Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
“Perfect.” Layla sets her phone on the seat and pulls a wipe out of a plastic tube. “Wipe your sticky hands before you get in the minivan.” She glances over her shoulder at me. “Help yourself to a wipe if you don’t want sticky hands in your car.”
Reagan holds up her sticky fingers and wiggles them.
I frown at her before smiling at Layla. “Thanks.”
When both girls are in the vehicles, I head to the driver’s side of my car.
“Colten, thanks for being the sounding board I didn’t know I needed today.”
I smile. “My pleasure.”
“Maybe we’ll see you when the pool goes in.”
I nod. “Maybe. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. It was nice meeting you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“If your wife dies, will you find another wife?”
“I’m sixteen. I have a girlfriend, not a wife,” I said to Josie while we washed my truck in the driveway.
“Jennifer is your girlfriend?” She stopped her motions and stood ramrod straight while the sponge dripped water and suds down her leg.
I shrugged.
“You’re an asshole. Do you hear me?”
I was thankful that her parents had gone to dinner, my parents were seeing a counselor, and Chad was glued to the screen playing games because I had a feeling it was about to get bad.
“You had your hand up my shirt and your tongue down my throat last Friday night. And now Jennifer is your girlfriend?”
I glanced around to see if any of the neighbors were outside and within earshot.
“You can’t be my girlfriend.”
Josie hurled the sponge at my head then grabbed the hose nozzle and turned it onto the hardest stream, spraying every inch of my body. I just stood there with my eyes closed, letting her do her thing. I liked her thing. All of her wild emotions and her willingness to let me stay in her dad’s good graces by not telling him about us. Had he really known what we did when no one was looking, she would have had a 4:00 p.m. curfew, and I wouldn’t have been allowed on their property past the driveway.
When I didn’t give her the satisfaction of reacting, she charged at me, shoving my chest, pitching a fit. I loved it.
“Tell me she’s not your girlfriend or so help me, I’m going to end you, Mosley.” She continued to shove my chest until we were in the garage.
I grabbed her face and kissed her.
Again, she shoved me. After several seconds of her huffing and puffing her anger, hands balled into tight fists, she threw herself at me.
We kissed for a long time. She had a point to make, or so she thought. I knew the score. I knew what we were even if nobody else did. And maybe I should have said as much, but I enjoyed her attacking me like that. I liked the chase. And then I liked letting her catch me, letting her win.
When she released my mouth and rubbed her lips together, I couldn’t hide my grin. It was a silent victory lap.
“Now I’m wet,” she said.
I waggled my eyebrows. “Is that so?”
Her cheeks flamed in shades of red. “Pervert.”
“Jennifer doesn’t think I’m a pervert.”
“If you mention her name again, I’m going to tell my dad that you felt me up last week.”
I took a step closer, peering down at her with the usual look I gave her to call her bluff.
“Fine.” She sighed. “I’m not going to tell him that, but you will never see these,” she pointed to her tits, “again.”
I grinned. “Well, why didn’t you say that to begin with? Jennifer? Jennifer who?”
Josie’s addictive smile swelled until I felt it punch me in the chest. She rolled her eyes and sauntered toward my truck, plucking the sponge from the ground and dunking it into the five-gallon bucket of soapy water. “Now, answer my question. If something happens to your wife, will you find another? Or will your heart only belong to your first love?”
“Well, I told you I’m not getting married.”
“No. You said you weren’t having kids. Not the same thing.”
I used the brush to scrub the tires. I didn’t like talking about my future like Josie wasn’t going to be part of it. I knew she didn’t want marriage and a family, but I guess I kinda wished she’d at least want me.
“I don’t know, Josie. I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be focusing on college and baseball, not first and second wives. If you got married and lost your husband, would you remarry?”
“I’m not getting married, but hypothetically, sure. I’d remarry. Nobody wants to be lonely, right?”
I chuckled. “Apparently you’re okay with it since you don’t plan on getting married.”
“Doesn’t mean I won’t date or maybe cohabitate with a man.”
“Cohabitate?”
“It means—”
“Yes, Josie. I know what it means. It just seemed like a new dorky low, even for you.”
“Says the dumb jock who plays piano all the time.”