“I thought you didn’t wear bras.” She let me slip a baggy shirt over her head.
“I don’t.”
“You’re such a pimp.” Her eyes were closed now. I let her fall back on the bed. Taking off her jeans was even more of a challenge. Not because they were tight, because I was a perv. “Stop staring,” Reese whispered.
“Get over yourself.” I made her stand up to put on a pair of my shorts. “Now, try to get some sleep, okay?” I guided her back to the bed. Her eyes fluttered closed again and she leaned her forehead on my stomach. Automatically, I threaded my fingers into her hair at the base of her neck. I could feel the tension drain out of her in the droop of her shoulders and the soft sigh that lingered between our bodies.
“Mm hmm.” Her breathing was getting deeper. “Hey. You should stay. I hate you, but you should stay.” Any second now, she would fall asleep.
“You want me to get my mom? Or your brother?” There was no way I was sitting there and waiting for her to fall asleep.
“Nope, they can’t snuggle. You’re a girl. You can snuggle.” Maybe she was talking in her sleep. It kind of sounded like it.
“I’ll just go get Ryan.” I stepped away. Immediately, her eyes snapped open and the set returned to her shoulders.
“No. I will really hate you then.” Her eyes started to close. “I’m not snuggling with my brother.”
I told myself she would fall asleep soon so it was okay. Quickly, I shed my jeans and tugged on a pair of gym shorts. Then I climbed in bed next to her. She turned to her side and pressed back against me. I curled my arm around her stomach and pulled her close.
“Cooper, I only kind of hate you,” Reese whispered as she wove her fingers through mine. Moments later, she was asleep. I couldn’t bring myself to move.
*
“How is she?” my mom asked an hour later. I’d finally forced myself to leave Reese and go downstairs.
“All right.” I fell into a kitchen chair across from her.
“Ryan is asleep on the couch. You can sleep in Ade’s room.” She leaned closer and brushed a hand down my face.
“I’m not tired,” I lied. “Don’t you have work?”
“Not today. I called in.” That was cool of her. “Do you want some coffee?”
“Sure.” I nodded. “What are we going to do?”
“Nothing, sweetie.” My mom flashed a sympathetic smile as if that would make it better. Actually, from her it did. I still needed my mommy. “If Reese doesn’t want to press charges, we can’t make her.” She placed a cup of coffee in front of me.
“Why not?” I asked even though I knew the answer. All I got was a look.
“They are both staying here. They can stay as long as they want.” My mother was adamant. “Maybe we can move the office around.” She wasn’t even talking to me anymore. “Get some bunk beds so they don’t have to share. No, we should give Reese that room.” Once she got started, she’d never stop. “You and Ryan can share.”
“Mom,” I cut her off. “You might want to ask them first.”
“I didn’t say it was optional. You kids will always be my babies. So If I need to lock you up here to keep you safe…” She shrugged like it was out of her hands. Mothers.
“They might not be able to. They have to go home sometime.”
“According to whom?”
“The law. Okay not the law, but their mother. Close enough. That stupid two-week rule thing.”
“I wish Carissa had spoken to us. Before she was killed that is.” No shit, Mom. A lot of people wish that. The whole dying in a car accident thing kind of made that more difficult. “Don’t look at me like that. I was talking about the twins. We would have taken them in a heartbeat instead of leaving them with Christopher. We had no idea he had gotten so bad.”
“That’s nice of you,” I replied sarcastically. “Really, but since they’re twenty-one, it might be a little late in the game.”
“When did you get so obnoxious? You must have gotten that from your father. I didn’t teach you that.” Actually, it was a mutual effort. Thanks, guys.
*
“Ryan, we need to talk.” Reese stomped into the kitchen. The twins had been at my house for two weeks. They went home to sleep and get stuff once so Christopher couldn’t kick them out.
“What’s up, sis?” Ryan asked through a mouthful of macaroni and cheese. We were at the table with one of those party-sized ones between us. We were only a third of the way through and already feeling sick.
