fine.”

  “Okay.” She sounded like she might cry.

  Soon I heard a trickle of urine.

  “Oh. My. Gosh. Yes! Yes! Yes!”

  Holy crap, she sounded as if she were having a much different experience than relieving herself. She was going to wake everyone up. I gave in to the fits of laughter I had been keeping in. Maybe I should hold my urine for several hours if it felt that good.

  I
must have stood there for a good ten minutes while she first relieved herself and then air dried. I was impressed she could squat for so long, but that explained her incredible figure.

  “Emma,” she said after I could no longer hear any tinkling or a downright stream. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I mean thank you for everything. I have this feeling that you and I are going to be best friends.”

  She might want to get her head checked, because with God as my witness, Goddess Potty and I were never going to be the best of anything unless she married Sawyer. In that case, I might consider her my best enemy.

  ~*~

  There was no going back to sleep for me after my way too early wake-up call. I decided to take a bit of a hike up the mountain to the ledge where Dad and I’d had some great heart-to-hearts growing up about everything from what school I should attend to why it wasn’t fair that I wasn’t as pretty as my sisters. He would wrap his arm around me and say, “Honey, there are all sorts of pretty in this world and you are among the prettiest.” He was such a liar. I loved him for it.

  The ledge wasn’t only good for talks; it was the perfect place to watch the sunrise and think about life. I’d told Shelby where I was going before she fell back asleep just in case something happened to me. Once the sun was up, I would have a clear view of the campsite and I could be seen by any in our group. I didn’t expect anyone to get up for at least a couple more hours unless preggers needed to pee too. Jenna said being pregnant meant peeing became your new hobby. At least she would do it quietly.

  It didn’t take me long to take the dirt path up the mountain a bit. Even in the dark it was easy to traverse. I took special care to watch out for branches. I didn’t need the other side of my face to look like I’d been on a date with Freddy Krueger. Sadly, he too would have friend-zoned me I was sure. It was a cold but clear morning, worthy of the jacket and the thermal underwear I was wearing. I looked ridiculous, but what the heck. I could see my breath as I walked with my hands in my jacket pockets. There were still a few stars twinkling in the just-before-dawn sky; the moon was doing its best to hang on too. A few birds were already up and chirping away. In fact, it kind of sounded like the way Josephine whined at my dad. Those poor male birds.