Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
He nodded and looked like he was going to say more when I bolted into the room, letting the door close behind me. Jeez, he was hard to shake off.
I met Meg’s curious gaze and hadn’t realized anyone was in there. Seeing as all of the second grade was currently in PE, it made sense she’d be getting some things done too.
“Hey,” I replied.
She studied me as if I were some new creature she had never seen before instead of the teacher who worked across the hall from her.
“Hey.” She said the word slowly.
What was going on?
“So, was that Toby you were talking to in the hallway?” She asked the question as if this were a piece of juicy gossip.
Good Lord, I did not need folks thinking we were dating because we had gone to the festival together.
“Yes. He was just getting here, and I passed him the hallway. He likes to talk,” I explained.
“I see,” she replied, but I didn’t think she saw at all. Her eyes scanned my body, as if trying to find something new about me.
What was her deal? She’d never acted so strange before.
“Are you done with the copy machine?” I asked.
She took the stack of papers from the machine and nodded. “Yep. All yours.” Her voice still sounded as if there were some secret she knew that I didn’t.
“Okay,” I said, watching her as she gave me a tight smile.
A flash of pity in her eyes had me frowning and watching her leave.
Why had she looked at me like that?
I took the first math sheet I needed to get copies of and tried to think of what that could have been about. I’d thought that Holly had given me the same look this morning when I passed her in the hall, but I decided I had misinterpreted it or that it wasn’t about me. Now, I wasn’t so sure. Was this about me and Toby? Did I have to get on the intercom and announce that we were not dating? Jeez, they all needed a hobby if that was the gossip today. And why now? It was Wednesday, and we’d not been seen near each other all week.
Rolling my eyes, I chose to forget about the women here and the silly junior-high behavior and get my work done.
Twenty-Four
Oz
“You got in late,” Bane said as he walked into the kitchen while I was making a sub for lunch.
I glanced back at him, then went back to putting the mustard on my bread. What was he, my fucking dad now? He had a kid. It wasn’t me.
“What were you up to until after three?”
I didn’t look at him this time, but picked up the deli cheese instead. “I wasn’t aware I needed to check in with you.”
“You don’t. I was just putting Hawks back to bed and saw your door closed. Figured if it wasn’t family business, it was a woman.”
Leave it alone, Bane.
He walked over and leaned back against the counter I was working on, crossing his arms and studying me, so I had no choice but to look at him.
“What?” I asked. The annoyance in my tone wasn’t hidden.
“Nothing.”
I clenched my teeth. Damn him and his nosy shit.
“Please tell me that Wilma made us something for lunch,” Forge said as he walked into the kitchen, dressed in dirt-coated jeans, a shirt that had been white this morning but no longer was, and his boots.
“No,” I replied, looking from Bane to my brother. “You been trying to break that quarter Kash sent to us?” I asked him, putting the two sides of my sub together and picking up my plate.
“Yeah. No wonder he sent it to us. It thinks it’s a fucking bull. I swear to God I haven’t been tossed that many times in my life.”
My baby brother, Kash, had moved to the Alabama branch of the family when he turned twenty-one. Originally, it was for a girl, but that was a story with a tragic ending. However, he had stayed there. Found his place. Dad and Kash had never seen eye to eye. Mom had spoiled him too, which just made it worse.
“I hadn’t gotten on him yet. Planned on it later today. Ransom needed some help at the distillery this morning.”
Bane was still watching me. I could feel his eyes follow me as I took my lunch and went to sit down on a stool at the bar.
Why was what I was doing with Winslet so fucking interesting to him? When he had been sneaking his ass upstairs to sleep with Halo, I hadn’t said one damn word. I’d let him make his own choices. I’d appreciate the same.
Forge went over to the refrigerator and opened it up. “Why was your knife in the passenger seat of my truck?”
Fuck. Because I’d been preoccupied, thinking about how Winslet had looked sleeping. My eyes, of their own accord, went to Bane. He cocked an eyebrow at me.