“This.” She tossed a thick file onto the table.
“What’s this?” He pointed at it with his fork.
“How much do you think Mom left us?” Reese sat at the table and grimaced at our choice of food. Her face looked much better and she could fully open her eye now, which really added to her ability to glare. Neither of us had mentioned me holding her while she fell asleep, and I sure as hell wasn’t planning on it.
“How much what?”
“Money.”
“I dunno. Couple million.” I loved how nonchalant he was about that.
“Wrong.” Reese was on some sort of mission.
“What? Please don’t tell me we put up with that douche bag for ten years for a lousy couple hundred thousand.” Ryan was really distressed. “How am I supposed to buy a house in Hawaii, smoke pot, and live off the interest if it’s only half a million? I can’t even buy a house for that.”
“Wow, great plan for the future,” I interjected.
“It may be simple, but it will make me happy.” Ryan shouldn’t have smoked so much pot that morning. Or in the last six years.
“I think it’s time to cut back on the weed,” I said.
“I agree, but could we focus?” Reese said.
“Okay, how much money?” he asked.
“She left a total of almost forty million.” Ryan dropped his fork into the mac and cheese. “We each get about twelve million. The remainder goes to Christopher.”
I inhaled the food in my mouth and had to rush to the sink to cough it up. “You should have pressed charges against the bastard.”
“It wouldn’t matter. That’s what I want to talk about. The money’s gone.” Reese delivered her information like an executioner, with precision and entirely lacking remorse.
“What do you mean the money’s gone?” I sat back at the table. It looked like Ryan was still in shock. His fork was still in the mac and cheese.
“I mean the accounts have all been closed and there’s no trace of the money.”
“But what does that mean?” Yes, I was dense.
“My best guess would be that Christopher somehow bribed the lawyer in charge of the trust to close it out and transfer the money.”
“How did you figure this shit out?” Ryan found his voice.
“When he hit me, I knew there had to be a reason, but I couldn’t figure anything out. And then I thought maybe he was stressed or something. So I hired a lawyer and a private detective. The kind who look at paper trails. I wanted them to figure out what he does for a living. Because we still don’t know and that’s weird.”
“Wait. He hit you so you decided to figure out what his job is?” I asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Reese looked annoyed. “Sure it does. I had to figure out why he didn’t want me to apply to grad school.”
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. Just keep up for a sec, ‘kay?”
I was confused. But with Reese, I was usually confused. “Whatever.”
“So what’s he do?” Ryan wanted to know.
“Nothing. Oh, and those business trips he takes? There’s no record of it. Or at least no flight records. He apparently drives wherever he’s going.”
“But I thought he had a job,” I said.
“No need. The trust and interest pay for everything. The way it’s set up, Christopher has access to it with the permission of the lawyer so he
can pay our expenses. You know, tuition, health insurance, food, things like that.”
“So where’s our fuckin’ money?” Ryan was starting to comprehend what she was saying.
“I don’t know. The people I hired couldn’t find it.”
“Isn’t that totally illegal?” I was there to ask the obvious questions.
“Of course.” Reese looked at me like I was stupid. “Get this. The lawyer is gone. My private detective couldn’t find him.”
“So call the cops,” I said.
“What good would it do?” Reese asked.
“Um, dude did something illegal. So you call the cops on his ass.” It seemed like a logical move to me.
“They can’t bring the money back.”
I was missing something here. Or Reese was hiding something.
“Uh, I think Coop’s right. We need to call the cops,” Ryan said.
“And what? They’ll find what I found. The money is gone. So is Christopher. So is the lawyer. They’ll just dig into the paper trail.” Reese stared hard at Ryan. He shrugged.
“Good call.” Ryan.
“Yeah.” Reese.
“Cops suck.” Ryan.
Something had just happened. That look. I decided to roll with it. For now.
