Stepbrother With Benefits 11 Read Free Page B

you say we take a detour?"
    I give him a weird look and grin.  "Yeah?"
    "Yeah," he says, smiling.  "Let's just go this way."  He points to the right.  "It should be fine.  We'll be walking alongside the lake, and it shouldn't be hard to find our way back.  It's different, though.  A change of pace and something new."
    That sounds good.  I like it.  A change of pace?  Fuck, that's exactly what I need.
    That's what I have with Ashley, and I think it'd be nice to have something like that with my dad, too.
    Just something different.  Something new.
    "If we get lost, I'm blaming you," I tell him, smirking.
    "Yeah yeah," my dad says, rolling his eyes.  "I can accept that."
    I want to ask him if he can accept me, though.  Can he accept me and Ashley?  Can he accept us dating?
    I don't ask him that.  We step off the dirt trail we were on and go to the right, hiking into the woods.  There's no paths here, nothing to guide us, nothing to stop us.
    This is my element.  I don't follow the rules, I make my own.  My dad's the same way, whether he wants to admit it or not.  You don't become filthy fucking rich by playing it safe, now do you?
    I guess that's a connection we have.  We're not so different.  I hope he agrees and I hope he understands me.

*** Ashley
    "So..." my mom says to me, staring at the hook on the end of her fishing pole.
    I smile, but I try not to laugh.  "So..."
    "I don't think we thought this over very well, Ashley."
    "Mom, it's just a worm," I say.
    "If Ethan and his father were here, we could have them do it.  That's all I'm saying."
    "It can't be that hard, can it?" I ask.
    "Um... have you ever gone fishing before?" she asks.  "Because I haven't."
    "Not really, but..."  Really, it can't be that hard, right?
    I pull off the top of the little bucket of worms that Ethan and my stepdad bought at the store earlier, then ready the hook of my fishing pole.  You just, um... you put the worm on the hook, right?  I don't think there's much to it.
    Closing my eyes, I reach into the dirt in the bucket until I find a worm.  It's gross.  And dirty.  Well, duh!  Of course it's dirty, Ashley!  It's literally in a bucket of dirt.  It's fine, it's fine, it's...
    I hurry and pull the worm out, then open my eyes.  Don't look.  Don't look at the worm in your fingers.  I drape the worm over the hook and it just kind of hangs there, unassuming.
    "I don't think that's how it works," my mom says.
    "It's on the hook," I point out to her.  It really is!
    "Yes, but what happens when you put it in the water?  It's not just going to stay on the hook, is it?"
    "Oh, um..."
    "Ashley, we're hopeless," my mom says.  "Do you just want to go swimming instead?"
    "We can't quit!" I tell her.  "Mom, this is serious.  We're supposed to be fishing.  Also, we don't even have bathing suits."
    She shrugs.  "So?  You're wearing underwear, aren't you?  It's not like anyone else is here.  It's practically the same thing."
    I stare at her.  "What?  Are you being serious?"
    "What do you mean?  Of course I am.  It's not like I haven't seen you in your underwear before.  You were traipsing around upstairs just running out of Ethan's room in your bra and panties the other day, so don't even try to act like you don't have a wild streak.  It's only swimming, too."
    "Mom, someone else could come.  I'm not going swimming in my underwear."
    "Fine!  Then we have to figure out how to go fishing," she says.
    "I really don't think this is an either-or kind of situation.  We can, um..."
    I look around, trying to figure out what else we can do.  Honestly, I have no idea.  There's a lake, and that's about it.  We can go back to the campsite, but it's not like that's a whole lot better.
    "What if you tie it around the hook?" my mom offers.
    "Like a knot?  Tie the worm in a  knot?"
    "Yes, exactly."
    "Um..."  I stare at the worm.  It does look long enough for me to tie it in a knot around the hook, so...
    I give it a try,