Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Yeah, pal. I know your game.
“Let me put your bag in the house, and then we can leave for dinner,” Rhodes kept going, before angling his body toward me.
They were going to a dinner I hadn’t been invited to. I could read a cue. “In that case, it was nice meeting you, Mr. Randall. I will—”
Rhodes’s hand landed on my shoulder, the side of his pinky landing on my bare collarbone just a little bit. “Come with us.”
I jerked my head up to meet his gray eyes. He had his serious face on, and I was pretty sure he’d used his Navy Voice, but I hadn’t been paying enough attention because I’d been distracted by his finger. “I’m sure you three want to spend some quality time together….” I trailed off, cautiously, not sure if he wanted me to go or… not?
“Come with us, Ora.” It was Amos who piped up. But he wasn’t the one I was worried about.
Rhodes’s big hand gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze, and I was fairly certain his gaze softened, because his voice definitely did. “Come with us.”
“Are you asking me or telling me?” I whispered. “Because you’re whispering, but you’re still using your bossy voice.”
His mouth twisted, and he lowered his voice to reply, “Both?”
I grinned. I mean, okay. I wasn’t at a good part in my book yet, and I hadn’t eaten dinner either. “Okay then. Sure, if none of you care.”
“Nope,” Am muttered.
“Not at all,” Mr. Randall answered, still eyeballing me speculatively.
“I’ll wait out here then while you put his things up,” I said.
“I’ll come along. I’d like to wash my hands before we leave,” Randall said with a sniff.
Rhodes gave me another squeeze before he stepped aside and headed toward the back of his father’s Mercedes. In no time at all, he had pulled a suitcase out of the back, and he and his dad were heading inside the house. Amos stayed outside with me, and the second that door closed, I said, “I’m so sorry, Am. I just heard him being so rude, and you guys were trying to be polite, and I could tell your dad was about to lose his shit, and I just wanted to help.”
The kid stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, hesitated for a second, then patted me on the back awkwardly. “Thanks, Ora.”
He hugged me. He’d fucking hugged me. It felt like my birthday.
I hugged him back real tight and tried not to let him see the tear in my eye so I wouldn’t ruin it. “Thanks for what? Your dad is going to kill me.”
I felt him laugh against me before he dropped his arms and took a big step back, his cheeks a little flushed. But he was smiling that sweet, shy smile he rarely shared. “He’s not.”
“I’m 50 percent sure it might happen,” I claimed. “He’s going to bury me somewhere no one will ever find me, and I know he could do it because I’m sure he has a bunch of spots picked out where, if it ever came down to it, he could pull it off. Why is your grandpa so mean anyway?”
Amos smiled a little. “Dad says it’s because his parents were really mean to him; then he married my grandma who was just as mean and crazy, but he didn’t know that until it was too late, and he’s spent his whole life trying to make more and more money because he didn’t have anything growing up.”
That would do it. For sure. And I wanted to ask about the crazy mother/grandma, but I figured we didn’t have time to get into it.
“It’s okay,” he tried to assure me. “You’re doing Dad a favor.”
I eyed him. “How?”
“Because he doesn’t talk, but you do, and you’ll save him from his dad.”
I grimaced. “Are you sure I should come to dinner? I don’t want to—”
The kid groaned and rolled his eyes.
I laughed and then rolled my eyes back at him. “If you’re sure. If he tries to drive me anywhere to dump my body, I want you to at least give me a nice burial, Am. I need my purse.”
“I’ll go get it,” he offered a second before he said, “Be right back.” He stopped suddenly and said, “Thanks, Ora.”
Then he took off. Running. Amos was running.
I hoped this went okay.
* * *
If I hadn’t lived through the tension of the day Amos, Rhodes, and I had done the four-mile hike to see the waterfalls, I would’ve been in for a real shock at the level of awkwardness that dinner with the two of them and Mr. Randall reached.
But my entire relationship with Kaden—having to deal with the Antichrist—had been preparation for this. And in another lifetime, I would’ve considered my relationship with that woman to have been training to deal with not just Mr. Randall, but every difficult person I’d ever encounter.