Devil May Care: Boxed Set (128 page)

“Chores?” I repeated dully. I hated chores. Didn’t all teens? And church? I really had to go every week? Why? Shouldn’t that be my choice? Because that would be a big fat nope.

“Yes,” Walter said calmly. “I think taking out the garbage can be one of your chores. You’ll have to help Paul and Peter. They don’t always remember to separate out the recyclables. And…”

He kept on talking. The garbage? Really? The amount of trash a family this size had to produce had to be impressive.

“Dusting. Maybe vacuuming too,” he continued.

What the hell? Did the guy think I was a maid? I was fuming. No way could I keep quiet about my feelings on all of this. Creating a scene probably wouldn’t help my cause any, but waiting would only make things worse. If I just blindly accepted his chores and rules, he’d expect me to keep them, and I had a firm opinion on all that.

I pushed back my chair and stood.

April did too. “Can I be excused to show Wesley my garden?” she asked before I could start my tirade. She smiled at me. “We don’t have to talk about chores right now, do we?”

Walter pursed his lips then nodded. “Go ahead.” He didn’t sound too pleased though. Probably wanted to delegate more chores on me.

Her smile grew wider, and she ushered me out of the room.

Once we got outside, she said, “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I understand. This all is new and different. It’s not what you expected.”

Major understatement.

“Not by a long shot,” I said.

She headed to the east side of the house. A small garden was there, outlined with rocks. The flowers were vibrant and tall, obviously well cared for. “I’m going to help you as much as I can until you graduate.”

Simple words to say, but did she mean it? She seemed nice enough, but I could read her like a book. If there was a choice between helping me or siding with her family, family would win every time.

A lot of people had blind loyalty to their families. That was something I never had a chance to ever develop and probably never would.

“I just…” I shook my head. “You accept all of that?”

“What? The chores?” She grinned. She was cute and pretty, but she could be so much more than a girl groomed to be a 1950s kind of wife.

“I don’t mind chores. I guess. It’s…”

Obviously she accepted it, her mom, the sister wives, all of it. To her, it was normal. To me, it was insane.

“Dad…Walter’s not as bad as you think. Give him a chance. Give us a chance,” she urged. She bent down and touched the petals of one of her flowers. “You’ll see. It’s a perfect house. It might not be conventional, but it works for us.”

“Religion, polygamy…” I tried not to scoff. “That’s perfect in your world?”

“In this house,” she corrected.

Did that mean she didn’t want to be polygamous herself? Why was I worried about her thoughts on that? Yeah, she was hot, but she was also my step-sister. And the whole trust issue…I could count the number of people I trusted on one finger. Me.

April smiled at me again. She had a killer smile. Maybe I should give her a chance. I definitely needed someone in my corner in this huge house. Otherwise, it was going to be a terrible five months.

“You’ll help me?” I asked suspiciously. Why did she want to help me? Just because she was a good, wholesome girl? Or because her daddy had her spying on me? Only time would tell.

“With anything you need.” Her smile grew.

I just had to smile back. I’d give her a chance. Why not? What did I have to lose?

I avoided everyone as much as I could—or at least I tried to avoid everyone. For as big as the house was, it was nearly impossible to have any privacy. Whenever I saw anyone, they all had so many questions for me—about my past, about my present, about my future. They were all so damned nosey, and I didn’t feel like sharing. The past was better off ignored. The present, well, I doubted anyone wanted to hear about how I hated the idea of being stuck here for five months. And as for the future, no way was I going to share my plans. Not with Walter thinking college might be in store for me. No way could I afford higher education. And it wouldn’t feel right to take his money for it, if he would even offer. Besides, I knew what I wanted out of life, and I didn’t need an expensive piece of paper for that.

Sleep didn’t come easy that night. The bed just didn’t feel right. When you were used to sleeping on couches or the floor or beds with zero support, a comfy bed just wasn’t comfortable. I woke up in a foul mood, still exhausted. The boys ran away when I opened my door. Maybe I startled them. Or maybe they saw the look on my face.

I walked downstairs and headed for the dining room, but Walter cornered me in the parlor. Yes, the parlor. Jacqueline called the room that. A bunch of couches and chairs and tables. Some bookcases. No TVs or computers. Just a place to sit and talk. Or be talked at, which was what I had the feeling would be the case with Walter.

