The Good Sister: Part One Read Online Free Page A

was tiny, compared to the main house, it was so much better than the one room apartment we were living in a week ago.
    My thoughts wandered as they usually did. I thought upon my life before, wondering if that life was somehow a dream. It was hazy, unfocused, playing out like a scratchy movie, unreal in so many ways. Sometimes I even confused what I believed to be my memories with my dreams, never really sure if I could separate the two completely or where the reality ended and the dream began.
    We once had everything, nothing like the Addison’s Hollywood Hills estate of course, but more than most. I contemplated my old room. I never needed to share a space with my sister. I thought on how things changed after our father died. I knew most of our heartache, including our current financial woes, was in part, due to me.
    I closed my eyes and felt the warm breeze. I mulled over how pieces and parts of my family’s life were sold off like secondhand memories to the highest bidder. Inside my head I heard, going once, going twice, sold… and all because of my frequent stays in the hospital, the numerous visits to the shrinks, the lengthy stays in the nuthouse, and the battle my mother waged with the life insurance company who went bankrupt, leaving us no lifeline to cling to.
    I glanced up. Squinted. Traced a large branch on one of the many trees. I noticed how it reached out into the outlying trees and formed a maze, a canopy. I moved under the cover. I would focus on this, not the past or thoughts of money, home or our lack of either.
    The sunlight danced through the leaves, forming patches of light and shade artwork on the tall grass canvas below. The breeze blew, the artwork changed before my very eyes. I focused my attention above once more, and heard a rustling in the trees. Melodious sounds filled the air.
    The birds are even happy here.
    “Trinity, look,” Bentley said under her breath, nudging my arm, breaking through my reverie.
    I glanced in the direction Bentley indicated with the lift of her chin, to see the most stunning boy walking in our direction. Immediately, I tucked tail and ran. On my way, I grabbed a box before catching up to my mother who was entering the door to our new home. I hurried, and located the room that I would be sharing with my sister, put the cardboard box down, found the window, pulled back the lace curtain, and watched.
    He was wearing khaki cargo shorts with a white T-shirt embossed with a surfing logo. His feet were adorned in Doc Martin sandals, and his skin, the color of golden bronze. A slow smile stretched across his perfect angular features. His silver eyes widened as he looked at my sister.
    He scrubbed along his sideburn with his fingers. The breeze disrupted his hair. The color reminded me of black liquorish. He turned. The sun glinted off the metal in his ear. The leaves from the trees rustled then gave way to the sun, which mixed into the shade to dapple his face in astonishing contrast. This cast his features into chiseled perfection.
    I quietly slid the window open to hear….
    “Hey, I’m Reid,” he said, extending his hand out to greet Bentley.
    Bentley took his hand, smiled. “Bentley,” she replied.
    “You’re early, Bentley. We didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”
    Reid’s voice was low, deep, and completely sexy.
    Bentley shifted her weight enough so her ample cleavage was clearly visible beneath her white cotton sundress.
    “Yeah, well, I guess it’s your lucky day, Reid. It’s nice to be surprised sometimes.”
    Reid smiled bright white, freeing the devastation of his dimples. “I would agree, and to think I woke up this morning believing it was just another boring day.”
    Reid’s silver-blue gaze took a slow and leisurely perusal of Bentley’s body.
    “So, it wasn’t what you were expecting?” Bentley purred.
    I recognized the double entendre.
    Reid shook his head. “Definitely not.”
    “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Bentley asked