Compromise Me (Book Two of the Kirkland Family)

Compromise Me: Chapter 29

"Oh...they stayed up all night watching movies."  She dug through her purse for some ChapStick, feeling Luke's and Lauren's stares on the back of her head.

Justin glanced back toward the house.  "Movies?"

"Yup."

"Movies?" Justin asked again.

"And you believed that?" Luke asked.

Hannah gazed into Justin's eyes.  "Josie said they stayed up all night watching movies and she's sorry she had a guest over without asking first."

Luke snorted...then grunted when Lauren jabbed him in the ribs.

Justin and Hannah stared at each other.  "What did he say?"

"He said good morning and yes ma'am."

"Movies?" Justin clarified.

"Yes...movies," Hannah repeated, seeing the trust blooming in Justin's eyes.  He'd never been blinded by Josie's ways -- though there were times he wished he could be -- so he always knew when and why to rely on his daughter’s words.  This was one of those times.

"Okay," Justin said with an exhale.  He started the truck and pulled away from the curb.  No one mentioned it again, but Hannah felt Lauren’s and Luke's dubious expressions.

They didn't understand.

Josie had been well schooled in deception, dishonesty and duplicity since she'd been a little girl, all thanks to her biological mother and Justin's first wife.  And that was every reason Josie needed to not be that way.  She said they watched movies...they watched movies, dadgummit.

*****

Josie went back upstairs to find Travis attempting to arrange pillows on her bed and spread out her blanket.  It was crooked, and she noticed that his hands were shaking.  “You okay there?” she asked him.

“I’m fine,” he said, tugging on the corner of the blanket, but all he managed to do was pull the pillows off the bed again and wrinkle the sheets.  “I hate making beds.”

He picked up the two pillows on the floor, tossed them back to the headboard.  One rolled over and fell off the other side.  Travis made a fist and stomped around to get it.

Josie saw a lot of tension in his face.  She crawled over the expanse of the mattress and looked right into his eyes.  “Travis...it’s fine.”

“How do you like your pillows?  Stacked or sitting up, or--”

“Travis...it’s fine,” she repeated and took the pillow away from him.  “It’s just a bed.”