My first impulse was to walk away, but I didn’t. Five months was a decent amount of time. I didn’t want to get on his bad side right off the bat, but something about the stern look on his face had me thinking he was going to be getting on
my
bad side. Great. Just what I wanted this morning.

“Wesley, do you have a minute?” he asked, his tone suggesting that I didn’t have a choice. I already hated that tone.

“No,” was on the tip of my tongue, but I said, “Yes.” Kind of mumbled it, but it was all he was getting.

“Good.” Walter didn’t quite smile. He looked like a burly bear, and not the cute cuddly kind girls loved. “We have a strict house schedule. Yesterday, you didn’t come down for breakfast, so maybe you didn’t know, but we always eat together at six thirty. Every morning.”

I glanced at my watch. It was always ten minutes slow. Even when I tried to correct it. I was lucky to have one in the first place. A hand-me-down. Never would’ve bought one for myself. Right now, it was eight. Eight was early for me on weekends and days off of school as it was, and he wanted me to get up even earlier?

“Six thirty?” I repeated, trying not to sound disrespectful. “Isn’t that a little early?”

Walter wrinkled his nose. “Roslyn has to leave for work at seven. Plus, April leaves for school at seven fifteen. You will be leaving then too. School is important. You can’t risk being late, especially tomorrow.”

My first day at a new school. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

I really didn’t need that much time to get ready for school, but maybe I shouldn’t argue about this. There was bound to be other more important issues down the line.

“It’s imperative that we all eat breakfast and dinner together every day,” he continued, wagging a finger at me. “Without fail.”

What the hell? Was this guy for real?

“Bonding, right?” I asked in my fake I-give-a-damn voice.

“Yes, for bonding,” he said, nodding and smiling as if I was a good boy and deserved a treat, “and because we want to. Family is most important. More than school or chores or friends. Family always comes first.”

I managed to suppress a snort. Family. Ha. As if Jacqueline really gave a damn about me. For years she left me to rot. Looked like she was doing just fine without me during those same years. She had a large enough family without me, considering her husband, the sister wives, and all of the kids. Did they even need me? Did I even want to be a part of their strange family?

For five months, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. That made me so happy.

Not.

“Let me guess,” I said. “If I’m late to a meal, I don’t get to eat.”

Wouldn’t be the first time that happened to me. Lots of other families had that rule. A crappy one, especially when there wasn’t enough food for everyone as it was. In this house, there was more than enough food for all of us and for every foster family I’d been stuck in over the years. Kind of made me sick to think they would refuse to feed someone like that. What did it really matter if someone was a few minutes late? What if they overslept or were sick or something?

“Exactly.” Walter’s smile grew wider, but it wasn’t a kind smile, more a tight, controlled one. Man, was he rigid and formal and stiff. “I’m glad you understand that.”

I waited for him to say that I could get something to eat today since I didn’t know the rule, but he didn’t. Seriously? I was starving!

“Also, you’ll come straight home after school without exception,” he added. “Complete your homework and your chores immediately. After a month, if you do well with your grades and have a good attitude around the house, maybe you can do an extracurricular activity or two if you want.” He sounded like this was really big of him.

Really? What if I made friends? Couldn’t I hang with them? I didn’t always bother to make friends when I went to yet another school since I wouldn’t be there long, but I had a feeling I would want to be out of this house as much as possible. At all of those other houses, with all of the other families, not even once did I come close to being adopted. Never had a permanent place to live. Even here wouldn’t be forever.

Actually, that might turn out to be a good thing.

“Now, that’s just for the week,” he went on.

Did the guy ever shut up? Maybe he was in love with the sound of his voice. I could definitely believe that. I was already starting to think the guy loved himself more than he loved his wives.

“On weekends, you’ll be looking for part-time work.”

Okay, now I was starting to get really angry. Who the hell did he think he was? He couldn’t order me around like this, and I can’t help resenting him. What a dominating control-obsessed asshole. We only had to put up with each other for five months. Couldn’t we just ignore each other?

“It’s imperative that you have a resume before college,” Walter droned on. “You do plan on going to college, don’t you? Without a degree, well, your options will be rather limited. How have your grades been so far? Your mother never told me.”

Because she didn’t know. Never asked. I was certain she didn’t care. If she didn’t, why should he?

But he was waiting for an answer, and I saw no reason to lie. “Mostly Cs.”

