Read Evan (Novella): 3.5 (A Carter Brother Series) for Free Online Page A

up and when we walk inside I walk her down the hall to my bedroom.
    “Here. You need to lie down. I’ll go get you some Ibuprofen.’’
    “No, I should be awake for when Imogen wakes up,’’ she argues, but I notice her hands still shaking.
    “Go run yourself a bath. I have one right down the hall. Please, just go have a bath. When you come back out I’ll have a look at those bruises your shirt’s been hiding.’’
    “How...’’
    “I can tell by the way you’re walking. Let me just check you don’t need to go to the hospital, then you can take some painkillers and go to sleep for a bit. You’ll feel much better for it.’’
    “Imogen needs a bottle in half an hour, though.’’
    “Just go,’’ I tell her, giving her a gentle push in the direction of the bathroom. I quickly tell her where the spare towels are then head back down to the kitchen and begin unpacking the bags I know have all of Imogen’s bottles and stuff in. I put the car seat, with Imogen still in it, down by the door and get to work before one of the boys brings the files over.
    Placing everything I can on the kitchen worktop, I’m stunned to silence at everything in front of me. There’s this round machine thingy that has these nipple things in them. A bunch of different size bottles, lids, and more nipple thingies.
    A plastic tub of baby formula sits to the edge and I smile.
    I can do this.
    How hard can making a bottle really be?
    Ten minutes later Kennedy emerges from the bathroom looking hot. Literally hot. She looks like she’s been sitting in a sauna for the past hour instead of taking a bath for the past ten.
    “You okay?’’ I ask, but end up choking on my words when she walks around the counter wearing a baggy t-shirt that barely covers her ass. She’s wearing boxers underneath but it does nothing to keep my mind from wandering.
    Fuck, for a small person she has pretty amazing legs and I can’t help but imagine what they’d feel like wrapped around me.
    “Are you okay?’’ she asks quizzically, then starts to chuckle. “You have baby milk down your shirt.’’
    I look down to find she’s right. Damn. “Yeah, I’m just trying to figure this shit out,’’ I tell her, nodding to the powered milk.
    “Here, I’ll show you,’’ she tells me, her face scrunching up in pain when she moves towards me. Knowing I need to learn, I ignore her pain for a second and watch as she puts together the bottle, starts to boil some water, and then assembles the machine with the nipples in it.
    “This is the steriliser. The bottles need to be sterilised after each use to keep them clean. I only make more than one bottle up during the night. I just leave the boiled water in the bottle until she wakes up. Then I add the milk like so,’’ she starts, and shows me how to put the right amount of powder into the bottle. I’m so amazed by everything that I can’t take my eyes off her.
    When I notice she’s not moving any more I turn to look at her, finding her staring back at me with a pink blush to her cheeks.
    “What?’’ I ask confused.
    “I said: Where do you keep the jug?’’
    “Oh, here,’’ I tell her, pointing over her head. I reach up to the cabinet and grab the plastic jug down for her. She fills it with cold water then plops the bottle inside it.
    “All done,’’ she smiles. “Just let that cool down to lukewarm so it doesn’t burn Imogen’s mouth and you’re good to go.’’
    “I can do that.’’
    She gives me a blinding smile and we both stand there staring at each other awkwardly. When Imogen breaks the silence by waking up we shake our heads. We both move at the same time, both of us pausing before going for her again.
    “Go on, you go. I’ll just go...um...lie down. Do you have those painkillers?’’ she asks timidly, looking shy as hell.
    “Yeah, here,’’ I tell her and walk over to the tablets I’d gotten ready in the mix of making myself look like the milk powder monster.
    She takes