Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I knew that killed her.
“When was the last time he was even around?”
I frowned. “Fucking forever.”
He grunted.
The door opened, and Logan burst out, “Took you goddamn long enough.”
Nate entered with a grin. I half expected him to have brought a slew of guys with him, but he nudged the door shut before heading our way. He handed Logan the bourbon and sank down in a nearby chair with a beer in hand. “What are you dipshits doing in here? You’re hiding from everyone.”
Logan glowered as he opened the bottle. “We are not. We’re commiserating.”
He didn’t respond to Logan, though, instead giving me a slight nod. “What were you talking about?”
“About how Sam’s bio dad is a fucking piece of shit,” Logan said.
Nate’s eyebrows shot up. “Say it like you mean it. Say it from the chest.”
Logan frowned, but he didn’t seem to care enough to decipher that Nate was messing with him. “How was cuddling with Harold last night? Do tortoises get wood?”
I stifled a laugh.
Nate scowled. “Thanks for all the help with deterring my wife from luring that turtle into our bedroom. Heard all about the audience who thought it was hilarious. Quincey was laughing about it this morning.”
Logan shared a look with me before he smirked. “Not my wife, not my problem.”
Nate growled.
Logan snickered before gesturing to me. “We’re talking about our piece-of-shit parents who are also piece-of-shit grandparents. James and Analise are the exception—” He winced, paling. “Were the exception. Helen’s pathetic, and Brickshire’s been a ghost. Does Maddy even remember him?”
I shook my head. “I honestly don’t know. I think he’s been in contact with Sam over the last five years, but it’s been sporadic and nothing substantial. He sent her a postcard once.”
“A postcard?” Nate shook his head. “I forgot those things exist.”
Samantha’s half sister had been six the last time she saw her. There’d been another kid, but I couldn’t remember his name. I’d questioned Sam one time about it, asking if it bothered her that Garrett was absent from our life. She’d shrugged. “He doesn’t have the excuse this time of not knowing about me.” She hadn’t wanted to talk about it anymore and rolled over, taking the blanket with her. I’d considered asking my private investigator to look into him, but when I brought it up a few days later, Sam shook her head. Her shoulders tensed and her jaw got tight. “You will not. It’s his decision not to be in my life. I chase no one. If this is how he’s chosen to be as my father, I don’t want him in our kids’s life as a grandparent. They’ve got two sets who love them tenfold what he might’ve. Let’s focus on the ones who are here.”
We’d dropped it after that, but I knew Sam kept tabs on her little sister somehow.
“That’s sad,” Nate remarked.
I tilted my head to the side. “It’s life. We have blessings in other ways.”
“Yeah. Focus on the silver-lining shit.” Logan took another swig, thrusting his free hand in the air. He coughed a few times before rasping out, “Let’s go fuck ’em up. What’s his number? I want to find out where he is. We got a whole list by now, Mase. It’s like we never left.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “We never left? You move here in the last day and I didn’t catch when that happened?”
He glowered. “You know what I mean.”
I did. I was a little salty about it. Now that I was here, now that we were going to war, I wanted my brother by my side. I took the bottle away from him, capping it and putting it on the floor on my other side. “He’s in Europe, and no, we’re not.”
“Hey,” Logan protested
I glared at him. “You’ve had enough. You can’t keep getting drunk and leaving your wife to deal with Sammy. That kid is a handful, and she’s pregnant.”
He rolled his eyes. “I got drunk one night. Tonight’s the second. Don’t insinuate I’m a selfish husband.” He scowled at me.
We were glaring at each other as Nate laughed, missing the actual anger bristling between us. “I still think it’s fucking hilarious that you named your son Sammy,” he said. “And even more hilarious that Taylor was okay with it. You basically named your kid after your sister-in-law.”
I grinned, remembering when he delivered the news. Sam had been horrified.
Logan laughed too, the tension easing. “It started as a joke, but we were so sad after losing our girl that we wanted to take our time naming him. Then Taylor’s dad had a heart attack and well, time took off. The little guy just became Sammy.”
Nate was still laughing, shaking his head. “And his nickname is Sam. That’s the funniest part of it.”
Logan snickered, and then closed his eyes, going still.