Free Step Brother by Jayna King Page A

game.”
    I looked at the clock. “We should hit the road.”
    Tatum picked up the pie and walked toward the door.
    “That looks good enough to eat,” I said as she walked by.
    She turned to look at me. “Well, now it does, thanks to you.”
    “I wasn’t talking about the pie,” I answered, looking at her ass.
    “Quit it, Reed,” she said as I pulled the door closed behind us.
    I opened the car door for her and held the pie while she got settled.
    “I wouldn’t have pegged you for an electric car kinda guy,” she said when I got behind the wheel.
    “Well, this ain’t exactly a Prius, sweetheart. A Tesla’s a whole different category of car. It’s the most beautiful machine I’ve ever driven.” We pulled away from the curb, and I watched as Tatum looked around the interior.
    “It’s a gorgeous car, for sure. My Jetta has been great, but I’m so ready to buy something new.”
    “What are you looking at?”
    “Oh, I won’t even go to a dealership until I get a job first. I can’t pay bills with my good looks.”
    “I don’t know about that,” I said under my breath, looking at her long legs stretched out in the passenger seat.
    “I thought for sure I’d have found something by now.”
    “Any promising leads?”
    “Yes. I’m just frustrated though. I wanted to walk in, interview, and be offered a job the same day. The trouble is the firms I really want to work for appeal to every other attorney in the state. At the interview I had a few weeks ago, they told me I was one of nearly a hundred qualified applicants.”
    “Wow, I didn’t realize it was that competitive. I thought the tattoo biz was bad.”
    “Vegas has a bit of a lawyer glut, as it turns out.”
    “What are you going to do if you can’t find something?”
    “Not to sound arrogant, but I will find something. I know I will. I just wanted it to happen more quickly than it is.”
    “Confident is sexy, Tatum.”
    “I seem to recall having thought the same thing,” she said, giving me a sidelong glance that made me want to pull the car over. “So anyway, changing the subject from my unemployed status, what do you think about my dad and your mom?”
    I hadn’t seen Tatum in the couple of weeks that had passed since the bizarre lunch we’d shared with our parents, and when I’d called her to ask if she wanted a ride to dinner, I’d expected her to turn me down—not that it would have discouraged me. I’d given things a lot of thought, and I’d decided that I was going to have her one way or another. Once I set my mind on something, I’m impossible to distract. The fact that she was in my car made me think she might be easier to convince than I’d expected.
    “The whole thing’s just weird,” I said. “I mean, they seem pretty happy, and I think mom looks like she’s doing better than she ever has. I mean, she seems pretty … healthy, I guess, physically and mentally. I didn’t think I’d ever see her quite this settled.”
    “Has she been married before?”
    “Yeah. Once. That didn’t work out so well. The guy seemed okay at first, but the day I came home and found her with bruises that I knew had come from him, I kinda lost control. He had me arrested. Not a good scene.”
    “Your stepfather had you arrested?”
    “Yeah. They ended up just going their separate ways and the charges were dropped. I was still a minor, and probably nothing would have come of it, anyway, but Mom was worried about me having a record. It was one of the few things she was worried about. She wasn’t exactly a model parent while I was growing up.”
    “Yeah, I’ve gathered that. Sounds like she was the opposite of my dad, at least as far as the appearance of a happy family goes. Everything seems to be a big publicity stunt. I have to tell you, I’m seeing some of his old behaviors resurfacing. I think he might try to run for office again.”
    “Really? Why would he do that? He’s making a shit ton of money. What more could he