“So what are you going to do?” I asked.
“Not a damn clue. Mooch until he kicks us out.”
“You guys are fucked.”
“Thanks, asshole.” They both glared.
“Okay, no, maybe not.” I figured it couldn’t hurt to throw out some dumb ideas. “Your credit cards are paid by his account, right?” They nodded.
“So what?” Ryan didn’t follow.
“So buy your house in Hawaii, he’ll have to pay it off. Buy cars in your names and sell them off later. Run your credit cards up to the limit until he stops paying them off. He’ll probably catch on pretty quick, but until he does buy everything you can.”
“It’s better than nothing.” Reese was resigned. “I wonder if we can use our credit cards for mutual funds.”
“Fuck, Reese. You’re so boring.” It was actually a good idea. “Anyway, you can probably get cash advances.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re a genius.”
“Why? You guys would have thought about cash advances.”
“No, the whole buy everything thing,” Reese said.
“You guys are taking this really well.” They shrugged. Maybe they were in shock. “When Christopher gets back into town again you should probably confront him.” I knew they weren’t going to like that idea.
“I guess,” Ryan told his mac and cheese.
“If he gets back in town, that is. The dude is probably long gone.” If I stole a bunch of money, I would take the fuck off.
“We’ll deal with that when we need to.” Reese was all business. “In the meantime, let’s spend some money.” She grinned.
“So are you guys going to throw me a kick ass party for my birthday?”
“Fuck, yeah.” Ryan and I slapped our palms together.
Whatever had just happened was weird. But Ryan would fill me in later. I was sure of it.
Chapter Eight
The newest slasher flick was playing at midnight so we were totally going. There’s nothing better than thirty-year-olds playing teenagers bleeding all over the screen.
The theater was insane. Not in a good way. After graduation, you really don’t want to see most of the people you went to high school with, but it was unavoidable at the theaters in the middle of summer. Midnight releases of big movies increased the chances. By the time I got to the ticket window, I’d seen at least twenty people from my graduating class, three girls gave me their new numbers, and two guys gave me the evil eye. It wasn’t my fault about the guys. Their girlfriends had wanted me and were hot. What was I supposed to do? Anyway, that was for days ago.
“Coop, did you see Melanie Hendricks?” Derek asked as Ryan and I approached.
“Who?” I tried to remember a Melanie.
“You know.” Carson smacked my arm. “Hendricks. We went to middle school with her. And she had government with us senior year.” This was why I went to theaters in Sacramento.
“No idea. Should I remember her?”
“Sweetness,” Austin said. “You made out with her at homecoming when we were juniors. Remember?” he said like there was a reason for me to remember.
“Did I go to homecoming?” Dances weren’t my thing. Neither were games.
“Yes. I was playing so I made you go. Instead of watching the game, you got drunk with Melanie under the bleachers.” Carson seemed to know more than I did. But the story did seem familiar.
“Coop? Cooper, I knew you’d show up.” I turned and should have looked at her eyes, except my gaze strayed a bit south. “Oh, yeah, definitely you.”
“Shit, Mel?” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the guys rolling their eyes and fighting laughter. “How are you?” Now I remembered her. Mel Tricks. I thought Tricks was actually her last name. Guess it was just a not-so-flattering nickname. Last names would be a good idea in the future. I promised myself that I would know the last name of the next woman I kissed.
“Great. I’m going to school in LA now. You?”
“Still at Sac State with these losers.” Ryan was standing close enough for me to yank him next to me. I hated talking to people. No way I was talking to her alone.
“I’m not a loser,” he replied indignantly. “How’s it going, Mel?”
“Not bad. I was kind of hoping I’d run into you.” One of her hands landed on my arm. Interesting. No, not interesting. I managed to smile when I really just wanted to watch a psycho massacring teenagers on a very large screen. Over Mel’s shoulder, I caught sight of Reese. Maybe she’d help me since the guys were no help. She still owed me from the bar that night she got home.
