Overcome Read Online Free PDF Page B

hurt and he sniffed, trying not to let his mom see him cry.
    "Quit being a baby, Parker. Do I need to go get you one of Maggie's binky's?" She slurred as she looked at Bree. "Let me see."
    Bree sniffed and her whole body shook as she patted her elbow.
    "That's it? When are you two going to grow up?" His mom's voice was tired and grumpy and she sat Bree back on the ground.
    Parker would have cried, too, if he were Bree. On her elbow she had a red bump.
    "You two need to play quietly," she spoke as she placed a cigarette in her mouth and lit it.   "I don't know what I did to deserve this." She staggered back in the house.
    Bree curled her legs up against her and lean on the tree. She buried her face in her knees.
    Parker scooted to her as she sobbed.
    "I want my daddy." Bree cried.
    Parker wanted Bree's daddy too. He didn't have a daddy. But Bree's daddy helped things get better.
    "It's okay Bwee." Parker patted her on her back, remembering that was how her daddy made her happy.
     
     
    *****
     
    “So that’s it?” Parker froze when he heard the voice behind him.  His shoulders stiffened. Just five minutes sooner and he would have been gone before she could catch him. He’d hoped he’d successfully avoided her all weekend as he slipped in and out of the hotel. He turned from the Jeep.
    Spencer whistled a slow whistle behind his reflective shades, a Styrofoam coffee cup in his hand. The morning had already been a challenge, with getting Spencer’s hung over butt out of bed.
    Carly’s hands were shoved in the pockets of her super short shorts. Her hair was like a curly fountain on the top of her head.
    “I’m here for your twin, Casanova.” Her lips remained flat when she replied to Spencer’s whistle. She glared at Parker.
    “Daaaannngg.” Spencer let out a low drawl when he climbed into the front seat.
    She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re just going to go.”
    “It’s none of your business, Snarly,” he looked back at the Jeep where Spencer awaited him, now alert and giving him thumbs up.
    “She has a baby, you know.”
    “What?” Parker whipped his head back toward Carly.
    “Bree, she just had a baby. You’re an uncle.”
    Despite the pang in his gut, Parker held his poker face. “Well, I hope things work out for her.”
    “She’s sixteen with a baby. She needs all the support she can get right now.”
    “What about, say,” he shrugged and tipped his head to the side, “the baby’s father?”
    “He’s around.” Carly’s smoky eyes were narrow. “I know she’d want to see you.”
    “Well there’s a lot of people in the world that want a lot of things.” He turned away from her and lifted the hatch on his Jeep, hoping she would take the hint.
    “Nobody gets away with hurting Bree.” She was in his face pointing her square, purple finger nail at him when he turned from tossing his bag into the back.
    Parker leaned back like he was playing a game of limbo. “Nobody’s hurting her. She doesn’t know I’m here and she never will.”
    Carly’s lips pursed and her hands moved around like a fish. “I can’t even believe this. Bree’s awesome, why wouldn’t …”
    “I have my reasons, Snarly.” He grabbed her wrist that she was swinging wildly in his face. A light fruity smell wafted from her.
    When Carly wretched her hand from him, her little body bounced, “You’re reasons are stupid.”
    He didn’t know what came over him, but something about her firecracker attitude made him crack a smile—which rewarded him with another one of those scowls.
    “You’re such a … a … a …”
    “A stud?” he finished for her, with the crooked grin he tried to press back. 
    Instead of responding, she growled. And it matched her snarl before she stomped away. Her fountain-ponytail bouncing as she went.
    Spencer whistled slowly again. “Your twin, ha, I don’t look anything like your fugly butt,” Spencer said as Parker climbed in the Jeep. 
    When he pulled out of the