Jared nodded vigorously. “I will do anything. I want you to be happy. More than anything.”
One of her cast mates called to her, they wanted to know if she needed help. Victoria told them that she would be in a minute. She turned back to Jared and smiled at him. It was a little less weary this time.
“Then I will take things day by day with you.”
Jared looked elated and he raced to the edge of the stage to pick her up into a strange embrace.
“Thank you! I promise that you won’t ever be disappointed again.”
Victoria looked at him sheepishly.
“We’ll see,” she replied. “We’ll see.”
Then she let herself down and looked towards her new friends. This would be a great story when they got to their hotel rooms later. Sometimes the truth was stranger than anything they acted out onstage.
THE END
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19 of 25 Bonus Stories
All in the Family
Evie tried not to feel nervous as she drove her car in an unfamiliar neighborhood. She tried to remind herself that it would seem like home soon enough. It seemed that no matter how many times she tried to convince herself of this, she couldn’t get rid of the butterflies in her stomach.
She was nineteen. She shouldn’t have been so torn up about her mother getting remarried. It was for the best really. Evie’s father had been out of the picture since she was a freshman in high school. This could finally be the closure that she and her mother needed. Evie couldn’t put her finger on what was bothering her. It could have been the fact that her mother and stepfather’s relationship had gotten very serious while she was away at college. It could have been the fact that they eloped a few weeks ago on a whim. Or it could have been the strange sensation of suddenly acquiring siblings when she’d been an only child her entire life. Whatever it was, Evie was nervous.
“You’re nervous.”
Evie’s boyfriend, Keegan, was beside her in the passenger seat. They had been friends for longer than she could remember and he’d stepped into his boyfriend role not long after her father left her behind. There was no one else she wanted by her side as she saw her new home and met her new family.
“You could say that,” Evie mumbled turning onto a road she’d never ventured before but had heard so much about. “I’m sure it will be fine. I just hope we can all coexist, you know until I go back to school.”
“We could just move in together. We’re nineteen now. We’ve been dating for years.”
Evie was the kind of person where too much change in her life made her want to shut down and hide under her bed. Having a new father and family was almost more than she could handle. The idea of living with a boyfriend and paying rent was absolutely too much to bear at the moment. Evie let him down easily as the GPS told her that her destination was approaching.
“Keegan, I love you and we can talk about that as school gets closer. For now, let’s just get through today.”
At that moment the GPS told her that she had arrived at her destination and Evie couldn’t believe the house that was on her right. As she pulled into the driveway her mouth actually hung open.
“Woah,” Keegan said, looking equally as impressed.
It was like the houses families had in television shows. It had a perfectly manicured lawn. The white vinyl siding was immaculate. The small townhouse they had moved into after the divorce was minuscule compared to this. Hell, her house that she had lived in before the crap hit the fan could have fit inside her new house.
As though they had been waiting for their arrival, the front door opened and people spilled out onto the front steps. Evie couldn’t help but feel relieved when she saw her mother waving at her. Standing beside her was Craig, her stepfather. He looked at her warmly and as nervous as this new change was making her, Evie was thankful that he was nice, but had never been too pushy of her acceptance. Two children stood a little further back from the couple. There was a boy who looked like he might have been going into high school and a small girl who might have been around ten. Both had dark hair and olive skin like their father. Evie took a deep breath and finally exited the car, knowing that Keegan would be that far behind.
“Evelyn!” Craig called to her. “How was the ride?”
“Not bad,” she replied politely. “Your home is beautiful.”
“It’s your home now too, honey,” my mother reminded as she gave Evie a tight hug.
“It will take some getting used to,” she admitted, thinking of how she had driven by the townhouse on her way here. A new family was already moved in.
“Evelyn, I want to introduce to my children. This is Brandon, he’s fourteen and this little lady over here is Kate. She’ll be going into 5th grade this fall.”
Brandon shook her hand, but Kate was shy and smiled weakly by her father’s side. Evie could relate to her nerves.
“My other son, Will, is upstairs in the shower. He just got home himself.”
“He’s a college student too,” Evie’s mother explained. “He plays hockey.”
Evie tried to downplay her interest at her new stepbrother being an athletic beast. Not only was hockey her favorite sport, but she spent a lot of her free time in the gym. It was a great way to get her mind off of things. Keegan went to a local college and while she loved him, he was not nearly as motivated about things as she was.
“Please, come in,” Craig offered. “We’re making dinner and I’m sure you want to see the house. We already moved your stuff into one of the rooms upstairs. Just the boxes of course. We wanted you to be able to put things where you want them.”
Evie couldn’t help but smile. Craig was sweet. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard after all.
“Jeez, maybe I should ask to move in,” Keegan murmured as they made their way through the front door and into a large foyer with a staircase heading up to the bedrooms. “This place is so huge, what’s one more.” He got closer so only she could hear. “It would certainly make fooling around more convenient.”
Evie found herself rolling her eyes as she continued to make her way into the house. It was around this time that she heard a door open from the floor above and her mother stopped to call up.
