Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(40)

“Getting involved,” he said carefully. “I’ve got no delicate way to put this, Peach. The man is a snake. I’d hate to see him hurt you.”

I finally felt like I could relax. So that’s what all this was about. Nobody was dying. I wasn’t the suspect in a murder case. My father just wanted to be a typical dad and decide no guy was good enough for me. “I can handle myself, Dad. It’s not like we’re going to run off and elope. If Rich isn’t a good person, then I’ll find out for myself by spending time with him. That’s kind of how it works.”

He frowned. “Listen. This isn’t easy, but Rich has been canoodling with girls from all over town since he got here.”

I felt a smile threatening to come. “Canoodling? I might need you to define that one for me.”

“Canoodling. Picking the grapes out of season. Tugging on the anchor.” He looked exasperated when I still wasn’t seeming to understand.

“Maybe plain English would work better?”

“Sleeping with other girls, Kira. I don’t know what he promised you, but I’m guessing he didn’t let you know he was playing hide the sausage every chance he could get around town.”

“Wow. Thanks, Dad. That’s really helpful to know. But Rich and I aren’t together anyway. He’s welcome to hide his sausage wherever he wants.”

My dad watched me with raised eyebrows for a few seconds. He sighed, slapped his thighs, and stood. “Well, that was pretty much what I came here for, Peach.”

“Great. Thanks for the quality family time, Dad. I wish you’d come by more often to tell me about where people are putting their penises and how many blood-engorged ticks lived on Grandma Ray’s back.”

He glared. “Careful, Kira. I’m still your father, and I’m just trying to keep an eye out for my girl.”

I nodded and smiled. “I know. I’m sorry, Dad. It was a long night, and everything has been kind of crazy. I’ll think about everything you told me. Okay?”

He gave me a tight smile. “That’s all I ask. Oh, and if he tries to touch you, tell me. I can bring the holy power of bureaucracy down on his fancy ass in a heartbeat. You remind him of that if he bothers you, you hear me?”

“I got it, Dad.”

Once I closed the door, I leaned my back against it and sank down to sit. I raked my fingers through my hair. What the hell was I doing?

In a few weeks, I’d turned my back on my best friends and I’d let myself start falling for the only man in the world who was supposed to be off-limits for me. Now I had my dad telling me Rich was sleeping around this whole time. I thought I should feel mad or betrayed, but nothing he’d said rang true. Whatever I’d thought about Rich in the past, I knew I was a pretty decent judge of character. If Rich was still like that, I thought I’d have known. Besides, if any local girls had slept with Rich, I doubted they’d manage to keep it a secret.

No. I decided I didn’t believe what my dad told me. Not at all. So the only questions were whether my own dad was lying to me on purpose or if somebody was feeding lies to him, and why?





Chapter 14





RICH


A bonfire that was unnecessarily large crackled and popped in my backyard. Cade had managed to get himself in charge of managing the fire, which meant there were already three empty cans of lighter fluid nearby and about five times as much wood as the firepit was meant to hold. Nick was probably the only thing stopping Cade from accidentally burning down half of West Valley. When Cade wasn’t looking, Nick was strategically moving logs around and dousing the flames to keep the whole ordeal under control.

I probably should have been paying more attention and helping, but I couldn’t stop looking over my shoulder toward the house. I’d invited as many people as I could think of so it would seem less suspicious to invite Kira, but an hour had already passed, and she still hadn’t shown up. The majority of the town, on the other hand, had shown. A relatively large group of the younger crowd was doing jumps off the dock and into the lake. More were in the house dancing and having drinks. My brothers and I had been out by the fire for most of the night, and we’d attracted a few wandering groups of women so far, but Stella’s presence beside me kept the majority of the attention on my brothers.

“You look like a puppy waiting for its master to come home,” Stella said from beside me. She was sitting straight-backed on an overturned log and, as usual, was dressed like royalty. Everyone else had opted for more casual clothes—myself included.

I turned back toward the fire. “Just trying to make sure people aren’t breaking shit in the house.”

“Right.” She laughed. “Because you’ve always been so worried about your stuff.”

“You did lock the dinosaur room, right?” Cade asked. He was already cracking the seal on his fourth can of lighter fluid.

“Of course I did.”

“Then, yeah,” Cade said. “He’s full of shit. He’s so hungry for some of that local poontang it’s almost cute. At least it would be if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

“Come on,” Nick said. He nudged a log that was hanging over the edge of the firepit back into the center. “Admit it. You’ve thought about what it would be like to give it another shot with Iris. I know you have.”