Read Online ALL THINGS PRETTY PART TWO by M. Leighton - Free Book Online Page A

funny?”
    “Dad told me everything.   You thought I wouldn’t laugh?   Do you know me?”
    “Evidently not,” I mutter as she passes me.   I close the door and show her into the
kitchen.   “Sloane, this is Travis.
Travis, this is my baby sister, Sloane.”
    For a minute, I’m afraid Travis might swallow his
tongue.   He’s trying to hide his
face by tucking his chin, but he’s also trying to ogle my sister. It makes for
an interesting and extremely uncomfortable few seconds.
    “Nice to meet you, Travis.   How’d you get stuck with Barney here?”
she asks, nodding at me.  
    Travis grins.   “Shitty luck, I guess.”
    “I’d say.   Did he
tell you I have a baby?”
    “No.”
    “Well, I do.   I
change her and feed her, clean her up.   All the things I’ll do for your mom, if that’s okay.   I mean, after living with Sig for most
of my life, taking care of a baby… or anybody
else for that matter, is easy as pie.”
    I reach underneath the thick fall of my sister’s dark hair
and pinch her ear, hard enough to make her yelp. “What was that you said? I
couldn’t quite hear you.”
    “See what I mean?” she quips.
    Travis is still grinning.   I feel like I’ve worked a miracle.
    “You want to take her and introduce her to your mom, Travis?   I don’t want the poor woman to think the
crypt keeper has come to take her away.”
    Sloane punches me on the arm.   “Hey, watch your mouth!   You’re
older than I am.”
    “I know, you just look worse.”
    Sloane’s mouth falls open and she looks to Travis.   “Are you just gonna let him talk to me like that?”
    Travis shrugs. I think he’s a little uncertain of how to
take our banter.   “I don’t
know.   Want me to kick his ass?”
    “I’d love to see that, actually, but maybe just in Grand Theft Auto for now.”
    “Done.”
    “That’s fine. Gang up on Sig.   It’ll just make it sweeter when I
win.   Which I will.”
    “Dream on,” Travis says, getting more into the spirit of
things.
    “We’ll see, lil man. We’ll
see.”   I glance back down at
Travis’s plate.   “Finish eating.   I’ll help Sloane get the food ready.”
    Travis sits down to pick at his chicken, all the while
watching Sloane from the corner of his eye.   She follows me to the counter where the
bag of food rests.
    “I got a chicken pot pie. I figured that shit’s nearly mush anyway. Might be easy to feed her.”
    Sloane takes it out of the bag and pokes through the crust
with a fork, checking the consistency of the goop inside.   “Yeah, this will be good. Nutritious, too.   Chicken, vegetables, some carbs.”
    “And she keeps protein drinks in the fridge.”   I get her one, along with a bottle of
water.
    Sloane nods.   “Okay, show me toward the bathroom.”   I do and she gathers a towel and
washcloth, along with a basin full of hygiene stuff that looks like the one
I’ve seen Tommi carry in there before.
    Before we can get out, Travis appears in the doorway.   “I’m done.”
    Sloane smiles at him. The kid’s cheeks flush and I roll my
eyes.   God help me, Sloane will
gloat for a year.   “Then let’s go
meet Mom.”
    The rest of the evening goes surprisingly well.   Sloane takes care of Tommi’s mom with no
problems.   Travis seems as relaxed
as he’s likely to get, all things considered.   But I’m okay with that. I know it would
make Tommi happy.   And what makes
Tommi happy makes me happy.   As much
as I wanted to avoid getting into a place like this–my happiness tied up
in someone else’s–here I am.   Truthfully, it’s not as bad as I expected it to be.
    Sloane sticks around much longer than I expected. She washes
and dries a load of laundry, cleans up the kitchen and makes Travis a lunch for
tomorrow.  
    “You mean I gotta go to school
tomorrow?”
    “Yeah.   We don’t
need to push anything right now. You get that, right?   You see why you need to be a model
citizen and student?”
    I can tell he