Getting over your first crush seems impossible - especially when he's the star of the world's biggest movie franchise.
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Jess Wheeler is happily single and perfectly content with her simple life in Hemlock Landing, South Carolina, where all she kn...
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"You're supposed to be cleaning, remember?" I swat the newspaper out of my sister's hands with a feather duster and she sticks her tongue out at me.
"I am cleaning. See?" She points at a nearby broom as if that's irrefutable proof that she hasn't been uselessly curled up at the breakfast nook for half an hour, her nose buried deep in the Sunday paper instead of helping me straighten up the kitchen. I cross my arms over my chest and arch an eyebrow.
"Oh, okay. You've totally convinced me, now. It doesn't at all look like you've been shirking your duties while I've been busting my butt for three hours." Just then, a droplet of sweat drips off of my nose: which is totally gross, but it helps to prove my point. I glance out of the small window that's above the kitchen sink and frown; it's already dark outside. I should be home by now, waiting for Teresa's Uber to pull up like an excited child on Christmas morning. Instead, I'm stuck babysitting my kid sister (half-sister, technically, but that doesn't make much of a difference on the annoying sibling meter.)
"I don't know why we have to deep clean everything, anyway," Kayley groans, rolling her eyes in an impressive display of teen angst. "It's not even like it's my B&B."
"No, but it's Mom's. Therefore, it's up to us to help her." I lean against the wall and sigh, crossing my arms tighter. "And she wants it spotless, so that's how we'll make it."
I neglect to tell Kayley that secretly, I've also been wondering the same thing. Why does my mother suddenly want to make sure that the B&B is super clean for tonight? We don't even have any rooms booked, as far as I know, but it's not up to me to question her decisions as a business owner. Either way, I'm just sick of having to be the responsible one, of always having to watch out for Kayley as if she isn't thirteen and totally capable of making her own, mature decisions. At her age, I'd already started helping Mom balance the books.
I begin to tell her just as much and she groans for a second time, dramatically dragging herself to her feet and draping over the broom as if it's the only thing keeping her standing. "Life is so unfair. First, I'm stuck doing chores on the weekend, and now you're giving me the 'back in my day' speech. Shouldn't you be jumping and squealing and talking about lame millennial things with Teresa right now?"
I purse my lips but swallow the sarcastic retort that builds in my throat. I'm far too excited to see my friend tonight for the first time in two years to let Kayley ruin my mood.
Teresa was my undisputed BFF ever since fifth grade, when we were fatefully paired up as reading partners in Mr. Johnson's class, and in the years since our bond only grew stronger and stronger. We were there for each other through every breakup, every academic competition, every confrontation with a bully, every school dance...Until graduation rolled around and, like everybody else in Hemlock Landing, she whizzed off to an out-of-state college to pursue her dream of being a doctor while I stayed behind to help my Mom run the very cute and very creaky Magnolia Place Southern Bed & Breakfast.
