The Bride (The Bride #1)(12)

“Who’s Riley?” Great. Figured Jake would take that minute to enter the kitchen.

“Uh, I hate to break it to you, Jake, but your wife has a crush on him.”

I slapped Chrissy’s arm. “I do not.”

“Who’s Riley?” Jake asked again. Only this time he was asking me.

“He’s a senior. He’s nice. We talk every once and a while between classes. It’s no big deal.”

“If he’s taking you to the prom, I want to meet him.”

I had no idea why, but this rush of anger rolled over me. “Fuck that.”

“Watch your mouth,” Jake said, completely startled.

“You’re not my dad, Jake. Please do no start acting like one.”

“Uh… I’m going to head out now,” Chrissy announced. “Sounds like you guys are about to have your first married fight.”

Now my anger turned toward her. “Chrissy, we’re not done yet with the experiment.”

“Dude, it’s okay. We have study period before class. We’ll figure it out then.”

Before I could say another word she’d gathered up her stuff and left. Which had me focusing my anger once again on the person responsible.

“That was so not cool.”

He opened the door of the refrigerator and pulled out an apple.

“You’re right. You weren’t being cool at all. But you’re still grieving, so these little outbursts and temper tantrums will continue to happen.”

I hated when he did that. When he tried to explain everything I was feeling. “You can’t do that. You can’t make everything about me being sad. My point is if I want to go out with a guy, I do not need your approval.”

“Like hell you don’t. I am your family. I watch out for you. You want to go out with some guy, fine. But I get to meet him.”

“That’s so unfair. You get to have rules but I don’t.”

“I have rules because I’m the adult here.”

“Yeah well, the law says I’m an adult now too because we’re married. And marriage is supposed to be a fifty-fifty thing, not a dictatorship.”

He seemed to consider that. “Okay. Fine. You can have rules. What do you want?”

Of course I drew a complete blank. Then I thought of something. I don’t know why I said it, but it just came out.

“I don’t want Janet sleeping in Dad’s room. I get that you have sex and stuff. I just don’t want to walk out of my room in the morning and bump into her. It would be super weird.”

She hadn’t stayed over since the wedding. Not before it either. They were still doing their Sunday lunches, and I knew he had plans to go out with her tonight. Maybe that’s why I thought about it. This would be their first real date since the funeral. Their first opportunity to do it.

Then I thought about them doing it in my dad’s room and got freaked out by it. I wasn’t planning on saying anything. I figured it was something I would have to live with. He and Janet were a couple. They would have sex. My dad’s room was where Jake lived now.

Of course he’d want his girlfriend to stay over.

Although now that I thought about it, she’d never stayed over all night when he was living in the bunk house.

That house was a two-level structure about a hundred yards out behind the barn. The first level was where my dad used to keep tractors and other equipment he didn’t want in the barn. The second floor was a bunch of rooms with one bathroom and a kitchen.

It’s where Jake had lived for the last six years, and for two of those years he’d been dating Janet. I got up sick early to be able to get my chores done and still get to school on time, and I never once saw her car parked in front of the bunk house when I knew she’d come over the night before.

I was about let him off the hook. It was kind of stupid. I was probably being immature, which I hated. It was so stereotypical teenager… immaturity. I needed to get beyond it. Because in sixteen months, when Jake and I did get divorced, it was going to be all on me to run this place and make a life for myself.

“Forget it,” I said. “It was stupid.”

“No. It’s not. And it’s a rule. Your rule. I won’t let Janet stay over. I never have out of respect to your dad. Now it’s a matter of respecting you. This is your home, Ellie.”

“It’s yours too. I don’t want you to feel like it’s not. I guess… I mean it’s not like you would let me have sex with my boyfriend and he could stay the night.”

He didn’t like that. I could tell, because that muscle in the back of his jaw started working hard. I got it. Older brother complex and all that.

“Right. Sorry. I have to remain a virgin until death, but you get to have all the sex you want. No double standard there.”

“Ellie…” He clearly wanted to say something, but stopped.

“What?”

“I can’t have this conversation with you right now.” Then he did the immature thing and left.

That’s right. I scared Jake Talley out of the room with sex talk.

I smiled what I hoped was one of those little evil smiles, because seriously that was fun. Then I got back to work on my project, because Chrissy and I always used that study period before Science to gossip.