Sexy Stepbrothers (3 page)

I crossed my arms and faked a smile. I wanted to rip him apart because of his remarks, but I managed to swallow my anger. “I’m not sure I know anything about that.”

“C’mon now, darlin’,” he said and took a step closer to me, “where is he?”

I tried to play dumb and drawled my accent. “Like I said before, he took a few of them big jugs, you know them kinds that you have to carry with both of your hands? And, and and… And he took off in that direction like he had ants up his butt,” I pointed the way we had come from instead of where he’d actually went.

The office brushed his mustache and looked in the direction where I pointed. “How long ago was this?”

I wiped off the sweat from my forehead. “Gee. I’m not quite sure officer. It’s been a hot day sitting out here in the heat. Is Jeffrey in some kind of trouble? Jeffrey wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

He adjusted the radio on his vest, pointed at our license plate and said, “The owner of this car, is not a Jeffrey, but Austin Masters. I’d like to see your id, miss.” He opened his hand, waiting for me to give it to him.

“My id?” I shrugged. “Like my Catholic Girls’ Choir picture id?”

“No. I want a driver’s license.”

“My Mama don’t let me drive ‘cuz they say I’m too clumsy and I’d just wreck my Mama’s car even if she tried to teach me. I do have my choir id with me. I never leave the house without my choir id. Can I give you that?”

He shook his head. “What’s your name, darlin’?”

I looked around. “Me? Mama calls me June, because she says I remind her of June bugs. The way they fly free without a care in the world.” I showed the way the bugs fly with my arms and I giggled.

“No, what is your birth name?”

“Birth name? What does that mean?”

“What. Does. It. Say. On. Your. Birth. Certificate?”

I clapped my hands together in joy. “It says Jeffrey. It’s written in red right on top of mine. Mama keeps it right underneath the rifles in a frame. Well, it used to be in a frame, until Jeffrey did what he did. That was a funny day because he—”

The officer leaned down so close to me our noses almost touched. “What. Is. Your. Name?”

“— told me to bring lipstick for him. But I didn’t know what for… Well, Mama calls me June and Papa calls me Sweet Pea, but I call myself Squirt. Because I like to shoot water pistols with the boys.” I made squirt noises with my mouth while pretending my hands were water pistols.

I could see he got more frustrated the longer the conversation continued. “Fine! Show me that choir id.”

“I’d
love
to show it to you,” I started going through my pockets, as if I expected to find it somewhere. I turned my pockets inside out and each time I was disappointed when it wasn’t there. While searching my pockets, I accidentally brushed against my tits with my arm and noticed the expression on the officer’s face change: he frowned each time I touched my tits with my arms.

Ah, so that’s how I got him to go away.

“I know it has to be on me,” I said, “I always hide things in my clothes next to my skin.” I stopped and pointed a finger up at the sky. “I know it. It has to be in one of my private places.” I was about to place my hand underneath my bra when I heard him speak.

“No. No. Don’t do that. Did you say he went that way?” he said, pointing the way we had driven. Drips of sweat dropped from his forehead down his chin and he wiped them off.

“Yes. He walked with ants up his butt!” I chuckled.

He walked back to the patrol car and sped away in the wrong direction.

Not bad for a little sister.

***

I woke up to the sound of knocking and opened my eyes to see someone blocking the sun. My legs hung outside the car window in the summer breeze and I wiggled my toes to bring some life back into my feet. “I’m not home. Come back another time.” I put my head back on the seat and closed my eyes. The warm car seat invited me back to my dreams I had had about meeting the man I’d been talking to for months online.

A sudden flood of cold water hit my toes and I jumped up. “You want us to get moving now, dear sister?” Austin said. He grinned and his white smile shone next to his dirty, sand covered face.

“You could have washed your face at least,” I said. “You look like a dirty cowboy.”

“I like that. Yes. Could you call me dirty cowboy from now on?” he said, splashing the water on his naked torso, causing the water to glimmer on his toned body in the bright sunshine.

“In case you are interested, a cop came looking for you,” I looked at my phone, “an hour ago.”

He stopped splashing the water. “What did he want?”

“He was looking for your sorry ass because of what happened at that gas station.”

He seemed surprised. “But what happened there was nothing. We barely made contact and it was mostly him who tried to land punches on me. I did get a nice liver shot on him, though,” he chuckled, like he was proud of that.

“He didn’t seem to think so.” I adjusted my position on the back seat before and closed my eyes. “Anyway, I sent him back towards Bishop.”

I heard him stop pouring water on himself. “But that’s nowhere near where I was going.”

“Ding! Ding! Ding! You want a prize or something?” I tried to find a more comfortable position on the seat, but I’d lost the perfect setup I had previously. The one where you get warm enough, but not too warm, and your face still gets a cool breeze. And I’d lost it because of him.

“But how? How did you manage to do that? The sister I knew would have shook like a leaf every time she lied. Everyone knew that you were a terrible liar.”

“I don’t know how to explain that…It’s like I’m not the same person as before? You know? Like I’ve grown? Weird stuff.” I sighed, hoping my sarcasm went through to his pretty head.

“So, uhm. What did you say to him?”

It seemed like his sister growing up hadn’t occurred to him and I got his full attention now. “I pretended to be a simple farm girl.”

“Like how?”

I told him the highlights of the conversation I had had with the officer, but I left out the part of what had made the officer fluster.

“That’s my sister! Looking out for his brother,” Austin said, and playfully slapped my bare feet.

“Ouch!” I said, rubbing my feet together. “I’m not one of your buddies you can be so rough on. Besides, I have new red nail polish on my toes. You can’t mess with that or the fight we had previously will look like a cakewalk.”

