A loud knock on the door woke Evelyn from her sleep, she groaned and grabbed her phone checking it for the time. It was still too early for her especially after spending all day and night on the road. With a groan she rolled back over burying her face into the pillow but the knocking didn’t stop. It was only a light rapping at first but then became a real knock with her name being called out. She realized it was Riley’s voice and also realized that she told him last night that he could cook her breakfast instead of a late night dinner. She had no clue that he would take her up on that this early in the morning.
“Riley it’s too early for breakfast, go away.” She cried out, her voice slightly muffled from the pillow.
“Evelyn this isn’t about breakfast honestly you are going to want to get up and come out to the living room.”
“And this is how it starts.” Evelyn mumbled to herself. “Fine! Give me a moment and I’ll meet you in the living room.” Evelyn rolled out of bed eyes still blurry she stretched hearing a few vertebrae pop before grabbing a clean t-shirt out of her bag and putting on a par of baggy boxers. Evelyn planed on heading right back to bed after whatever it was that Riley wanted to show her was over. She walked into the living room and almost tripped over a suitcase, she had a split second to think that it was her own that mysteriously got brought in, but shape and color of it told her differently.
“I told Riley to not wake you up.” Cecile walked up behind her daughter and kissed her on her head.
“Well I’m awake. What’s going on mom?” Evelyn arched an eyebrow questioningly.
“Well now that you are here Bill and I can go on our honeymoon.”
“Oh that’s nice.” Evelyn said sleepily rubbing her eyes, finally what was said kicked in. “Wait…what?”
“Well we haven’t been able to honeymoon yet and neither of us wanted to leave Riley alone.”
“I came down to visit, with you mom.” Evelyn tried to stress her point.
“Don’t worry there will be plenty of time for that but in the mean time you get to know your stepbrother better, wont that be fun?”
“Oh yeah thrilling.” Evelyn couldn’t keep the dryness out of her voice. “Well I mean I guess it’s okay, you’ll only be gone for a few days and we can catch up when you get back.” Cecile hugged her daughter again.
“Well sweetie we are going to be spending a week at the hot springs so it will be a little more than just a few days.”
“I’m only here for a week mother!”
“Do not use that tone of voice with me young lady. This is the only time I get to have a honeymoon with my husband and you are not going to ruin it. Bill is in the car waiting for me I’ve got to go.” Cecile picked up her suit case and gave her daughter one last kiss. “I’ll call you when we get to the hotel.” With that she was out the door leaving Evelyn there to feel confused and abandoned. Evelyn walked over to the couch and just sank down onto the cushions hunched over.
“If it makes you feel any better they conned someone into babysitting me and I’m 19.” Riley sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.
“God I know I shouldn’t even be surprised this is a typical Cecile move but still, god damn it.” Evelyn curled herself against Riley and hid her face against his chest and tried her hardest to keep from crying.
“On the bright side you do have a week vacation, you can stay here and relax, or you can leave and do whatever the hell you want to.” Riley was not sure what to do with an emotional woman but he kept his arm around her tightly, leaning forward he kissed the top of her head and breathed in her sent.
“I think I’ll stay here and just veg for a week, don’t worry I’m not going to be your babysitter.” Evelyn sat up and wiped her eyes a little embarrassed.
“Aww darn and here I thought you were going to cook for me and tuck me in at bed time.”
“Oh great I have a perv for a stepbrother.” Evelyn playfully punched his shoulder but was in a much better mood.
“What I speak on behalf of every guy out there when I say that at least once the babysitter fantasy crossed through their mind, and or they really did have a crush on their babysitter when they were young.”
“That would probably explain a lot of things.” Evelyn shook her head and stood up. “But seriously I’m not your keeper and technically in my eyes I am just a guest in this house, you live here, I’m just couch surfing.”
“This is your mother’s house, you have more of a right to it then I do.” Riley got up and went to her.
“You live here I don’t end of story.”
“Fine then since you are the guest I guess I better go make you some breakfast and play the gracious host.”
“As tempting as that sounds I have way to little sleep under my belt right now, I’m going back to bed if its all the same.”
“How was the guest room?”
“Well once you get over all the horse stuff the bed itself sucks balls. I didn’t think it was possible to make a bed smaller then a twin but I’d swear that bed is.”
“I’m one of those pesky morning people you probably heard so much about. Anyways I’m up for the day and will probably be running errands and whatnot, what I am trying to say is you are more than welcomed to take my bed if you need to get a bit more sleep.”
“Pretty brave letting a stranger have free range of your private chamber.”
“There’s not much harm you can do and if you get really bored I keep my good porn on the top shelf of my closet, back behind a box of old clothes. It’s a king size bed, and its clean.” It was like Riley was dangling a carrot in front of a bunny, Evelyn just couldn’t see herself going back to the most uncomfortable bed she had ever come across.
“Well if you insist, I wouldn’t want to be rude or anything.”
“Yes I do insist. Oh and there is a spare set of house keys in the kitchen in case you want to go anywhere.”
“I’ll try to remember to leave a note if I do.” Evelyn smiled and lightly patted Riley on the cheek. Riley glared at her for a split second then his light brown eyes softened. He followed her to his room to make sure she had everything she needed and to grab a change of clothing. Evelyn crawled into the bed and let out a joyful sigh. The sheets were crisp and the bed soft. She snuggled in pulling up the sheet and catching a faint masculine sent, comforting and subtly seductive at the same time. She heard Riley chuckle and her eyes snapped open, her cheeks slightly blushing.
“Sorry was just grabbing some clothes and just had an odd thought.”
“And that thought would be?” Evelyn’s voice took on a stern note, she couldn’t help but hold onto the suspicion that he was laughing at her.
“Just thinking how you are the first girl to ever be in my bed.” For almost a full minute Evelyn couldn’t say anything, she was focused on keeping her cheeks from turning any redder.
“You know if there is some rule that you can’t have girls over or something you have a whole week rule free. I mean if you want to bring your girlfriend here and have her stay the night just give me the heads up and I will make sure to stay out of the way.” Evelyn remembered just how hard it was to live at home, the lack of freedom, how much she just couldn’t wait to leave. In a way the reason why she first started to date older men when she was a teenager was just to be able to have a place to stay for a few nights away from home as twisted as it sounded. She wasn’t going to put those kind of restrictions on Riley, even though she couldn’t help but see him as just a kid she knew he was an adult and should be allowed a safe place to explore his relationships.
“No, don’t worry there won’t be any ties tied to my door knob, I’m free and single.” Riley shoot her a cheeky grin and winked before leaving the room and closing the door behind him leaving Evelyn to feel confused. Right before sleep overtook her she had a terrible thought that Riley might have been flirting with her, but soon that thought faded into fuzziness as her mind and body gave over to sleep.