Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34426 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 172(@200wpm)___ 138(@250wpm)___ 115(@300wpm)
She shifted, turning to face him fully. “Seriously? You just travel around and stay wherever you want?”
He had a muscled arm resting on the open window. “For the most part.”
“What do you do for work?”
“I’m good with my hands. Wherever I land, I can always find work.”
“Wow, that sounds—”
“Crazy?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
She grinned. “Amazing. You’re so… free.” She couldn’t keep the wonder from her voice. To go where she wanted, when she wanted, for how long she wanted? What freedom. Something she’d never know but always craved. It was why she spent so much of her downtime with her face buried in a book. If she couldn’t travel in the real world, she could escape there in her mind with stories of vivid characters and settings. “You’re lucky.”
Their eyes met and sizzled between them. They seemed to form a link as though their souls recognized one another and longed to create a bond.
He blinked, and the spell broke.
Maybe she spent too much time reading.
“I won’t be long. I just need to throw some stuff in a bag. Ten minutes tops.”
“Let’s go.” He opened the passenger door and unfolded himself from her little car. She gawked as he stretched his arms overhead, revealing those abs she’d gotten a peek of the night before. And the ink. He had more tattoos than any man she’d ever seen, and she’d seen plenty working at a truck-stop diner.
Her throat dried up. The moisture went to her palms, now sweaty on the steering wheel. What would all those muscles feel like? Under her hands. Over her body. Pressing her down into a bed.
She shivered. It’d been a while since she’d been with a man. Earning a livable wage and dealing with her brother’s shenanigans took up too much time and left her too exhausted for dating. Moose wouldn’t want to date. He hated someone clinging to him, but maybe while he was in town and sharing his bed with her, they could do more than sleep.
“You cold?”
She blinked. “What?”
He propped an arm on the top of the car and leaned his head down to see her. “You shivered. I asked if you’re cold.”
“Oh.” Her face heated. “No. I’m good.” Too hot, in fact. “Let’s go.”
Smooth, Daisy.
She scurried up the walkway ahead of him to the front door of her little three-bedroom house. Pink and purple hydrangeas lined the front of her home beneath the windows, along with daylilies and azalea bushes. Somehow, she’d managed to keep most of her grandmother’s plants alive in the three years since she inherited the house. The garden had been her grandmother’s pride and joy. Daisy wasn’t blessed with the same green thumb, but apparently, she could follow a YouTube video on caring for plants.
“Pretty,” Moose said as he trailed behind her.
“Oh, thank you. Wish I could take credit for it, but the flowers were all my grandmother. She let the rest of the house fall into disrepair, but her flowers thrived. God help you if you told her she was too old to work in the garden all day. You’d get whopped on the side of the head with her cane.”
“You said she passed years ago. Obviously, the plants aren’t alive today because of her. You must have worked hard.”
Pleasure warmed her. She wouldn’t have expected him to notice.
“I did, thank you.” Smiling at the memory of her feisty grandmother and Moose’s praise, Daisy unlocked the door and stepped inside.
A harsh gasp ripped from her throat. She stopped dead in her tracks. “My house!” she whispered.
“What’s wro… oh, fuck.”
Someone had trashed her home—flipped furniture sliced open, dumped every belonging she owned on the floor, smashed anything breakable, and tore the pictures off the walls.
She didn’t need to wonder who the culprits were.
Tears immediately flooded her eyes. “Do…” She swallowed. “Do you think the whole house is like this?”
He sighed. “I doubt they’d stop at one room.”
“Yeah.” She dreaded what she’d find in the other rooms.
“Damn you, Ricky,” she whispered. Why else would someone go to such great lengths? Had they been searching for the money her brother owed? Was this punishment for last night? Or could it be something more?
She turned to Moose. “Do you think my brother might have something else they want? Something besides the money?”
Rubbing the back of his head, Moose said, “That’d be my guess. They’d have to know he’d take the money with him when he skipped town. I’d bet he also swiped some drugs. Probably a shitload.”
She nodded. Her heart felt so heavy. For so long, she’d hoped Ricky would grow up and start making something of himself. If she gave him a place to stay and her unconditional love, it’d be enough to set him on the right path. Time and time again, he’d proven her wrong. “This time, it’s gone too far,” she whispered as the tears fell.