Love Next Door (Lakeside #1) by Helena Hunting

“Time to stop hacking into Bee’s cable so you can watch porn.”

“Huh?” He blinks a bunch of times, panic flashing across his face.

I drop the laptop on his bed, his browsing history on display, and give him the middle finger. “Rule number one: always clear your history, dumbass.” I hold up my pointer finger beside the middle one. “Rule number two: four ones is the most obvious password in the world, and it’s your fault if people hack into your phone and steal information.” I hold up my pinkie so I’m giving him the shocker sign. “And rule number three: don’t use our neighbor’s internet connection to watch freaking porn. It’s a wonder you haven’t rubbed your dick off with the amount of whacking you must be doing.” The thought makes me shudder.

“Porn is the only good thing left in my life, and Mom and Dad canceled the good cable package. Besides, her internet connection is way better than ours.”

That this is Billy’s defense is not particularly surprising, but it is annoying. “You owe our neighbor a grand.”

“What? No way. That’s insane.”

“So is the fact that you ordered enough dirty videos to rack up that kind of bill.” I grab his laptop off the bed and head for the door.

“Hey! Where are you going? That’s mine!”

“Not anymore it isn’t. It’s collateral until you cough up the money to pay Van’s cable bill.” I slam the door closed behind me and run into my dad on the way through the kitchen.

I can hear Billy swearing a blue streak from his bedroom.

“What’s going on?” Dad takes a tentative sip of his coffee.

“Other than your son having a porn addiction, nothing much.”

He sprays hot coffee on the counter. “What?”

“I’m taking care of it. We should get going. I have a conference call with a new lumber company outside of town at eight. Harry suggested them.”

“Right. Okay. That’s good. Is that Billy’s laptop?”

“Yup.”

“Well, I guess that explains why he’s screaming like you’ve lopped off a limb.”

I shoot him a look.

He mumbles something about moody kids and follows me out to the truck. He doesn’t balk when I take the driver’s seat, happy to sit back, relax, and enjoy the bumpy ride to the office at the edge of downtown.

“Are you serious about Billy having a porn addiction? Is it something I need to talk to him about?” Dad rubs the back of his neck, his face flushed with discomfort.

The only time either of my parents mentioned sex when I was growing up was to tell me not to have it. I told them it was easy for them to say. They’d grown up together and got married at sixteen with the consent of their parents. Which is incomprehensible to me. At sixteen I was barely capable of keeping my room clean and handing my assignments in on time, let alone running a household. And sex is one of the very few activities that’s free and entertaining when you’re a teen living in a small town.

I went to the clinic in the next town over with Tawny and Allie, got myself a prescription for birth control pills, and made Tucker wear a condom anyway. Turns out that was a good idea, since he had a habit of hooking up with other girls on the side—usually while we were on a break, but not always.

“If you want to embarrass the hell out of him, sure. I get that he’s bored, but there are a million other things he could be doing besides ordering dirty videos all day. I think the bigger problem is that he managed to hack into Bee’s internet and cable because it’s faster and racked up a thousand-dollar bill.”

“A thousand bucks? Isn’t internet porn free?” Dad’s eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his head.

I cock a brow. “Not when you’re ordering specific movies on demand all the time.”

“Geez.” He runs his hand through his hair again and blows out a breath.

“So I confiscated his laptop until he coughs up the money. I’m assuming he must have something in the bank, since he lives with you guys and works a full-time job.”

“You’d think. Boy doesn’t seem to have your money sense. He’ll do well for a while, socking it away, and then boom.” He snaps his fingers. “He’ll get an idea in his head that he wants something, and all of a sudden his savings disappear. That’s how we ended up with the dirt bike, the ATVs, and the IROC-Z in the garage.”

Billy has always been on the impulsive side. It’s why he’s ended up in trouble so much, but he’s taken it to a whole new level of impulsivity lately.

“He has to have a grand, though, don’t you think?”

“Usually his paychecks are gone by the time they hit his account.” Dad shrugs, not because he’s apathetic, but more that he’s at a loss. “At least we did good with you, right?”

I give him a small smile. “Yeah, you did good with me.” But it makes me sad that so many people have already written Billy off as a screwup, and I wonder if I’ve taken to the narrative, too, and whether we’re making it impossible for him to feel like he can clean up his act.

When we get to the office, I head to my desk, fire up my computer, and get ready for my conference call while the guys load the trucks in preparation for the day. By nine thirty I’ve managed to work out a deal with a new local lumber supplier with tiered pricing that includes deeper discounts as we reach order thresholds. It’s a great step forward.