Read Online Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) by Alycia Taylor - Free Book Online

point.”
She reached across the table and grasped my hand before she brought it back to
herself. “When you and Shawn were friends, you were inseparable. It was great!
I never had to worry about you and I never had to try to reason where you would
be at any given time, because I knew that if you two didn’t hear from one
another in a specific amount of time, that you would be worried and he would be
worried. But now that you two are avoiding one another, I’m worried about where
you are and where he is constantly.” She pushed my hand back across the counter
towards me. “Even though Paul and I are fine, I feel like with you two at odds,
that my family is falling apart and I miss the way it used to be.”
    I missed the way everything was before
too, but I had already tried to fix our friendship. I had already tried to get
him to come back into our life, instead of listening to his stupid girlfriend,
who just wanted him to stay at his mother’s house so that there was no one
there to keep tabs on him. But that had completely blown up in my face, so I
really didn’t know what else I could do. I didn’t want to be so callous over
the whole thing, but I didn’t want to get hurt any more than I already was
either, so I was content to stay out of it.
    At least until I felt I needed to get back
into it in order to help my stepbrother. I could tell he was on the path to
some kind of reaction, but I wasn’t sure what or when that would be; so I just
had to sit back and do what I could from the sidelines
    So I smiled and assured my mom. “Well, I
am fine and from what I can tell from seeing Shawn at school, he is fine.” I
shrugged before I started my explanation. “But, I am getting over our fight and
whatever happens next will happen. People drift apart.” I couldn’t help sighing
heavily, before I continued in a genuinely saddened voice. “Even though we had
said we would be friends forever…that was never a guarantee and I regret that,
but I am pretty sure that Shawn just wants to do his own thing.”
    “Is he with that…girl?” she asked with disdain.
    I shrugged. “Probably. She’s crazy, so if
they broke up I would have heard about it.” I smiled.
    “Don’t I know it,” my mother answered
angrily. I knew that she really couldn’t stand Dalilah and it worried her that
he was now probably completely unsupervised, doing whatever she wanted to do,
because Dalilah knew how to play Shawn for a fool and get him to do pretty much
whatever she wanted. It worried me too, but since he didn’t want to have
anything to do with me, I couldn’t very well do much about that at the moment.
    “Well, if you’re that worried about him,
call him…” I said with a shrug, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing.
    “I know…I should, but…like I told you, I don’t
want to seem like I am overprotective. He is a grown man, after all,” She
smiled in a slightly sad way and I was pretty certain I knew where that was
coming from. My mother was sentimental over us both and the idea that he was
old enough to be out there in the world, all by himself, scared her; especially
when he had a girlfriend like Dalilah.
    “I know, Mom,” I answered, squeezing her
hand affectionately. “I feel the same way.”     

 
    Chapter
12
    Shawn

 
    Apparently, there were a lot of women who
really wanted to see this movie and quite a bit of men who were suckered into
watching it with their girlfriends, because the theater was completely packed.
    Dalilah was as demanding as usual, but I
didn’t mind. At least I was there with someone I liked, and someone I could be
myself around, without having to worry about offending her.
    After a long, aggravating week, I was
really happy to have the opportunity to just relax and enjoy having a night out
with my girlfriend. This way, we didn’t have to worry about anything. I could
just be myself.
    I did think it was strange that I hadn’t
heard from Valerie’s mother though. Usually,