Recipe For Seduction (A Madewood Brothers Novel) (Entangled Brazen) Read Online Free PDF

been long gone. So Veronica had tried to be everything to them that their mother wasn’t. But she hadn’t realized how heavy the responsibility of being a good mother had weighed on her—not until the reality of them moving out had hit her square in the jaw
    She returned her attention to the present. The look on Cal’s face sent a warning tingle down her spine. Something wasn’t right. The fluttery feeling in her stomach grew heavy, like an anchor sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
    “About that.” Cal peered at Ali and she nodded, urging him on. “I don’t think I want to go away to school.”
    Veronica grabbed the edge of the counter to keep herself from falling over. “Say what?”
    “I sent in a deferral notice.” He straightened and his expression grew stern, as if he were trying to exert some kind of dominance. “I’m not going to school.”
    “Cal. You worked so hard to get in,” Mark said. He set down his mug and reached across the table, but Cal pulled away. The hurt in Mark’s eyes was evident at the teenager’s blatant rejection. Mark shrank back in his seat and didn’t push.
    Their relationship had been strained ever since Mark left to take a job out west. Not that they’d ever talked about it—and the strain between them had grown into an elephant in the room.
    In her mind she knew Mark’s move had been in everyone’s best interest. An opportunity he couldn’t pass up—not to mention the fact that the high salary was what was paying for their two younger siblings to go to the university of their choice. And while Veronica had sometimes been overwhelmed by raising her siblings all on her own, she knew in her heart the difficult decision not to go with him but to stay behind had been the right one. The thought of uprooting Cal and Ali from school, from their friends and sports teams, and from the normal life she and Mark had tried so hard to give them, just hadn’t been an option.
    But Mark was right. Cal had worked twice as hard as Ali. Failing a year had put him behind, but he’d made them proud when he finally graduated.
    Cal let his spoon fall into his bowl with a clang . “I just don’t feel right going. It’s not what I want.”
    Veronica’s hand tightened around her mug. Not what he wanted?
    “You’re going,” she ground out. There was no question. Yes, her immediate plans included being more than a mother—she wanted to start being more social, and increase her wedding planner business, too. But there was also the matter of Cal’s future. No way was she letting him ruin his whole future on a whim. Not after he’d worked so hard to get this far.
    “V,” Mark said. “We shouldn’t push.”
    “He’s going.” She zeroed in on Cal. “We had a plan. A good one.” For everyone . She pointed her finger at him. “We’re sticking to it.”
    Cal’s eyes widened. “But I changed my mind. I don’t want to go to university.”
    “What are you going to do instead?” Mark asked.
    She ground her jaw. Like he had a choice in the matter. He was not an adult. Not yet. She and Mark still had the final say in this.
    Cal crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    Ali gathered her plate and cup and headed to the sink. There . Right there. Ali was the perfect child. Veronica wanted to give her the biggest hug right now. Instead, she took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
    “So, you’re just planning to stay at home and do nothing?” She pulled out the carafe and poured herself more coffee. Shaking her head, she said firmly, “That’s unacceptable.”
    “Isn’t it better I don’t go off and waste all your money paying for something I won’t even finish?”
    He had a point. She shoved the carafe back into the unit. A rational, logical point. But what would that do to her dreams and plans? She needed to get a life, damn it.
    “University’s a waste of time. It’s stupid. It’s for nerds like Ali.”
    His sister whirled around from the sink.