Handcuffs, Kisses and Awkward Situations (PUBLISHED, SAMPLE)

Chapter [4]

Because this book is now published, content stops after chapter twenty. Please proceed with this information in mind.  

F o u r

            Eve used to hate tomato sauce... Well, that's until she got pregnant. Then she started drinking it like water. I watched in captivated disgust as she reached over, grabbed the bottle and squired it over her chicken salad. Once her salad was no longer green, she placed the bottle back down and picked up her fork.

            Patrick, Eve's boyfriend, looked down at her saucy bowl. "Babe, our baby is going to come out a tomato if you keep this up," he teased.

            Eve rolled her eyes and shoved a fork full of tomato covered lettuce into her mouth. Patrick was pretty cool. He was a part time music teacher at the local primary school and spent his weekends singing for old people at the nursing homes. He didn't make much money, but he was happy, and he made Eve happy too.

            As always, he started the topic at the dinner table. "So, why are you two handcuffed again? Is this some sort of high school partner-trusting exercise?"

            "No," Eve answered before I could. "Police department handcuffed them together for a demo during their career speech, then they lost the key."

            Patrick sighed. "That's going to stir up some paparazzi. Police never do that kind of thing." He gave us a sympathetic smile before taking on a new topic. "So, do you kids know what you want to do after graduation?"

            "I don't know," I answered truthfully, dropping half a cherry tomato into my mouth. "I want to travel, then go to university to study."

            Patrick grinned in approval. He had been all over the world after he finished high school, from the sandy deserts of Egypt to the snowy storms of Canada. "You have to go to Florida. It's beautiful."

            I did some kind of half nod, half shrug at him so I pretty much resembled a turtle trying to push back into its shell. Just as I was about to scoop an uncooked noodle into my mouth, Ryder decided to pick up the salt shaker from the centre of the table and sprinkle his salad. And since I was chained to his left hand, his jerking wrist made mine jolt too until I looked like I was having a seizure.

            My shaking hand flew bits of my dinner across the table. "Ryder!" I growled.

            I watched as a piece of baby spinach flung off the tip of my fork and landed on Eve's belly. She must have mistaken it for something else, because she started screaming like a madwoman. I rolled my eyes as she flapped her arms. Seriously. It was a bit of spinach. Did she think the vegetable leaf was going to attack her?

            "What the hell is that?" she squealed. "Patrick!"

            "Babe," her boyfriend soothed, picking up my dinner from her stomach. "It's a piece of spinach."

            "Oh." Eve stopped her flapping and reached over, eating the leaf right off his hand. "Why didn't you say so?"

            God, my sister is weird.

            Patrick coughed and wiped his hand on his work trousers before smiling at Ryder, continuing our conversation like Eve hadn't just eaten from his palm like a horse. "What about you, man? Any plans after graduation?"

            Ryder placed the salt back down. "I got offered a scholarship to Oxford."

            I nearly choked on a noodle. "What?"