The rest were Ds, but maybe if I didn’t elaborate on that point, he’d think, or at least hope, the others were Bs. Although I had a feeling he’d fill the blanks with Ds and Fs.

Walter winced and shook his head. “Maybe April can tutor you. She’s a bright girl. Got a good head on her shoulders.”

I bit my tongue to swallow back a retort. I didn’t need a tutor. A few teachers told me that I just needed to try, that I was smarter than my test grades showed. I knew it didn’t help that I didn’t do my homework, but I never saw the point of it, of studying. Most of the classes were pointless, and what good were tests? They weren’t true measures of determining how well you learned the material—only a gauge of how well you test. And besides, I didn’t need a degree for what I wanted, so all of this was moot for me.

“Now, did anyone tell you about the time for breakfast?” he asked, crossing his arms. His eyes bore through me.

I shook my head. Was he going to bend? I sure hoped so.

“Just this once, I’ll make an allowance for you. You can fix yourself something.”

Sweet. My stomach felt like a huge pit of emptiness that was dying to be filled.

But the man still wasn’t done. “Don’t forget your chores. There’s a chore chart in the kitchen for everyone. You’ve already been added to it. Now, is there anything you have questions about?”

I so wanted to give him lip, to throw his rules back in his face, to walk out. Only remembering April’s words—that Walter wasn’t so bad and that she’d help me—got me to think twice. I was too old for foster care. It was either here, in Walter’s house, or the streets. The idea of roughing it, of not being able to even possibly have my own life, to live on my terms without being homeless and completely broke, was not one I wanted to entertain.

I cleared my throat. “Nope.”

“Very well. You’re in agreement, then? With the rules and chores and part-time job?” Walter leveled me a cool stare, one that would rattle the dead.

It pained me, but I nodded. For now, I was in agreement, but if he kept getting in my face…well, all bets would be off.

He nodded back, walked over to the bookcase, and removed a book. How quickly he could ignore me, pretend I didn’t exist.

I already hated the guy. Guessed that kind of made him into a father figure after all, at least for me. I hated my father too.

***

Since I ate a later breakfast than everyone, I ate a later lunch too, which turned out to be great because I ate both meals in peace. No sideway glances, no annoying questions, just me and my stomach and my food.

Other than dinner when I was forced to be around people, I kept to myself. Finally, it was nighttime, but when I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. The bed was just too soft. After tossing and turning for a good two hours, I had enough. I wasn’t about to have another terrible night of sleep—I’d been exhausted all day today as it was—so I left my room, went downstairs, and lay out on the couch. Much better.

I was just dozing when someone approached. I didn’t bother to open my eyes, just continued resting. Maybe he or she would leave. But there weren’t any more footsteps. The person was staring at me. I never could sleep when someone was staring at me. Too many kids in foster homes had done that to me. Half the times, they ended up trying to torture me. Not that they succeeded once I hit puberty.

Who could it be? It better not be Walter. Or Jacqueline. The boys wouldn’t bother me, would they? Actually, they probably would. They were troublemakers all right.

Curiosity was getting the better of me, so I cracked both eyes open.

“You’re sleeping on the couch?” April asked in a whisper, her blue eyes wide.

“Isn’t that what it looks like?” I closed my eyes and yawned.

“But why? You have a bed upstairs. Your bed has to be more comfortable.” She sounded truly baffled.

I opened my eyes and saw her frown. “It’s not a big deal. Why does it bother you?” I wasn’t used to having someone give a damn about me, and it felt strange.

“I just don’t understand. You can’t prefer a couch to a bed. Do you?” Her frown grew, and a cute “V” formed between her eyebrows.

“I’m just used to sleeping on couches. I’ll get used to the bed eventually. Don’t worry about it.” I closed my eyes again. It was a little early for me to be going to bed, but I didn’t feel like staying awake considering the risk it meant. I did not want to be cornered for another talk with Walter, and I definitely didn’t want to talk to Jacqueline either. Whenever she saw me, she tried to pry into my life, as if a few minutes here and there would make up for the countless minutes she hadn’t been there for me before. If she had truly wanted to have a relationship with me, she should’ve come long ago, before life hardened me.

“You’re a little frustrating, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Not really.” I opened my eyes again and sat up. Obviously she wasn’t going to let me go to sleep anytime soon. Didn’t see why she cared.

April sat down beside me on the couch, close but not close enough that we were touching. She stared at me. “Do you have everything you need?”