Shackled: A Stepbrother Romance Novel Read Free

was a big change for both of us. Since my father died, mom never even spoke about dating. Sure, I wanted her to be happy. I wanted her to be with someone.
    Just not him . Not the father of the one man that I never wanted to see again.
    Now that man was living in my childhood home, and soon, I would be living here again as well. Mom didn’t even know about that part yet.
    “Thank you, dear. I don’t know what happened between you and Jonathan, but I’m sure it’s nothing that you can’t work out by talking through it.”
    I just barely managed to hold back my snort.
    If only they knew...
    “I just had a wonderful idea!” my mom cried, dropping the rolling pin back to the counter as she shouted, “Jonathan!”
    He returned to the room a moment later, his eyes immediately seeking me out for a brief second before letting them lock on my mom.
    “Yeah?”
    She pointed between the two of us, a sly smile appearing on her lips that made dread rise in my stomach.
    “I think you two need a chance to bond again. A friendship like yours is something to be treasured , not thrown away over a silly argument.”
    Really? With everything that was going on, she was worried about Jonathan and me being friends again?
    The thought was another reminder that I really needed to share my own news with her. Soon.
    But first things first. I frowned and opened my mouth to point out that she had no idea why we were fighting in the first place, but Jonathan’s soft voice cut me off.
    “I completely agree, Leslie.”
    They’re on a first name basis now? Also— What?
    My mom grinned triumphantly. “I’m glad you agree. Because I think you two should go spend the weekend at the cabin for the weekend and re-bond.”
    The words that should have come out of my mouth were, ‘What about what I think? ’ But it was already too late. Jonathan had agreed so easily that I would look like a total bitch if I started a war over this.
    God, Mom was practically beaming at me.
    Mr. Parker chimed in with his agreement. “That sounds like a great idea.”
    I finally turned to glare at Jonathan, who was steadfastly refusing to look at me. When he wouldn’t meet my gaze, I turned incredulous eyes to my mom.
    I shook my head, thinking no, I just couldn’t do this. I was kidding myself. I needed to figure out what I was going to do with my life. The last thing I wanted to do was go have a bonding session with him .
    “Um, excuse me? I don’t need to bond . I’m perfectly fine without any bonding.”
    She cocked an eyebrow. “Oh really? Because we’re about to be a family and you’re looking at Jonathan like he’s a leper, or whatever you kids say. Fiona, please. Do this for me.”
    The woman definitely used every weapon in her arsenal—this time it was the wide, sad eyes and a pout that I’d inherited and used more often than I wanted to admit. I tried to think of a way out of it—the reminder that I still needed to admit to dropping out of college lingering around in the back of my head.
    Maybe I could tell her right now and hope that she’ll be so angry at me that she’ll retract the offer for us to stay in the cabin. Or I could just pretend to cave in and then call Brenda to pick me up the moment we get there.
    I was going to be in the doghouse soon. If I didn’t agree, I would probably be homeless. Well, not quite, but living here might not be an option. God, I was so damn confused—the only thing I could do was comply.
    “Fine. Whatever,” I said with a resigned sigh. “When are we going?”
    “You can leave Friday and spend the weekend up there reconnecting. We’ll drive you there and pick you up first thing Monday morning. I’m sure that after you two catch up, you’ll forget all about whatever tiff you had.”
    I wasn’t as sure about that as she seemed to be, but I kept that thought to myself. That gave me today and tomorrow to decide whether or not I should break the news and run, even though my instincts told me that it’d go