“Hey Will, Evie and her boyfriend are here! Why don’t you come down?”
Footsteps grew louder and louder until someone stood at the top of the staircase. Evie had force herself to not stare because her new stepbrother was so attractive it bordered on the ridiculous. She quickly stole a glance at her stepfather and made the quick realization that her new family member must have gotten his looks from his mother.
*****
Not only was Will athletic like a hockey player was supposed to be, but he had hazel eyes that were stunning, unlike anything that she had ever seen before. He wore a tee-shirt displaying his college team and black athletic shorts. Evie needed to remind herself that her boyfriend was standing beside her as Will made his way down the stairs.
“Hey, I’m Will,” he said offering her his hand. “You’re Evie, right? My dad always calls you Evelyn, but I could have sworn that I heard your mom call you something different.”
Evie nodded as she tried to make coherent thoughts. “Evie is perfect and it’s nice to meet you.” Evie felt her stomach twist excitedly when his gaze lingered on her face before he finally flicked his eyes behind her at Keegan.
“Hey man, I’m Will,” he said with a friendly tone.
“Keegan.” The boy studied his girlfriend’s new stepbrother, also noticing how striking his looks were. He looked like was about to say more when his phone began to ring. Keegan reached into his pocket and looked at the number before he sheepishly apologized and headed back onto the porch.
“We’re making spaghetti and meatballs,” Evie’s mother called as she headed into the kitchen. “Will do you mind showing Evie her room? I’d do it, but the sauce is probably burning as it is.”
“Sure.” He smiled as he ushered he
r over to the stairs. “Dude, your mother’s cooking is incredible. It’s probably a good thing that I have practice and conditioning so much. Otherwise, I’d probably gain a hundred pounds.”
Evie laughed. “That’s why I have a gym membership.”
“You work out?” Evie couldn’t help but notice that Will gave her body a glance over as they made their way up the stairs. “That’s awesome.”
“It’s how I deal with stress,” Evie admitted, “Sometimes I wish I did something bad ass like a swimmer or a gymnast. When I’m nervous I run on the treadmill, do a hundred squats. Gets my mind off everything.”
Will nodded with approval. “You should come to my dry land sessions sometime. Your muscles with burn so good.” They laughed before Will stopped in front of one of the bedrooms. “Here it is. This house is so big we can all have our own room.”
Evie couldn’t believe the room that had been chosen for her. It was at least twice the size of her old bedroom and it looked out into the backyard. She was almost disappointed that she’d only be using it three or four months out of the year.
“I’ll let you get settled,” Will said as headed back towards the staircase. My room is across the hall if you ever need anything.” And with that, she could hear him descending the stairs.
Weren’t stepsiblings supposed to be whiny punks? Weren’t they supposed to annoy you the minute they came into your life? So far Evie couldn’t complain about the lot that she had been cast. She began to rummage through boxes, imagining what her room would look like when she could hear Keegan calling her name.
“I’m up here!” she called as she hoped he would be ready to move her bed underneath one of the windows. When he finally reached the threshold and looked disappointed, she felt her nerves return. “What’s the matter?”
My grandma fell and is on the way to the hospital. She’s going to be fine, but I have to go. My mom is on the way and she wants everyone to be there when she gets out of recovery.” He looked at Evie sheepishly. “I was really hoping we could christen the bedroom.”
Evie gave him a long look before she crossed the room and hugged him tightly. “Sometimes I swear that’s the only thing on your mind.” She kissed his cheek. “Don’t worry about me. We have all summer to be together.”
“I know; I just feel like you might be distracted with Mr. Hockey down the hall.”
“Gordie Howe was Mr. Hockey,” Evie corrected.
“You know what I mean.”
“I’ll be fine,” Evie assured. “Now help me move some furniture before your mother gets here?
It wasn’t long before she was walking him out the driveway and kissing Keegan goodbye. Evie promised to call him before she went to bed but it wasn’t long after she was sitting at the dinner table across from her new stepbrother that Keegan was pushed to the back of her mind. He was busy with his family and she was going to envelope herself with her new one. She suddenly didn’t feel so nervous about being around them anymore. It had been a long time coming, but maybe just maybe she’d finally have the family that she’d been missing for the last five years.
After a nice dinner, the family sat outside on their deck and played cards. Once more Evie felt like a television family. She couldn’t remember the last time her father had done anything like that with them, even when things were good. She almost regretted going up to work on her room before it was time for bed, but she had a lot of work to do to make it livable, even for the night. She was proud of herself, though, she pushed her bed exactly where she wanted and had started placing boxes in the various parts of the room where she wanted the contents to go. The only problem was that her dresser was still in the middle of the room and no matter how she pushed or pulled it wouldn’t budge on its own. She was about to give up for the night when she noticed Will watching her in the doorway.
“How you doing?”
Evie rolled her eyes. “I can’t move this stupid dresser.”