“Hey, peanut butter,” I called to see if she would bite. Then I remembered why Mel and I were under the bleachers. So her girlfriend wouldn’t find us. Her girlfriend Reese. Shit.
“Hey, babe,” Reese called back.
Mel turned to see who I was talking to. Simultaneously, they straightened their shoulders and narrowed their eyes. Mel started looking back and forth between Reese and me. We weren’t known for nice pet names.
“Hi, Reese.” Mel attempted to be cordial. Their breakup had been one of the most fucked up I’d seen. They did it in true high school fashion, screaming matches in the quad, vandalizing cars, sabotaging grades.
“Mel.” Reese nodded at her then committed to the scene. She marched past her ex and draped an arm over my shoulders. I slung mine around her waist.
Hoping I wouldn’t be heard over the noise outside the theaters, I whispered to Reese, “I’m sorry.”
“You’ll pay,” she returned just as quietly.
“Jesus, Reese, what happened to your face?” Mel started staring.
“You should have seen the other guy,” I said. No one other than my family knew what happened. We planned to keep it that way. “No, for real. We were coming out of Twenty-One a couple weeks ago and these assholes were ragging on a kid who just came out of the club, right?” This lie was inspired. “Reese was fuckin’ brilliant.” As if I were proud, I pulled her closer.
“It wasn’t me. Obviously.” Reese indicated her face. “I just got hit. You should have seen Coop.”
“I’d show you the bruises, but Reese said I need to keep my shirt on in public.” Then I started laughing like I was hilarious. Reese joined in.
“They’re crazy.” Ryan couldn’t let us just tell lies to Mel Tricks, especially when it was so obvious. “You should have seen them when I picked them up. My car is still being cleaned.”
“Oh my God.” Melanie finally added two and two. “Are you guys together?” It was better than what I remember of her performance in high school math. “Weird.”
“It seems like we’ve been this way forever.” Reese started doing that play with my hair thi
ng. I gave her a look to stop it. She opted for brushing a kiss across my cheek. This movie was going to suck now. It’s way too hard to be scared and grossed out by blood at the same time as being horny.
“Gotcha.” Mel dug around in her purse. “Sorry, just a sec. Just wondering where my girlfriend is.” She turned away and started texting like mad. Reese and I watched her like we had all the time in the world, as long as we had each other. When another high school reject emerged from the crowd and sidled up to Mel, it took every ounce of my energy to not laugh out loud.
“Brittany, how are you?” Reese greeted my ex to save me the trouble.
“Awesome.” A big, dumb smile took over her face. Reese was right. My standards were low.
I took a stab at making conversation. “I didn’t know you were still around here. I thought you were moving to Australia or something.”
“Yeah, I totally was gonna ’cause you know, I thought it would be warm. Like it was on The Real World. So I went to check it out last summer and it was hella cold.” Brittany made it sound like a personal attack, as if Australia decided it didn’t want her. “So Daddy bought me a ticket home. I’m never leaving California again.”
“Wow. Sounds tough.” I shrugged like it was news to me that the rest of the world had seasons. “Who knew it would be cold in summer?” Reese was still pressed against me. I could feel her body vibrating. She was really trying not to laugh out loud.
“I know. Isn’t that crazy?” As an afterthought, Brittany threaded her arm through Mel’s.
“Yeah, good season of The Real World though, huh?” I’d never seen an episode.
“Totally. God, it’s so good to see you.” She reached out and ran her hand down my arm. Reese’s eyes narrowed and Brittany snatched her hand back.
“Okay. So I think we better go in,” Reese announced. The hand that wasn’t entwined in my hair tugged lightly on my shirt. “You ready, babe?”
“Did the guys already go in?” I asked her.
“They’re in line.”
“No way.” Brittany joined Mel in her brilliant deduction. “Are you too, like?” She pointed at us and waggled her fingers.
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