“Whatever you say, sis. I’ll fill us up with the water and we can go.”

I tried to close my eyes, but I couldn’t stop staring at his muscles, which glimmered in the sunshine as he poured the water. He acted like an idiot sometimes, but sometimes he was all right, too. And in rare occasions, like now, he was almost bearable.

I closed my eyes and fantasized about what my Internet crush had sent me in his package. Would it be something nice, like a cute stuffed animal, or something naughty and racy? Or would I just have to think about
his package
…I hadn’t seen the man’s face, but he seemed to have taken more room in my heart than I thought possible. However, he hadn’t seen mine either and I knew I had to be ready for a major disappointment either way. Although, it would be more likely that he would be the one disappointed, rather than me.

Austin jumped to the driver’s seat and started the car. “Next destination: out of this small town!” He turned up the volume on the radio and accelerated the car so fast I rolled against the back seat. My face pushed on the hot metal of the seat belt, leaving a nice red spot on my rosy cheek.

“Could you slow down?” I yelled over the blaring music.

He saw me struggling in the rear view mirror and laughed. “Bit too much, sis?”

The car wheels squealed on a curve and I found myself almost busting out of my dress. I covered myself the best I could with my hands. “Stop it, Austin!”

He laughed and pounded the steering wheel in the rhythm of the rock ‘n’ roll music. “…highway to hell,” he sang.

“C-c—”I tried to speak up, but we hit a sharp turn and I tumbled again in the back seat. The car stopped rolling for a brief second and I caught my breath. “Could you not?”

“Fine. Fine.” Our eyes met in the rear view mirror. “I see you have a problem with your wardrobe,” he laughed. “Curves can be dangerous, you know that?” It was as if he winked at me, but that had to have been my imagination and didn’t think of it much more.

I fixed my bra to its proper place. “You are an ass…” But when I knew he didn’t look at me anymore, I smiled. “Can I gather from your success that you didn’t have to fight for the water?”

“I met a nice man, yes. He insisted on giving us the water for free and we got to speaking about what had happened. He said that apparently that old perv is the AA around here and had a habit of harassing lone female drivers in peril.”

“No shit?”

“And the best part, the sheriff, the gas station owner and the perv are brothers. Can you believe that?”

“That mother fucker…,” I said, shaking my head.

“What?”

I held my head in my hands. “I just knew something was off about him. The way he questioned me.”

“But you did good. He went the other way and we got what we needed to get out of that place. I have to say, I wouldn’t have guessed my sister would be my wing man,” he smirked.

“Just don’t make a habit of it…”

“How bad was the cop then?”

“Let’s just say that at least the perv brother’s genes weren’t in him.”

“What?”

“Well, I didn’t actually make him leave just by talking to him… I made him fluster by pretending I was going to search my id in my bra.”

Austin laughed so hard he almost went off road. “You did that? Damn. I feel like you are not the same person I knew back in the day.”

That’s because I’m not.
You used to make me stammer and just stare ate you like an idiot. Now I could at least have thought or two around you without drooling all over my boobs. “I guess…”

***

“— and we wouldn’t have to keep figuring out where we using a map are if you’d have a modern car,” I said.

“I thought we went through this earlier today? I’ll just refer you to the answer I gave you back then.” Austin studied the map under the dome light until he found what had been looking for and tapped the spot with his finger. “We are still somewhere around two hundred miles away from the wedding ranch, but I’m exhausted. I think we should call it a night and book a motel. But the hunger is killing me.” He rubbed his stomach.” I need some meat in me.”

You need some
meat
in you? I chuckled. I’m the one in need.

I stretched my legs and massaged my neck. No matter how much I tried supporting my tits, sometimes I felt they should be cut off because for all the pain they cause to the rest of my body. “Fine. There seems to be a motel down the road. If it doesn’t look like a lice infested nest, let’s go there after a quick stop at the small store right there?” I pointed at a corner store. “I’m too tired to look further.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Austin said and started the car.

We arrived at the little corner store and a small ringing bell greeted us as we opened the door.

“You could have put on a shirt already, you know?”

“But I’m too hot,” Austin said.

Not according to your nipples you aren’t. “Whatever,” I said.

A middle aged woman stood behind the counter reading a magazine, but she didn’t bother to make eye contact.

Hello to you, too.

Austin grabbed me by the shoulder and my heart skipped a beat. “I’ll go find some snacks. Can you get me something to drink?”

“I’m sure they have some green tea for your healthy lifestyle,” I said.

“Very funny.”

I walked to the other end of the store to see what they had. If I was lucky, perhaps there would be something with green tea in it. I looked at the pops lined up in the fridge. Well, not much to choose from. Perhaps a Diet Coke? I was about to open the fridge when I heard two people talking behind me.

“…and just look at him. He’s not from around here, is he?” a woman said.

“With those abs and arms, there’s no way he’s local,” another one answered.

“And tattoos? Can I drop my panties right here and ask him to ravage me against the wall?” she giggled.

“Why do you get to have him? I saw him first… But what about that woman who he came in with?”

“Please. She looked nothing like the type a man with that body and face would go for.”

“Are you sure? I’m not one to go for another woman’s man…”

“You can let me have him then. I’m sure she’d like me better anyway.”

“No! But you better not mess up my chances with him, Andrea.”

Wasn’t this a curious conversation in a small town grocery store. I wouldn’t mind some eye candy right now to take my mind off Austin.

I turned around just enough to stay unnoticed and to catch a glimpse of who they were looking at. At first, I only saw a tanned, muscular arm of a man peaking behind a shelf.