Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Her mouth gaped.
“How much?”
She gaped some more.
“That’ll be thirty-five dollars.”
I looked up to find my archnemesis, Tobias Hail—don’t ever call me Fender—jerk wad on my front step.
“What are you doing here?”
He gestured to the girl.
“My niece,” I said. “I knew you’d buy some. She’s having some trouble selling them.”
My mouth pursed.
“I used to be in the Girl Scouts,” I told her sympathetically, instantly feeling terrible for this little girl that looked like she’d be eaten alive by the go-getter Girl Scouts that hustled the people of Wal-Mart. “Where have you hit?”
“Hit?” she stuttered.
“Hit. Where have you gone?” I asked. “You can get some door-to-door, but the best places to go are where the hormonal women and hungry men are.”
“Where would that be?” she asked hesitantly.
I pushed the door open wider and then gestured her in. “Let me go get my shoes and we can go.”
I didn’t miss the smirk that lit Fender’s—I refused to call him Tobias because that’s what he wanted—face. The fucker.
He knew that I’d go with him…that girl, well she was freakin’ adorable.
I didn’t know that he had a niece!
Then again, I didn’t know much about him at all. Only his name and that he gave me the chills—and not in a bad way.
In a way that I wasn’t quite sure about just yet.
I was sure, given time, that I could get used to those chills—and that’s what scared me.
“Where are you going?” Mina asked from the couch.
She was laying there, her arm up high over her head, with her daughter asleep on her belly.
“I’m going to help Fender’s niece sell Girl Scout cookies,” I said. “Do you…”
“Does she have any?” Mina sat up, her arms placed protectively over her daughter’s back and head.
I hid my grin as I walked to my shoes and slipped them on.
It was eighty degrees out. In February.
But, that was the way of the South.
I didn’t much care. I loved wearing flip-flops and shorts. The hotter, the better, in my opinion.
Tunnel, my brother, who’d been asleep in the recliner when I went to answer the door, cracked open his eye and stared at his wife as she deposited his daughter into his lap.
He’d been gone all night due to a case he’d caught a break in late yesterday evening, and he’d just gotten home an hour ago.
“Weren’t you just telling me yesterday that you wanted to fit into those pants…”
Mina shot him a withering glare.
He held up his hands in surrender. “I thought you said you wanted me to remind you of your promise to lose weight…”
She hissed at him. “I told you this when it came to me eating out. This isn’t eating out. This is eating in.”
Her logic was strong. I agreed with her there.
The execution…well, that could use some work.
“If that’s what you want to tell yourself…” he grunted, then closed his eyes, moving his daughter up until she was tucked just beneath his chin.
His daughter didn’t even make a peep, and I found myself grinning.
My newest niece was a doll, and she was one of the best babies I’d ever had the pleasure of being in the presence of.
I turned to find Fender standing in the middle of the living room. He was looking at Mina with amusement as she handed over forty dollars. “Give me the Thin Mints.”
“She just bought all the boxes that I have,” the girl said weakly.
Mina’s head whipped around. “You bitch!”
“Language!” I pointed at the little girl.
Mina’s face colored. “I’m sorry, Fender.”
He shrugged. “Her dad’s an oil hand. Trust me, she’s heard worse.”
The girl started nodding.
“I bought them for you, anyway,” I said, pulling out my wallet and fishing out the cash that I had. “You can help me pay for them, though. I only have twenty-five.”
After learning what else was owed, Mina handed over the cash, and then took the boxes of cookies from the girl, who’d pulled her little red wagon into the living room behind her.
“You need to have her carrying way more than that,” I said. “Where are the extras?”
Tobias looked down at the girl.
“Are they at your dad’s, or your mom’s, Leida?”
Leida shrugged. “I think that they’re at Mom’s. But she was supposed to take them over to Dad’s today while I was at school.”
“Hmm,” Tobias hummed. “Let’s try your dad’s, then. Then we’ll try your mom’s if they’re not there.”
I wondered what the little girl’s situation was, but that was none of my business. I’d also be damned if I acted interested in Tobias’ life.
There was nothing good to come of that.
No way, no how.
But did those thoughts keep me from spending time with them? No.
He’d been at my house two days in a row, and both times I hadn’t hesitated to go with him.
What was wrong with me?
I walked out the door with them thirty minutes later—after Tobias adorably held baby Gianna like she was the most precious thing in the world—but we won’t talk about what that did to my ovaries.