Right Brother Read Online Free PDF

disappeared.
    He ignored her declaration. “How long have you lived here, Ashley?”
    â€œAwhile.”
    â€œDid your father live here with you?”
    â€œWhat do you care?”
    â€œDoes your father ever visit?”
    â€œNone of your business!”
    â€œAre you and your mom getting help—financial help—from your father?”
    Her eyes narrowed to daggers, red pulsed in her cheeks. “I know about you,” she said. “You used to be a football player. But you quit. Dad told me about you.”
    â€œDid he?”
    â€œYes. I know how mean you were to him. And Grams and Gramps.”
    â€œReally. When did he tell you all this?”
    She flinched. But she didn’t bend. “Lots of times.”
    â€œI only retired after last season. January. Have you heard from him since then?”
    â€œNone of your business.”
    And that was a no.
    â€œWhen I left your grandparents’ house this morning,” he said slowly, watching it sink in that he was calling her bluff on including Grams and Gramps in her list of people he’d wronged, “they said to tell you they send their love.”
    She didn’t back down. Not one iota. Instead, she launched a full-fledged bad-attitude sneer.
    But it didn’t last, as she did another of those lightning changes, startled like a deer and scooted up the remaining stairs. She elbowed him out of her way on the landing, and he stepped down to protect his balance.
    The exterior door opened again and he saw Jennifer coming in, head lowered, a plastic grocery bag dragging down one arm.
    In the half second it took him to absorb that sight, Ashley had the green door unlocked and open. But instead of slamming it on him, she spun around, holding its edge, looking as if she’d been standing in the doorway all the time.
    Jennifer had trudged up one step when he spoke.
    â€œHello, Jennifer.”
    Dismay swept over her initial surprise. Then she saw Ashley in the doorway beyond him, and her pace picked up.
    â€œAshley, you shouldn’t have buzzed him in.” She stoppedon the stair below him. She would have to be even more single-minded than her daughter to get past, considering there would be two adult bodies involved. “You know the rules about strangers.”
    â€œHe says he’s my uncle,” the girl said belligerently. She cut him a look, as if daring him to tell her mother she hadn’t buzzed him in, because she hadn’t been here and the door had been unlocked.
    â€œYou didn’t know…” Jennifer’s husky voice trailed off, and he saw her decide not to conduct this argument in front of him. “Why are you here?”
    â€œI came to see you.”
    The parade of reactions to that statement was about as subtle as a brass band and a troop of men on little cycles wearing fezzes, although less suited to a festive occasion. She didn’t want to see him. Maybe because she wore the same ratty clothes as before, and was even dirtier. Not a chance in hell she’d listened to him about not cleaning more.
    She particularly didn’t want to see him here, he realized when she darted a look toward the cramped living area he could see past Ashley.
    Then he noticed another layer of didn’t want : she didn’t want him to have met Ashley, judging by the protective frown tucked between her brows.
    Then, atop those layers, another appeared. Speculation, along with a dash of hope and a heaping helping of determination.
    â€œYou came to get the projections so you can study them overnight.”
    â€œYeah,” he lied, because what did it hurt?
    His peripheral vision caught Ashley rolling her eyes.
    She could tell Jennifer that he’d been asking questions that had nothing to do with business projections or the dealership. But he could tell Jennifer that Ashley’s pose at the door wasa lie, that she’d arrived not long ago herself and that the outside door had been