Read 4 Shot Off The Presses for Free Online

a half on her and yet she looked like the terrifying one in their standoff.
    “This isn’t your house, you know,” she said. “This is Avery’s house – and I don’t have to take this in my cousin’s house.”
    “You could leave,” Eliot said blandly.
    “You could leave,” Lexie shot back.
    “Oh, I’m not going to leave,” Eliot replied angrily. “Not the way you want me to.”
    “Well, I’m not going to leave either,” Lexie said snottily.
    “That’s because you don’t have anywhere to go,” Eliot continued. “Avery is the only one that will take you.”
    “That’s not true,” Lexie said “She likes having me here.”
    “Why would she?”
    “What is that supposed to mean?” Lexie raised one of her perfectly arched eyebrows irritably.
    “It means that you eat her food, live here rent-free and pretty much make a nuisance of yourself,” Eliot answered. “Why would she want you around for that?”
    Lexie swung on me angrily. “Are you going to let him talk to me like that?”
    “Oh, yeah, run to Avery to protect you,” Eliot mused. “Like you always do.”
    Eliot turned to me expectantly. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
    I shoved another spoonful of Fruity Pebbles into my mouth and considered both sets of brown eyes as they regarded me – both looking for backup. I swallowed hard. “I have a press conference to get to.”
    I swung around quickly, dumped my bowl into the sink, and slid out the back door as quickly as my legs would take me. I didn’t blow out a frustrated breath until I was next to my car. I needed to get Lexie out of my house – and not just because of Eliot. As an only child, I was used to my own space. I didn’t do well when people were constantly pressing me for attention and trying to talk to me. I was perfectly happy spending three hours with my Kindle and Keurig in absolute silence. I hadn’t had that in a really long time.
    “Not quick enough.”
    I swung around and found Eliot standing in the driveway watching me.
    “What?” I feigned ignorance.
    “If you wanted to make a clean getaway, you should have gotten in your car and sped away.”
    “Would that have stopped you from tracking me down?”
    “No.”
    “I don’t know what you want me to do,” I said wearily.
    Eliot narrowed his eyes as he regarded me. “I know you’re in a tough spot,” he said finally. “I don’t mean to make things harder for you.”
    “You’re not,” I protested.
    “You can’t tell me you want her to keep staying here,” Eliot pressed. I think he was actually worried that, a year from now, the three of us would all be living together and he would have to blow his brains out to shut out Lexie’s incessant chatter.
    “No,” I admitted. “I’m also not going to kick her out – at least not yet.”
    “Why not?”
    “She’s doing better,” I started.
    “Than what?”
    “Than what she’s been in the past,” I ignored his pointed jab. “She’ll get on her feet eventually. If I push her too quickly she could have a relapse.”
    “She guilts you and you fall for it,” Eliot said harshly. “I find that interesting since you are usually the type of person that can’t be guilted.”
    “That’s not true,” I replied.
    “Really? That wasn’t you at a family dinner two weeks ago that laughed when your mom cried, big crocodile tears with full sniffles, while trying to make you go to a baby shower for one of her friends?”
    “Those weren’t real tears,” I grumbled. “And baby showers are like torture.”
    “That’s not the point,” Eliot said patiently. “You have a thing about protecting Lexie specifically.”
    I pursed my lips poutily. “It’s just that . . .”
    “It’s a habit,” Eliot supplied. “I know.”
    “You knew when you started dating me that I had a crazy family,” I pointed out.
    “There’s crazy and then there’s Lexie,” Eliot muttered.
    “I can’t kick her out,” I said finally. “I just can’t. Not