Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Call the water company back and tell them that they have less than thirty minutes to get the water to this place back on, or this’ll become a police matter,” Walter said into the mic.
The dispatcher at the other end said something to affirm that she would and then he stared at me almost as if he were waiting for something more.
Something more that I wasn’t willing to give him.
I knew what he wanted to ask. Was I okay? Would I ever forgive him? Would he be okay with what had transpired while I was gone?
But some movement at my back had him glancing behind me, and then he muttered something short and abrasive before saying his goodbyes.
“Who was that?” Kennedy asked as my brother made his way down the driveway.
I turned to find her standing there, surrounded by my shit, in my fuckin’ house, and felt my belly get tight at the pleasure of having her there.
“My brother,” I said. “He’s hoping I’ll forgive him.”
Her brows furrowed. “What did he do that he needs to be forgiven for?”
I shrugged, but resigned myself to telling her the whole truth.
“My brother was the arresting officer on the charges that were thrown at me,” I said. “And while I was in prison, he shacked up with my ex-girlfriend and got married. Then divorced her within a year.”
Her mouth fell open.
“Your brother did that?” She pursed her lips. “He doesn’t look like you.”
I grunted. “Different moms.”
“Oh,” she looked down and her eyes widened.
I couldn’t help the way my cock was getting hard. Having her in my house was doing things to me that I hadn’t felt for another woman in a very long time.
She ignored it, though, so I did, too.
“It wasn’t that he got together with my ex. It was that he did it within a month of me being put in jail that pissed me off. He didn’t even wait for the grass to grow back where I used to park my truck in her yard before he made his move.”
She winced.
“That’s terrible,” she admitted. “I don’t even know what to say.”
I shrugged. “I don’t either.”
Then I walked to my bedroom. “To answer your question, yes, I’d love to take a shower at your place.”
And that’s what I did.
Two hours later, we were back at my place, and she was sitting on my couch with a glass of wine in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other.
“I just don’t know why she would’ve been on the tractor…”
She continued to talk, and I continued to listen, but what she was saying sounded just as suspicious to me as it did to her with the way she was describing it.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” I said. “To be honest…maybe she did it knowing that she was going to hurt herself. Maybe she didn’t want to face cancer. Maybe it genuinely was an accident. Maybe he had a part in it. I don’t think we’ll ever know unless you can get your sister to tell you and that doesn’t sound like something she can do at this point.”
She moaned and took a bite of her pizza, tearing it viciously with her teeth.
“Fuck.”
She looked up at that muttered curse that blasted from my lips and raised her brows at me in silent question.
“Nothing,” I muttered, shifting on the kitchen chair. “You want another piece?”
She picked up the last piece that was in the box and set it carefully on her plate, eyeing my hands as if I’d grab it from her.
“I’m not going to take it from you,” I muttered to her. “Done with the ranch?”
She nodded, taking another bite of her pizza.
I stood and gathered up my trash, as well as the pizza box and ranch, before putting it all where it belonged—the pizza box on the back porch, the trash in the trashcan, and the ranch in the fridge.
By the time I was done, she was already working on her last bite, but she was watching me as I moved around the kitchen.
“What?” I asked, leaning against the counter and crossing my legs to hide my discomfort down below.
Her mouth turned up slightly on the edge, and I saw that she had something green between her teeth.
“You have something in between your teeth,” I told her. “Right here.”
I gestured to the spot with my finger, and she reached forward and removed it before saying, “Well, since you were so nice, I think I might need to tell you that you have a ton of food in your beard.”
I grinned. “How long has it been there?”
I didn’t bother to lift my hand to remove it. I had Cinna Stix from Dominos that I was about to devour. It would be counterproductive to wipe my face clean at this juncture when I was about to stuff it full again.