Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
The single mom has always been off limits. With her ex out of the picture, her daughter has me wrapped around her finger. One thing about this situation, you can look but you can’t touch.
That was before she called me a couple months ago and needed help. Now, I’m in deep, I’ll do anything to keep her safe— even if that means arresting her.
Kennedy knows exactly how I feel about her. She’s got me by the balls, and I’d risk my job and her brother’s friendship to keep her. Even if it costs me everything.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
KENNEDY
Three Weeks Earlier
“Please don’t do this to me, not now.” I cross my fingers, mumbling under my breath as I navigate my car off the highway and into the nearest gas station. The last time this happened, Asher and Lennie saved my bacon, and I knew after our stepdad, Mike, Band-Aided my car, it wouldn’t last me much longer. Still, me being the stubborn woman I am, I didn’t take the suggestion of borrowing money from the three main men in my life. Yep, my brother tried, and I flat out refused. My father did the same after showing up the next day while Mike started to work on said vehicle. Every last one of them told me what would happen if I didn’t get my shit together. Even Mike and Mom offered to give me a loan or to take their spare car. Not happening. They may carpool together a lot but not enough to go down to one vehicle. Which left me with few options. Taking more from them than I already do is out of the question. My only hope has been saving up enough money to put a hefty down payment on a new-to-me car.
“Fat lot of good that’s been.” A single mother saving money? Couldn’t be me. I’ve done well on my own even when Briar’s dad has a hard time being consistent with child support. Never mind the fact he seems to appear or disappear like an apparition. I wish there were an honest to goodness reason I could give Briar why Chris, her dad, is the man he is, but there’s nothing. No childhood trauma, no abuse in the form of any substance. The best way to describe him is a wanderer; he goes from place to place, barely making it in one spot before drifting to the next.
When we first met, I loved that quality about him, until I realized what all it entailed, plus the lack of stability. Yeah, it’s not for me. When Briar came along, he’d barely make his portion of the rent, let alone cover any of the other bills. I was younger than I am now, obviously, trying to get over a man whom I wouldn’t have a future with simply because he never saw me that way. And the man I was trying to get over was not my daughter’s father. Why I thought I could make it work with sort of a fill-in is anyone’s guess. Allowing Chris to move in with me… not my brightest idea, either, but when a surprise pregnancy comes along, you almost grasp at straws to make it work.
We sat down, talked it out, and found a solution that didn’t involve him living with me and loving him from afar, in the terms of he’s my daughter’s father. When you have to be self-reliant, it goes without saying the love you thought you were building slowly drifts away. While I will never understand how he can do what he does to Briar, coming and going as he pleases, that doesn’t mean I don’t love him in a platonic way. I also don’t have to like Chris, and, in this instant, I really have no fucks to give about him.
I turn my blinker on and ease my foot off the gas. The jolting of the car has me switching to the brake immediately and holding on to the steering wheel for dear life. It seems my car has started to shake, rattle, and roll. My one saving grace is Briar isn’t with me to witness another disaster in the making. The last one was plenty enough of a hassle for my sweet baby to deal with, and all for the sake of ice cream. Totally worth it for my girl to be happy with her sweet treat, to see her uncle and to welcome Lennie into our family. Fortunately, Briar is at my mom’s for the evening and missing this go around. Mom called while I was on my lunch break and told me it’d been too long since she had her granddaughter. My mom and Asher both think the world of Briar and, truth be told, I could never be more thankful. My dad would take her in a heartbeat, too, but his wife and I don’t always see eye to eye. She has her kids, and Dad has his type of situation. Whereas Mike doesn’t think that in the least; everyone is family, and if you don’t like it, well, he thinks you can get fucking lost.
Anyways, it’s Friday night, Briar is at Mom and Mike’s, so I’m childfree and chose to work late, because what else am I supposed to do? I’d usually hit up a friend, see if they want to go out to dinner or grab a drink, but it was last minute. That kind of makes it hard when our small group has their own life with work, kids, and husbands. My girl gang consists of Trina, short for Katrina, who’s married to her high school sweetheart, has two young boys aged two and three. Then there’s Samantha; she’s unmarried, child-less, and lives the jet-set life, currently working in New York on a big project. She won’t be home for another two weeks. Which is also why when we have a girls’ night out planned, it’s usually at one of our houses or at a restaurant, and we carry it on to a bar where we can either sing karaoke as well as dance the night away.