Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“Hija,” Ruby answers his phone, “Karma, come out,” he instructs as I stand under the car we are working on. Shop rule two men per car when it’s on a lift. If one man has to step away, the other gets out from under the vehicle. Safety shit.
“You did what?!” he screeches, “you can’t be doin’ this shit, hija.”
My attention is laser focused now. Ruby has two daughters, Maritza and Mariella. I’m not sure which one he’s talking to yet. While all the Hellions family are important to me, this one gets a little closer to home. Maritza keeps Hollis for me frequently. Is she okay? Is my son with her? I never actually know from minute to minute if Hollis is home with Anna or off on an adventure with Maritza. I don’t know what my life would be like without her help taking care of my son.
Ruby sets his phone on the lift bar edge that is not under the car putting it on speaker phone. At least I can get first-hand knowledge of the situation in front of us.
“I stopped; she needed help. Don’t tell me what I can’t do when you’re the one who taught me to change a damn tire.” It’s Maritza and I don’t know if I want to be worried or laugh at her sassiness.
“Maritza, you can’t trust people these days. How do you know it’s not a set up? You are a beautiful female in a crazy world. They drug you and poof take you off, gone.”
“Papi, you watch too much television.”
“The news, hija, the news says don’t fall victim. They will lace your door handles. You want to make your mami cry when something happens to you.”
She lets out a frustrated huff, “Papi, we both know you will cry more. Now, can you send someone out here?”
Ruby’s face softens as she calls his bluff about her mother. Vida will indeed be devastated for something to happen to any of her kids, but Ruby, he will most definitely take it the hardest.
“I’ll be right there. You get in your car, hija. Put space between you and this woman.”
“You worry too much.”
He shakes his head, “you don’t worry enough. This good Samaritan shit is gonna get you killed, hija. You can’t be the one to run into the fire always.”
The woman had a flat tire. Maritza stopped to help her only to realize the woman didn’t have a spare. Maritza went so far as to check her spare to see if it would fit, but the sizes didn’t align. It doesn’t matter, family, friend, foe, or absolute stranger if Maritza sees someone who needs help, she is diving in headfirst.
She has no fear about stepping up for anyone. In the craziness of the world today, people need to be alert, careful, and cautious. Maritza can’t seem to help herself. It’s a great quality even if it’s dangerous. In the military we talked often about fight, flight, or freeze mode. To serve is to be the person who can fight. Flight and freeze don’t work in war or life. Maritza is not afraid to fight, and she won’t dare freeze or flee.
Attraction is one thing, instant and physical, but beyond appearances, this woman is a total package. Some man is going to have a true partner in life with her.
I won’t deny it.
My life is complicated to say the least and I won’t drag her into this shit more than she already is.
Physically, no red-blooded man can deny her looks. I can’t help but enjoy rubbing the sunscreen in. To touch the tenderness of her soft skin as she relaxes as under my hands makes me think of having her entire body under me. I shouldn’t have these thoughts or desires. It’s wrong. I’m not in a place in my life to even entertain any kind of relationship.
More than that, Ruby will have my balls in a damn vice if I touch his daughter. The man is laid back until someone fucks with his wife or kids. I don’t know any man who will measure up for his girls. It damn sure isn’t me.
I can’t ever tell her, or anyone, how drawn to her I am. First, I’m a married fucker even if it is over between Anna and I, there are lines I won’t cross until the ink on the divorce papers is dry. No matter how I feel about Anna now, we once had love, and I refuse to forget that. If I do it’s like tainting everything that gave us both Hollis, and I won’t do that.
He’s the root of it. I can put up with just about anything Anna wants to throw at me, but to see her checked out with our son … I can’t live this way. It’s not fair to him. He deserves better. I can’t stay with her and watch her toss him aside like she does. I haven’t figured it all out, yet which is why I stay. How can I go from seeing him every day to every other weekend? I want to be there for my son and Anna is unpredictable at best when she needs to get space from her responsibility as a mother. I won’t take him from her, but I have to figure out how to separate our lives while remaining on some sort of schedule for Hollis.