Let me in, baby.

“Time to wake up.”

I groan and nuzzle my face further into my pillow. Confident that my stepdad’s talking to my mom, I ignore the sound of his voice in the hall.

Summer has begun. High school is over. College is waiting there at the end of this summer like something that is sweet at first but has a bitter aftertaste.

College will be freedom. It will be Independence. But it will also leave me with debt. Huge debt.

My dad’s got so much debt of his own that asking him for anything is laughable. He probably owes Mom enough back child support to pay for my entire college education twice.

Mom refuses to ask my stepdad, Matt, to help. I don’t blame her. My stepdad’s probably the hottest man I’ve ever seen in real life.

He’s one of those guys who played baseball all through high school and college, you know the type. He’s the kind of guy who loves to work out and looks as good now as he did when he was a college athlete.

On top of all that, he makes a lot of money with his real estate investment business. But he’s also a bit of a tightwad. At least, that’s what Mom keeps saying.

Every time I hear them argue, it’s always about money. Matt keeps putting restrictions on Mom’s spending. He keeps lowering the limit on her credit cards because she keeps maxing them out.

The problem is, the more he restricts Mom’s spending, the more I have to work.

When they first got together, part of that spending was things Mom was buying for me. Now, she refuses to buy me anything because she could spend to her limit in a few days, but she has to make it last all month.

I’m lucky Mom bought me some great clothes and a top-of-the-line laptop before Matt reeled her in. That got me through to graduation, but when it comes to college, I’m on my own.

I sigh and try to settle back into sleep. I worked a private party at the restaurant where I work last night. This private party rented out the whole high-end restaurant.

And because they kept buying more alcohol, the owner kept letting them stay. I’m rewarding myself by sleeping in, and I’m not going to let an argument between my parents ruin that.

I’m just about to drop back to sleep when I hear the snick of metal on metal, the springy sound that lets me know someone just opened my bedroom door.

“Time to wake up, Dierdre,” my stepdad says again.

“Mom’s not in here,” I say, but my voice is muffled by my pillow.

“That’s the fucking problem. She was supposed to be here.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“She was supposed to help me paint. Did you know about this last-minute ladies’ brunch?”

I grunt out a no as I try to wrap my pillow around my head to block him out.

“Well, since she’s not here, I need your help.”

“Can’t you just pay someone to do it?”

Matt snorts. “You sound like your mother.”

That just pisses me off, so I try to wrap my pillow tighter over my ears.

I work hard to learn from my parents’ mistakes. They both dropped out of college. Dad’s been chasing a quick buck ever since with get-rich-quick schemes of every shape and size.

I guess Mom’s been doing a bit of the same, but she’s been doing it by chasing men who already have money. I don’t know how she pulled the wool over Matt’s eyes long enough to get him to marry her.

And he stuck with it too, not like his predecessors who walked away.

“Come on, DD.”

“At least give me another hour,” I say. “I wasn’t planning on being pulled out of bed as soon as the sun lit the horizon. I was out late last night.”

“Yeah, well, you’re eighteen now. Adults have to deal with the consequences of their actions.”

Matt rips the blankets off my bed. Luckily, I’m spread out on my stomach because I’m completely naked.

“These are the consequences of Mom’s actions,” I remind him.

“What the fuck? You’re not wearing anything.”

He sounds so surprised, so outraged, that I can’t help but laugh. “I was wearing a blanket until you ripped it off.”

“Why are you naked?”

I look over my shoulder at him because the dark tone of his voice makes my skin tingle.

His nostrils flare as his gaze moves over my naked back. If he weren’t married to my mom, the skinniest woman I know, I might think that it was interest I see in his eyes.

“Are you saying I’m not allowed to sleep naked?”

“I’m asking why you’re naked. Did you have a boy in here?”

I snort. “A Boy?”

I’m not interested in boys. I tend to like older men. So I have daddy issues, sue me. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’m earning great tips, but that means that I’m working all the nights that normal people go out on dates.

Who wants to go out on a Tuesday because it’s the slowest day for restaurants and I have it off?

“Are you sneaking boys in here?” Matt demands.

“Well, considering I’m an adult, I would hope I’d be sneaking other adults in at the very least.”

“Answer my question. Is that why you’re sleeping naked?”

His eyes darts around the room as if looking for where some random dude might be hiding. His gaze falls to my bed and the space beneath it.

Before he goes digging under there and likely finds my little shoe box full of sex toys, I put him out of his misery.

“Are we not allowed to sleep naked? If that’s some sort of house rule, I’ve been breaking it for a long time.”

Matt’s eyes move up to meet mine. His Adam’s Apple dips, then bobs back up. “You’re saying you always sleep naked?”

“Yes. And now we’re in a bit of a standoff. You want my help, but you’re going to have to either give back my blanket or step outside unless you want to see me fully frontally.”

I expect him to hustle out of my room or scramble to pick up my blanket. Instead, he simply raises an eyebrow. Is that a challenge?

“You expect me to believe that if I stand here for a few more minutes that you’re going to roll over? I think if you were going to roll over, you would have done it by now.”

With that one comment, he’s effectively turned the tables on me.

I was counting on his embarrassment getting him to leave the room. Now what am I supposed to do?