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Cullen can take care of her then. He’s a brat and can handle a teenager.

I fell asleep texting Jensen, lulled to sleep with a smile on my face.

Chapter 6

Beth

Sadly, my peace was short-lived. The sun hadn’t even started to rise by the time my brothers were clattering around, shouting at one another as they started their day.

Usually, they liked to sleep until early afternoon, but as two of my brothers somehow had jobs now, between the five males in the house, it was always noisy.

Grabbing my phone, I shot off a quick message to my best friend. She had two babies and was usually up early.

Beth:

I’ve been home less than twenty-four hours, and I already want to run away.

She answered almost immediately.

Kennedy:

Then come home! I haven’t seen you in a while. Char and Samuel miss their auntie Bethy!

Even though Kennedy’s children weren’t biologically related to me, I had the position of honorary aunt, and I enjoyed itgreatly. I had made several jokes that my position would become more important when they became teenagers and wanted to start dating. Well, for Charlotte, at least. They had four fathers who were very overprotective, and I could just imagine how they were going to react when a boy looked her way.

The door to my room opened, and Jake came barging in without knocking. Glowering at him, I put my phone down. “Dude, I could have been getting changed!”

He shrugged. “But you weren’t. Today, when you’re doing shit for the dads, can you bake some cookies for the guys at my work? I told them I would bring some in.”

“You didn’t think to ask first?”

“It was a last-minute thing. Come on. We know you can bake cookies in your sleep.”

That didn’t mean I wanted to. I could have told him no, but then I would have to deal with his constant whining. So, taking a deep breath, I simply nodded and passed on a fake smile. “Sure.”

“Good!” He grinned. “You should be getting up, anyway. You’re being a lazy butt staying in bed this late,” he said as he sauntered out of the room.

My hands shook with the urge to throw something at the back of his head. He had been fired from several jobs for sleeping in, so he was being a hypocritical ass.

There was never a chance I would actually be able to relax while I was at my family’s home. I had stopped thinking that was a possibility long ago. From the moment I walked through the door, there was always a pile of work waiting for me.

My pa was sitting at the kitchen table as I padded downstairs.

“Here’s the lazy college student!” He smiled warmly.

He probably thought he was making a hilarious joke. I simply gave him a tight smile and went over to the fridge. I wasn’t sure when the disconnect happened, but it was like I was from a different universe than my family.

“Where’s the milk?” I asked. “There were two bottles yesterday before dinner.”

“Hayden took them to his place. He said he was out,” he said, turning the page of his newspaper.

“Well, if you guys want me to make mac and cheese for dinner, I’m going to need milk,” I pointed out.

My pa frowned. “You can go get some more, can’t you? Hayden’s been busy working so much and trying to keep his place in order that it’s unfair to make him go to the store when we had it here.”

“Can no one else go and get milk?”

He shook his head. “Your brothers are at work, and I’m about to head to the office.”