Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
He loved his parents more than anything except their fuddy, duddy ways. Emmett and Leona weren't even that old, especially when compared to some of Kiel's friends’ parents. It was like they flipped a switch after the twins started their junior year of high school. Over the past handful of months, his parent’s habits have gotten progressively worse, like Emmett going to bed at seven thirty or his mom switching her reading habits from her favorite romance novels to non-fiction and taking the author's word as gospel. If Kiel had to hear, “well so and so said,” all summer long he was going to buy earplugs.
He wouldn't, though. If he had learned anything from his four-year stint away from home—he had amazing parents. Kiel had listened to one too many stories from his friends at school about how their parents didn’t care. He saw the hurt in his friends’ expressions when they didn’t get care packages or when Kiel would fly home for the holidays. Last year, Kiel rented a car, which cost him dearly because he wasn’t twenty-five, and took three friends home with him for Thanksgiving. His parents treated them all like family, and the guys didn’t want to return to school. At Christmas, Leona had sent those boys care packages, and gave each of them a gift at graduation.
As much as he didn’t care to hear how an actor overcame some obstacle while earning millions, Kiel missed his mom telling him about the romantic things her favorite characters did and how he should do them for his dates. He was a mama’s boy. Proud of it and never afraid to admit it.
Kiel opened his eyes and studied the back of his mom’s head. She talked animatedly. Her head and hands were always moving, even if the story didn’t call for dramatic storytelling. A couple of years ago, her sister had died, and Kiel tried to imagine life without his mom, the way his cousins lived now. He couldn’t. Kiel wanted his children—when he had them—to grow up with his parents. Emmett and Leona would make amazing grandparents.
His thoughts drifted back to weeks ago, when he returned from school. He finished his degree, graduated, and had a pile of acceptance letters for grad school. Kiel had gone back and forth between the medical field and business, and though he settled on working in hospital administration, he also liked the thought of owning his own business. What that business was, he didn’t know. Undergrad was supposed to prepare him for his future, at least all the brochures for college had said this. He was as conflicted today on his future as he was at the beginning of the year and in May when he graduated. The only thing he knew was he needed a job, something to bring money in because depending on his parents wasn’t an option.
All thoughts of finding a job went out the window the day after the twins got out of school. When he saw his parents join hands, he prepared himself for bad news. He recalled looking between them, trying to figure out which one had some incurable illness.
“We’re going on vacation,” Emmett had said proudly to a stunned Kiel. The twins didn’t seem to care until their father said it would be all summer long. Then there was drama. Skyla had plans with her friends to do this or that while Ciara wanted to volunteer at summer camp. Kiel brought up work and then grad school which, according to his mom, he could figure out while his toes were in the sand and his hand held a fruity cocktail with an umbrella. Of course, when she said that, Skyla instantly perked up and thought they were going to some tropical resort for the summer. No such luck. New England it was. Kiel didn’t have the heart to tell his mom most public beaches didn’t allow drinking.
He turned his focus to the road, already bored with the trip. According to his watch, they still had two hours before they’d be to their beach rental. Next to him, Skyla told some ridiculous story about how her and Ciara fooled two of their teachers this year. It was a tried-and-true trick that most identical twins did, especially on any unsuspecting person. The twins had tried to pull pranks on him in the past, but he could always tell. The girls kept their pin straight blonde hair the same length all their lives, making it near impossible to tell them apart when they aren’t together, but Skyla had a small freckle at the end of her left eyebrow. You had to get exceptionally close to her face to notice. Which, of course, her family knew about.
Ciara, who was older than Skyla by five minutes, was quiet and enjoyed being low key. While Skyla was the life of the party. Kiel fell somewhere in the middle. If he wanted to sit at home and watch a movie, Ciara was his partner. If he needed to hit the mall or a party—not that he’d ever admit to having his sister on campus—Skyla was the one he’d call.