Shadows Read Free Page B

like her fingers were itching to do something else. Something she really shouldn’t do. Painting a boy’s face was obsessive on a stalkerish level, and good God, if her mom snuck through her paintings again? She’d have a stroke.
    Freezing drizzle smacked Bethany’s face when she hopped out of the car and nearly busted her ass on the slick driveway as she skirted around her uncle’s Porsche. Doctors made good money. Childish giggles and the aroma of sugar cookies greeted Bethany as she dropped her messenger bag inside the door. She shook off the frozen rain and took one step forward.
    “Bethany?” Her mom’s voice rang out like an alarm—a damn carpet alarm. “Take off those shoes!”
    Rolling her eyes, Bethany kicked off the shoes and placed the tips of her soaked flats on the edge of the carpet. Ha. Take that, Mom. Happy with her lame attempt at rebellion, she followed the sweet smell to a kitchen worthy of the Food Network.
    Mom liked to cook. Clean. Cook some more, and keep a near-fanatical eye on Bethany. One look and everyone knew why her mom was determined to keep a hawkish eye on her daughter’s virtue.
    Jane Williams was young . Like in, partied a little too hard one night and at age sixteen, got knocked up young . Bethany never met her biological dad and really didn’t have the desire to search him out. Her real dad was the one who’d raised her—the only one who mattered.
    Her mom was bound and determined to prevent Bethany from making the same mistake. In other words: she went private-eye on Beth’s social life like nothing else. But since Bethany turned sixteen last month, she figured she’d loosen up eventually.
    Hopefully.
    Mom was at the kitchen table, mixing a bowl of dough while Beth’s two-year-old half brother watched. There was more sugary dough on Phillip’s face than in the bowl, but he seemed to be having a good time. He looked over at her, and the shock of his red hair and the splatter of freckles on his cheeks made him look so different from her. Brown eyes were the only thing they shared.
    That and a love for raw cookie dough.
    Darting around the table, Bethany scooped up a handful of dough. “Yum,” she said, widening her eyes comically at him.
    Phillip giggled, clasping a mound of the dough. Chunks fell to the floor. Oh, no. Code Red in the kitchen.
    Strands of dark hair fell out of her mom’s French twist as she sighed. “Look at what you’ve done, Elizabeth.”
    Popping the sugary goodness in her mouth, Bethany grabbed paper towels off the stainless steel countertop. “It’s not going to rot the floor, Mom.”
    As Bethany cleaned up the mess, Phillip reached for her with chubby arms. She tossed the trash, then pulled him out of the high chair. Cradling the little guy against her hip, she glided around the kitchen like she was dancing.
    Pressing her forehead against his flushed one, she grinned. “What’s going on, little butt?”
    He roared with laughter at that, but her mom sighed as she smacked a ball of dough on the cookie sheet. “I wish you wouldn’t call him that.”
    “Why?” Bethany made faces as she twirled around the island. “Little butt likes being called little butt, because he has such a little butt.”
    A smile cracked her mom’s face. “How was your first day?”
    Bethany leaned back, avoiding a face full of dough that had probably been in Phillip’s mouth. Yuck. “It was okay. A much smaller school, but it has a kick-butt art class.”
    “Language,” her mom admonished. “Were the kids nice?”
    Kick butt , she mouthed at Phillip.
    “Butt,” he repeated.
    Bethany nodded as she dipped him over her arm. “Yeah, they seemed pretty cool.” One in particular seemed really cool, but she wasn’t going down that road. “Do you know what cool is, little butt?”
    “Uh huh!” He nodded for extra effort.
    Grinning, she stopped beside her mom and bumped her with her hip. A piece of dough hit the table. “Have you talked to Dad? Does he like the