Desperate to escape, I did the only thing I could think of and carefully tapped his back. Finally, he let me go. My brief reprieve was squashed when Preston pulled me into his hold.
I went from being trapped by one Whitley to being held by another.
“Is everyone in your family this grabby?” God, I hoped not. Ava was small, but I didn’t trust her. And she still had that flipper.
“It’s usually just our dad.” Parker sauntered around the corner and nodded at his brother. “I don’t know what’s up with him?”
Or at least I thought it was Parker. Preston had me tucked so far under his arm that I couldn’t lift my head enough to see his face. My assumption was purely based on the white sneakers I was staring at. There was a small grass stain on the left side of the right one and what looked like a spot of blood….
Fantastic. This day just keeps getting better. Welcome to the psycho house, full of smiles and people who try to cut down trees with a flipper.
Preston snorted, “You hold Lana.”
Yup, it was definitely Parker. Score one for me.
“I hold my wife,” Parker scoffed. “I don’t try and morph her body into mine.”
“Fuck you,” Preston growled but did release his hold a little.
“Fuck you too,” Parker growled right back at him, after which Preston pulled him in for a hug.
Boys were weird.
Speaking of weird…
Two sparkling gray eyes came into view as Ava sang, “We can morph people into us?”
And that was when I started praying again. I closed my eyes and asked the good Lord above to save me from dining with the Manson family.
* * *
Any other familywith status and money would have some five-course meal prepared by chefs. Micha had a cook, and so did Logan and even Parker. Star and I had gone over to hang out with Lana several times. She had the best homemade bread.
The Whitleys did not.
I wasn’t even sure that the loaf on the table was bread. That mystery was solved when Ava proclaimed she had made it. The rest of the food, however…
I looked over at the large meatloaf shaped like a heart, then at the bowl of lumpy mashed potatoes. Beside that were a plate of baked Brussels sprouts and a large Caesar salad.
Dean apparently didn’t have the same cooking skills as his son. Not only that, but everything here was baked except for the salad.
Guess what I ate.
“So.” Dean cleared his throat and looked over at Preston and me. “How did you two meet?”
I could’ve ignored him, but Preston did say he wanted me to be myself. So I looked Dean dead in his eyes and said, “Your psycho son kidnapped me.”
“Well, Preston did always know what he wanted.”
Don’t know why I expected anything else. This entire family was crazy. I was pretty sure I heard someone knocking on the floor earlier, but I wasn’t about to ask. I didn’t want to know about anything in this house, including the weird doll in the corner with a melted face.
“You kidnapped her?” Parker roared.
Okay, maybe he wasn’t so bad.
“Let me guess.” Preston rolled his eyes and popped a Brussels sprout in his mouth. “You have a problem with that?”
I had a problem with it.
