Chapter 3

3

Charlie

B ella and I sit side by side on the couch in our living room, trying not to smile too broadly while Joe paces, reading us the riot act in that unbelievably deep baritone, his boots leaving impressions on the rug. Wendy dropped us back off at the house a half an hour ago and we were allowed to shower and put on fresh clothes. Bella opted for a tank top with no bra and yoga pants. I’m in a bralette and gym shorts. Our hair is still wet and neither one of us is happy about that, but we’re thrilled about what’s coming.

Joe rakes five frustrated fingers through his hair. “Out of all the houses with pools in Portsmith, why would you pick the goddamn mayor’s, girls?”

“He has the best pool,” Bella says, blinking up at him innocently.

“There’s a slide,” I add in a whisper.

This is our favorite game. Make Joe angry, make Joe yell.

Sniffle and give him puppy dog eyes until he feels guilty and gives us what can only be described as a miracle drug. Joe being sweet and apologetic. Guilty for yelling at us. This whole recurring scene is what causes us to go out and make mischief every chance we get.

If I’d really stopped to think about why we engage in this nonsense, I would have known long before today that me and Bella both want Joe. In the biblical sense. There are a whole lot of daddy issues wrapped up in this kind of ridiculous behavior, but neither one of us seems to care. We lost our mother a year ago and everyone gave us too many free passes in our grief. Now we’re drunk on power.

At least we’re aware of our own flaws, right?

“You have passes to the public pool. It’s very nice,” our stepfather points out. “You couldn’t have gone there?”

“Not naked,” I say. “We wanted to skinny dip, Joe.”

“And when you want something, you get it, right?” He stops in front of us, planting his hands on his hips. “You girls must indulge every single whim that flutters into your heads?”

Bella blinks. “Is that a trick question?”

“No,” he growls. “It’s not.”

“Oh.”

“You’re lucky it was the mayor’s wife who caught you and not the mayor himself.”

“Why?” I ask.

“I’d be a lot more pissed if he’d seen you—” Joe cuts himself off, scrubbing at the stubbled lower half of his face. “Never mind.”

Sure. As if we’re going to let that go. “You wouldn’t have liked him seeing us naked?” Bella asks—and I can see goosebumps have lifted on her arms, her nipples clearly outlined against the front of her tank top. “Why, Joe?”

“He’s a man,” he says, as if that should have been obvious. “And you’re…beautiful young girls. Last thing I need is someone getting ideas.”

I trace the lacy edge of my bralette with my middle finger, down into the space between my breasts, taking Joe’s attention along with it. “What kind of ideas?” I ask, softly.

Bella gasps gently. “Do you think he’d want to fuck us if he saw us naked, Joe?”

I try my best to look purely curious. “Both of us at the same time?”

His chest is puffing up and down, redness creeping up the sides of his neck toward his face. “You’re making the conversation inappropriate when it doesn’t need to be. All in the name of distracting me from my lecture.”

“We wouldn’t do that,” Bella insists, looking wounded.

“Joe…” I call forth an army of tears into my eyes. “Sometimes I think you assume the worst in us. Do you think we’re bad people?”

His hulking shoulders deflate slightly. “Now, sweetheart, you know that isn’t true.”

We’ve got a “sweetheart,” ladies and gentlemen. He’s right where we want him. “All we ever wanted was for you to love us,” Bella says in a wobbly voice.

“I do.” Joe takes a quick step toward the couch. Halts. His hands flex at his sides. “You know I love you, girls.”

So close. “B-but how do we know?”

Exasperation streaks across Joe’s features. “I feed you. I put a roof over your heads, don’t I? I’m helping pay for college.”

Bella bows her head, chastised. “You’re right. You do everything for us.”

“We can’t even cook, let alone stay out of trouble.”

“We’re useless,” Bella chokes out.

All right, we’re laying it on a little thick. I nudge my sister with my elbow to signal a retreat. Joe might be weak in the face of female tears, but he’s not clueless.

Thankfully, the tears have won.

Joe lifts his hands toward us, pausing for two breaths, before he cups the sides of our faces. “You are the opposite of useless. You’re good girls. You…” He swallows. “I don’t know what I’d do without you brightening up this house. Maybe…I don’t know.”

“Maybe what?” I ask, turning my face into his palm and rubbing my cheek there.

Joe watches as Bella performs the same action, each of us reveling in his touch. Like two felines being stroked by their owner after he returns from a long day at work.

On the heels of a long pause, Joe continues, his voice deeper than before. “Maybe it’s a good thing you girls stir up so much trouble. Maybe keeping you in line was the exact distraction I needed this year.” I’m not expecting it when his fingers slip into our hair, his calloused thumb sifting through the strands, as if he’s luxuriating in the feel of us. “Two perfect distractions sent by God himself. Angels.”

I purr into his hand, sort of wishing he would wrap it around my throat and choke me, but hey, that’s a problem for a different day. Right now, we just want to succeed in making Joe stay. That’s always the object of the game. To stop him from blowing out the door like Portsmith’s one and only superhero.

“Joe, will you watch our show with us?” Bella asks, her eyes half closed in the bliss of his touch. “Pretty please?”

“We can’t make any trouble if you’re with us, right?” I add.

“Is that so? Or do you make the most trouble when I’m with you?”

Bella and I exchange a surprised glance.

“What do you mean?” Bella asks.

“Nothing.” I’ve never seen such a conflicted look on Joe’s face before. He massages our scalps with his big, capable hands, eyeballing the couch like it might be hiding snakes. “I should really get back to work.”

“No, Joe,” we whine simultaneously, both of us reaching for him, urging him to sit down on the couch, which he resists. “Watch our show and cuddle with us.”

“I can’t, girls,” he rasps. “I shouldn’t.”

“You’ll love The Summer I Turned Pretty . We promise.”

“I seriously doubt that.”

Our eyes pool with tears on cue, Bella’s bottom lip trembling. I blink back the moisture in my own eyes, as if I’m trying to put on a brave face at the prospect of his desertion. That being said, I already know we’ve got him. He freezes at the sight of our unhappiness, the fight going out of him.

“Fine, I’ll stay. But just for a little while.”

Bella and I beam at each other. We can work with that.

As long as she understands I’m going to win the seduction challenge?

Nobody gets hurt.