Blindsided - A Stepbrother Romance Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

meeting all week. She’d re-read Luke’s letters and cards that she found in her mother’s closet and she imagined herself calling him. It wasn’t as simple in reality however and each time she picked up the phone she remembered that father or not, he was a virtual stranger. She had his business card from when she’d met him three years before and nothing but bad memories from that meeting. She hadn’t known that he’d been reaching out and now that she did she felt bad about the way she’d treated him. But, she also had to weigh in the fact that he did leave in the first place. He took off when she was only a year old and although he felt badly about that later and tried to make amends, it didn’t negate the fact he did it in the first place. What if sending cards and letters and money was the most contact he wanted? What if she called and asked for his help and he said no? What would that kind of ultimate rejection feel like?
    The night before the meeting she’d found Aaron lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. “Hey kid, what are you doing?”
    “Just wondering what it’s going to be like where they send me. When I was in Juvie nobody had anything good to say about these group home places.”
    Sam went over and sat down next to him on the bed. “I’m not going to let them take you away from me.”
    He rolled over on his back and looked at her. Sam had the same black hair and blue eyes as her father. Aaron looked just like his father with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes. His bruises were healing but the shadows of them remained. Nothing about the way either of them looked hinted that they had the same DNA running through their veins, but Sam felt it and she meant what she said. She was prepared to take him and run if that’s what they had to do. She wasn’t going to let anyone hurt him again, or separate them. They were all they had left now.
    “How are you going to manage that?” he asked her.
    “Don’t worry about it kid. Have you ever known me to fail when I really put my mind to something?”
    “A few times, yeah,” he said with a grin. Sam playfully smacked him on the shoulder.
    “Get some rest; you’ll have to drag your lazy butt out of bed early for that meeting in the morning.” Aaron didn’t argue with her. The past few weeks since their mother died he’d been really subdued. His usual smart mouth and sharp edges had been dulled by his grief. Sam left his room and went to her own. Taking out the card Luke left her with, she dialed the first number. That one went to an answering machine at the business on the card. It was a high performance parts store, the kind that Sam would practically kill to get parts from for the Mustang. She hung up and called the cell phone number listed. It was close to ten o’clock so when it also went to voicemail she wasn’t surprised. She felt a slight pain in her chest at the sound of his voice on the message but she waited for the tone and said,
    “Luke…this is your daughter, Samantha. I have a problem and I am calling to ask for your help…” She started with her mother’s death and ended with the meeting she and Aaron had in the morning. Then she put the phone away and lay awake in bed for the majority of the night. When she woke up in the morning she was disappointed but not necessarily surprised when he hadn’t returned her call. Sam was used to life not working out the way she wanted it to.
    “Miss Glass, did you hear the question?” The sound of the social worker’s voice pulled Sam out of her thoughts and back to the present. The middle-aged woman was looking at her over the top of a pair of turtle shell glasses. Her name was Miss Pruitt and she was nice enough, but Sam doubted she had any real idea about the world she and Aaron lived in.
    “No. I’m sorry.”
    “I asked how you expect to support yourself and your brother.”
    Sam took a deep breath and since Luke wasn’t going to help obviously, she went with her back-up plan.