Rocking Kin (Lucy & Harris, #3) - Terri Anne Browning Page 0,2
to remind us all of that hilarious sight.
Rubbing a hand over my tired eyes, I lifted my head and glanced at the door. The knock came again and I blew out a sigh. “It’s open.”
The door opened just a fraction before Angie stuck her blond head around the door. The lights in the room were off but, like always, the light from my bathroom was shining brightly. It was stupid, but that bathroom light had always been my nightlight. A seventeen-year-old who needs a nightlight—yeah, that’s me.
“You awake?” she asked when she spotted me on my bed.
Behind her, Caleb pushed his twin sister gently, getting her to walk into the room so that he could follow. “Of course she’s awake, Ang. She wouldn’t have yelled out if she hadn’t been.” Entering the room, he turned on the lights and then shut the door behind him.
When my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that their arms were loaded with junk food. Caleb was carrying a huge bowl of microwave popcorn with extra butter in one hand and a small cooler that I knew would have a quart of chocolate milk, Diet Cokes, and a pint of ice cream. Angie’s arms were just as full. She had a box of pizza from my favorite Italian restaurant, a bag of Doritos, and a container of French onion dip.
As soon as they reached my bed they dropped everything on top of my covers and plopped down on either side of me. Caleb’s big frame made the bed groan and me bounce a few inches as he settled in for the long haul.
I sat up, pushing my pillows behind my back as I took everything in. “What’s this?”
“This is your going away party,” Caleb informed me with a small, sad smile. “Since you can’t go clubbing with us or anything fun like that, we thought we’d bring the fun to you.” He kicked off his shoes and then slipped under the covers with me.
Angie reached for my remote to the flat screen that was hanging from the wall in front of my bed before doing the same thing her brother had just done. “We’re going to watch hilarious movies, eat until we vomit, and fall asleep together. Like we used to do.”
For the first time that day my eyes began to sting with tears. My bottom lip began to tremble and I bit down hard to stop it. Seeing that my eyes were bright with tears, I was squished into a step-sandwich for the hundredth time that day. “It’s only a year, Kin,” Caleb rushed to assure me. “Less, really. And then you will be right back here, going to college and making our lives miserable once again.”
“Caleb!” Angie scolded her twin, but I tried to smile and elbowed him in the stomach. I knew he was just teasing. Unlike some stepsiblings who fought and hated each other like mortal enemies, my stepbrother and stepsister and I were closer than if we were related by blood. The four-year age gap between the three of us might as well not have existed we were so close.
I was going to miss them so much.
“We’ll come to visit you every chance we get,” Angie promised as she opened the box of pizza, causing the scent of tomato and garlic to fill the room. “Christmas in California should be fun.”
“I’m gonna miss the snow,” I whispered as I picked up a slice of cheese pizza. I loved waking up on Christmas morning to all that snow in Aspen, where we’d always spent Christmas. I doubted that there would be any snow in Malibu for Christmas this year.
“And Dad said he’ll check up on you every time he has to fly to Cali for business.” Caleb opened the bag of Doritos and handed me the container of dip. “And we can FaceTime every night. And text. And email. And…”
“And?” I asked around a mouthful of popcorn.
“And Skype,” Angie supplied as she stuffed her mouth with another bite of pizza. If she had been anywhere else, with any other two people, my beautiful stepsister would not have been cramming her face with greasy food full of bad carbs. But with me and Caleb, she didn’t care. She knew that with us she was free to be whoever she wanted to be.
“Yeah, Skype,” Caleb said with a nod. “We’ll talk and see each other so much that it’ll be almost like you’re still on the East Coast.”