Lahat ng Kabanata ng Accidentally In Love With You: Kabanata 261 - Kabanata 270

“Spit it out, Carter. Where do you want me to take your sister?” “Can she stay with you for a few days?” he asked. “What?” Parker cried, and the woman in his arms stirred, snuggling into his chest. Parker had to close his eyes for a moment. She stank like regurgitated alcohol and looked like she’d been on a week-long bender, but he couldn’t deny the way it felt to hold her in his arms. It had to be some repressed part of his teenage brain that recognized her and was suddenly ready to remember all those dirty thoughts he’d once had about her. In control of his anger and the rogue teenager in his head, Parker let out a breath and opened his eyes, glaring at Carter. “You want her to stay with me?” “Do you have another option?” Carter asked. Parker groaned. “Not right at this moment.” “Right, so, I think the best solution is for her to spend the night at your place.” “But just tonight,” Parker said. “And I’ll be sleeping at your place.” “What?”

Present DayParker slowly opened the door to his apartment and stuck his head inside. He could smell her. In the three weeks since she had been living in his apartment, Talia Jane had permeated his entire space. He didn’t know if it was her deodorant, her shampoo, body wash, or body lotion, but there was a distinct ‘otherness’ about the smell in his apartment…and that otherness wasn’t limited just to the smell, either. The very fabric of the atmosphere in his home had changed. Parker had grown up in a male household. He and his two brothers were the apples of his parents’ eyes. Fathers’ eyes, as in two fathers. He and his brothers were biological siblings, and one of their fathers was biologically their uncle, but Parker, the youngest, had been too young to remember his biological parents. They died when he was a baby and his dads had adopted all three of them. There had been controversy at the time, his uncle was, after all, a gay man living in an openly gay relationship when th

Parker stood in the kitchen, keeping out of the firing range of Talia and Carter. He was torn. His journalistic persona was lapping up the inside information he was hearing, but the more human side of him was struggling with the same information. “You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Talia yelled for about the fiftieth time since she’d come out of her room. “Calm down—” “Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down,” she spat at Carter. “That arsehole just violated so many privacy laws that I want to throat punch him and then kick him in his inconsequential ball sac.” “No, he didn’t,” Carter said with a sigh. “What?” Talia’s voice was low and controlled, but that was what made it so alarming. “You’re both celebrities—” “So that means he has the right to talk about our sexual relationship and even release photos of me, and it’s okay? Isn’t there a revenge porn law or something? I’m sure I remember reading about something like that.” Talia’

“Yeah, but it’s so tiny, it might be too small of a target,” Parker replied. Talia snorted out a laugh. Shit. Had she even laughed in the past three weeks? She tossed the dart, missing his Coby’s eye but getting it in his ear. “That was just a practice one,” she said, lining up another dart. She tossed her second one and missed the board completely; the dart hitting the door and dropping to the ground. “Oops.” Parker crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “Have you never thrown darts before?” he asked. “Hello?” she snarked. “Child actor who wasn’t allowed to do anything that wasn’t written in a script.” Parker looked at her for a moment, shock registering in his eyes for a brief moment before he hid it. Fuck. It was true but, even so, she didn’t need to tell everyone just how shitty her life had been. Okay, so maybe compared to other people’s lives, her life wasn’t really shitty, but tell that to a preteen girl who had to diet constantl

Talia unconsciously positioned herself behind the couch, putting a barrier between her and whoever was on the other side of the door. Logically she knew it wasn’t Mark, but her anxious brain didn’t understand logic of any kind. That knock on the door was a threat, and the biggest perceived threat in her life right now was Mark. Parker was the first to respond, sighing and dropping his head for a moment before crossing to the door. Carter remained standing where he was, not even looking at her. She couldn’t get a read on him or understand what he was trying to do. Sure, she was the one to reach out to him in a drunken daze, but he could have simply dropped her off at Mark’s house and wiped his hands off her and the problems she was causing. Besides the fact he kept sending her mixed messages, and she didn’t know whose side he was on—hers or Mark’s. Parker opened the door and Talia took a deep breath, stealing herself against the stares she knew were bound to come. Her Talia J