A Mile High by Bethany-Kris Page A

thing with her life, but give her a chance…for me , would you? I kind of love this
girl.”
    I eyed him, speculative. Josh didn’t simply throw
around the love word like it was
nothing. When he used it, he meant it. “Just kind of, or are you already
picking out a nursery color?”
    The scrunched-up look he made had me grinning. It
was almost cute…almost, if he wasn’t making that face in response to the evil
that lived in his home. “I might be making a trip to Illinois next week with
her to visit her family, and while I am there, I possibly might speak to her
father about the prospect of proposing.”
    My jaw dropped. “You’ve known her six months. And you’ve only lived
together for two!”
    The indifferent shrug of his shoulders was careless,
thoughtless, and tactless all rolled into one motion. Josh could be more
impulsive than anyone else I ever knew. “When you know, you know.” I felt my
body snap back at the statement. Those were the exact words our father had used
when he left our mother for a woman he met on the road, after having known her
only a few days. “And I’d like to think that I know now.”
    “Don’t,” I warned with narrowing eyes and a cold
attitude. Josh looked away from me, but I couldn’t feel the least bit bad about
my manner. “Damn, give it a few more months or something. Think about where you
want to go in the future. Sit Natalie down and see if she’s figured out the
rest of her life yet, or at the very least if she can possibly decide what she
wants to be when she grows up, if she ever plans on doing just that. Do not
make a choice that serious before you understand the consequences of doing
so.   Can you promise me you’ll wait
another couple of months before you go ring shopping, Josh?”
    Raking fingers through his light brown hair, he
shrugged. “I think I’m ready.”
    The bitch inside me fought to make herself known.
Taking a brief moment to breathe deeply while counting back from ten, I finally
felt calm enough to speak again. “If you have to think about it, you’re not.” He
went to speak and I raised my hand to stop him. “I won’t keep standing here
arguing with you about this. If you want me to deal with that site issue, then
leave me be, but good God, the least you could do is think some more about
this, okay? Just think , Josh. You are
more than intelligent enough to do that and understand it’s reasonable,” I
insisted, the cold tone to my voice chilling even me. “You’re only twenty-four,
you have a great job, and you’re well on your way to having an even greater
future. Do not let some cute piece of ass from nowhere, Illinois with her
ridiculous lack of work ethic or give-a-damn, ruin that for you just because
she can take it like an animal.”
    Remorse was the first thing I felt after my rant.
Apparently I hadn’t given myself enough time to chill out before giving him advice.
I couldn’t even apologize, shocked at my own lack of tact towards the man with
whom I’d grown up. Being twenty-seven, we were close in age, so our childhood
and most of our teenage years were spent together. But that girl— Natalie —there was something about her
that made my blood boil.
    Disbelief and anger filled his features. “ Oh … You’re a spiteful—” Snapping his
mouth closed and seething to stop the name he clearly wanted to call me—one I
would have deserved—Josh glared. “You have no right to assume or say anything
like that.”
    “Josh… I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.” It
wasn’t a complete lie. I just hadn’t meant to say it out loud. “Really, I—”
    The shake of his head was response enough. My
bedroom door slammed before I fully realized he had left the room. His shout
from my outside hallway as he stomped from my house made my heart ache. “Enjoy
your vacation. Don’t get sunburned. Oh, and before you leave, that cute piece
of ass who takes it like an animal wanted me to tell you that she thinks you
deserve