Will immediately made his way into her room and eyed the piece of furniture. “You grab that end and I’ll take the other.” He practically picked it up himself and what felt like mere seconds the dresser was out of the way and ready to be filled.
“Wow,” Evie said. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” Will began to leave when Evie called after him.
“Aren’t stepsiblings supposed to hate each other?”
He turned around and smirked, “It’s only the first day.”
*****
That night, Evie found herself tossing and turning in her sleep. She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d had an eventful day or if she wasn’t used to her new room but spent a good part of her night staring at her ceiling and when she did finally sleep, she almost felt worse.
She kept on dreaming about Will. It wasn’t the nice sort of dream where she learned more about him or they went on an adventure together. It was a dirty dream, a wild fantasy that felt wrong but every time that she would wake herself up she almost felt disappointed. There was one of these dreams that was so intense that she wouldn’t wake herself. She had to see it to fruition and find out what it meant.
She was in a lavish bedroom. The bed was large and had fine sheets. Evie was seeing the room through her own eyes, taking in the paintings on the walls and the billowing drapes in the windows when once more Will was in her dream.
He smiled at her, his hazel eyes all but boring into her. He was shirtless and Evie couldn’t help but marvel at and count every muscle in his core and arms.
“You’re beautiful,” he complimented, joining her on the bed and soon he was kissing her and pressing her down underneath him. Instead of being revolted by the thought of her stepbrother putting his hands on her, Evie’s dream self was moaning and grabbing onto Will for dear life. She yearned for what would happen next when there was a knock at the door.
“Who could that be?” Will asked.
For whatever reason, Evie was the one to get up and answer the door. Even though it was a dream, Evie’s stomach still dropped when she took in the blonde hair and blue eyes of her boyfriend Keegan. She had just been fooling around with another man. Did that count as cheating? She waited for him to be angry but he had that same look on his face as he made his way inside. Keegan looked like he wanted to take her right there on the spot. Somewhere in the back of her mind Evie made the realization that in real life she was usually the one to initiate what they did in the bedroom.
“Dude, you’re finally here!” Will said excitedly from behind her.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Keegan replied, “You want her first? I don’t mind if you do. I get her all the time.”
The sensible part of Evie should have been outraged, but she was acting completely different than her real self and all but ran back to the bed to pick up where she left off with Will. It wasn’t long before they were completely naked and she was straddling his hips when Keegan was by the edge of the bed, looking at them expectantly.
“Hey, do you mind if we do something together?”
Evie slid down onto Will’s member and began to ride up and down before she grabbed onto Keegan and brought his penis to her mouth and they became a strange sort of machine that caused Evie to wake up in a cold sweat praying that she wasn’t screaming out in real life like she had been in her dream. She sat up in her bed and looked out at the moonlit backyard. She couldn’t help but feel like there was something wrong with her.
She’d only known her new family for a day. Sure Will was attractive, but she literally knew nothing about him. To make matters worse, she had a boyfriend. It wasn’t like she had just starting seeing him either. It almost felt like a betrayal to him even if it was just a dream.
Eventually. Evie tried to reason with herself that Will was just something new that was on her mind. Nothing was going to happen. She loved Keegan. He’d been her rock and would continue to be. She would push all other thoughts about anyone else out of her mind.
It should have been easy, but as she tried once more to fall asleep
she thought about where Keegan fell short. He wasn’t motivated, he never made the first move. Sometimes she wished that he would be the type of man that would take her kiss her passionately before he’d make her putty in his hands. Evie had tried to tell him how she felt, but Keegan was too set in his ways. She tried to remind herself that Keegan had fantastic redeemable qualities but it was difficult as her mind wandered back to the hockey player sleeping across the hall from her.
*****
The weeks that followed ended up being some of the most interesting in Evie’s life. Her entire life she’d been an only child and now she was thrust into having brothers and a sister. At first, she thought it would be hard not be the center of her mother’s attention or having to share a space with more people than she was used to but Evie found herself loving the hustle and bustle and no longer felt like she was alone when Keegan wasn’t around.
She had learned that Kate loved to read and she’d taken her to the local bookstore to pick out a new series and get frozen coffee drinks. The young girl warmed up to her quickly and Evie was glad. She remembered how she felt when her father left and thought of how nice it would be to have had someone to spend time with her.
Brandon was older and busier so she couldn’t take him out for a frappuccino to win him over, but they did seem to get along nicely. They had a similar sense of humor that often had them laughing out loud at the dinner table. She had no fear that she and her younger step brother would get along.
It was Will who continued to confuse her. It wasn’t even anything he was doing. It was clear that he liked having Evie around. They’d talk easily about anything and everything whether they were watching TV or helping clean up after dinner. They’d even started going for runs together. Evie tried to think that their bond was just because they were new siblings, but Will always seemed to be watching her, studying her every move so that he could get to know her better and it made Evie’s heart race. That and her erotic dreams hadn’t gone away. Though one thing that had changed was that Keegan was starting to be in them less and less.
Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection Page 64
