From Secret Desire for My Stepbrother to Reality novel · Chapter 32 of 32
Chapter 32: Reality
We made the five thirty boat with a minute to spare.
My mother was on the sidewalk in front of the shop at six fifteen, in her bathrobe, with her arms folded.
She looked at Jem.
She looked at me.
"Inside," she said to me. "Shower. Now."
Then she pointed at Jem.
"You. Your father's. Don't come back till eleven."
"Yes, Pam."
He kissed me on the sidewalk in front of her anyway.
She let him.
Then she swatted him with a tablecloth.
By ten thirty, the shop didn't look like a shop.
The apprentice and her girlfriend had hung white lights from the pegboard.
The folding chairs ran in rows from the front window to the workshop door, borrowed from three churches and the bakery.
At the front, where the counter used to stand, Jem had built an arch out of two old doors from the basement.
A paneled one, and a glass one.
He'd hinged them together at the top so they leaned into each other.
The old key-cutter had wired the whole thing with keys.
Hundreds of them, blanks and old cuts, hanging on fishing line, turning in the light from the window.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–16 of From Secret Desire for My Stepbrother to Reality are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend