Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“I know you do. I hate that you lost them. I feel guilty that George and I weren’t more like them.”
“You were great. You loved me and raised me.”
“We were mediocre, but thank you for the kind words. You deserved people who were better with kids. We lacked in that department. My big brother was better at being who people needed, at wanting to give that to them. Again, that’s something you get from him.”
Vince soaked in her words. He loved hearing that he was like his dad.
“He loved your mama so much. Started dating her at sixteen and told me he was going to marry her. Not many sixteen-year-old boys are thinking that way, but he was. He always wanted to be a family man.”
Vince couldn’t help wondering if his parents would be disappointed he wasn’t. They wouldn’t have cared that he was gay. He knew that in his heart, and his auntie had said the same thing, but would they be disappointed that he didn’t marry? Didn’t settle down and have or want kids? That was something Colby’s parents didn’t understand about him, and for the first time, Vince wondered if his own would have been the same.
He didn’t have the balls to ask his aunt that—didn’t want the answer.
“How’s work going?” he asked, changing the subject. They only spoke for a few more minutes before getting off the phone.
Vince wasn’t working at the farm today. It was a Saturday, and while Holden typically made sure to take weekends off to be with his family, he was putting in a ramp for an older woman who would be coming home from physical therapy on Monday. She was new to a wheelchair, and Holden was helping make her home more accessible for her and asked Vince if he wanted to pitch in.
Colby would be at the farm and Roe at the store. Monroe Covington ran Covington Supply Co, a one-stop shop for everything someone might need on a farm, or hell, any kind of outside projects, animal feed and stuff like that.
Vince finished getting ready and headed out to the house to meet Holden. When he arrived, he saw that Sean was there with him. It wasn’t unusual for him to help Holden. Sean was good with his hands and liked to either work with his uncle or at Covington Acres, but usually where Sean was, Wyatt was, and so far, he had yet to see the other kid.
“What’s up, guys?” Vince asked as he approached the two. Holden already had stacks of wood out and his saw, along with other equipment. “Where’s your twin?” he teased Sean, who rolled his eyes.
“With Bianca.”
Holden gave Vince a look. Oh. He got it. Now that Wyatt had a girlfriend, he was spending more time with her. That was a tricky time—when suddenly your friend had done something you haven’t. And Wyatt likely wanted to be with Bianca all the time. If Vince had had a boyfriend at sixteen, that’s how he would have felt. It was exciting to date when everything was so new.
Holden ruffled Sean’s hair. “The novelty of having a girlfriend will wear off soon.”
“I don’t care if he has a girlfriend. I just don’t see why he wants to hang out with her or talk to her all the time. We had a sleepover, and all they did was text. If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn’t be that obsessed with her.”
“I’ll remind you of that when you have one,” Holden told him. “But we’re glad you’re hanging with us today.”
“Lay it on thick, why don’t you,” Sean teased his uncle.
“What? I like quality time with you. We can hang out all the time now,” Holden teased back while Vince just enjoyed watching him interact with Sean. He was used to it now, but it had taken him by surprise the first time he came to Harmony. Holden used to keep people at arm’s length. He’d been a pilot who didn’t like to stay in one place too long and didn’t do emotional attachments, not even with Vince. When they’d dated, he’d made sure Vince knew it wasn’t serious, and that had been okay with Vince too. It was between his two attempts with Gregory. But coming to Harmony and falling in love with Roe had changed everything for Holden. Well, it had allowed him to open himself up to the big feelings Vince had always known were inside him. It fascinated him, the way love could transform people. With Holden, it was for the better. With Vince, it had just made him dumb.
The three of them got to work on the first ramp. They were putting one at the front and one at the back door.
It was humid already, the air thick with moisture. He enjoyed sweating, though, enjoyed working his muscles and feeling the heat on his skin. As silly as it sounded, it was slightly weird to be doing it without Colby. They’d gotten so accustomed to doing almost everything together over the last year that Vince noticed it when Colby wasn’t around.