Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 508(@200wpm)___ 406(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
At least I hoped I could. I wasn’t sure banks loaned money to twenty-three-year-olds without a ton of credit. Everything we had was in my father’s name, so I hadn’t built any. Thankfully, being a small, locally-owned bank, Madison Valley Bank had let us keep making payments on the existing loan without changing over the name. I wasn’t sure someone who didn’t know us would do the same.
“What about the CD?” Jake asked. “We could get student loans for school.”
I shook my head. “It isn’t enough.”
“How much do we still owe?”
It might as well have been a million dollars. “Two hundred thousand.”
“What? After twenty plus years?”
My stomach rolled with the anxiety attacking my system. I had no choice but to tell them. They needed to know everything so they could help me figure this out. “Dad put the land and house up as collateral when he bought the bar, so it’s not just the house we’ll lose if I can’t find the money.”
“Are you saying that dickweed holds the note to everything?” Josh asked. “That if we can’t pay, he’ll get the land, the house, and the bar?”
I rolled my lips to keep from screaming. I had to figure this out. I wouldn’t let my brothers down. We’d already lost too much. “Don’t worry about it, that’s my job. I’ll work it out somehow.”
“You can’t do everything, Skye,” Josh bit out. “Ask those fucking people who are supposed to be our grandparents. Where have they been when we needed them?”
In Florida, living off the money Justice Bear gave them to heal their son, is where they were. They hated my father and never looked back once my mother died.
“Don’t cuss,” I sighed, rubbing at my temple.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he raged in a burst of anger, then punched the dash twice before Jake grabbed his hand.
“Chill, Little Bro,” Jake warned.
We were entering the town’s limits, so I slowed for the stop sign. Their school was five blocks from the bar, so they usually walked unless the weather was bad. With everything going on, I drove past the bar and kept going. I didn’t need them causing a scene. The town was already concerned I couldn’t handle raising my headstrong brothers. If they fought on the way to school, I’d never hear the end of it.
“I want to walk,” Josh hissed. “Stop the fucking truck.” I opened my mouth to argue, and he shouted “Now! Godda—”
Jake’s arm shot out, and he wrapped it around Josh’s neck and mouth, silencing him. “Do not fucking talk to her like that.” Jake’s voice dropped so low he sounded like our father.
I pulled into a parking space in the middle of the town and threw the truck into park so I could handle them without hitting someone. As expected with those two, fists began to fly and I started shouting at them in panic. People on the sidewalks turned to look at the commotion, their eyes bearing down on me as I dodged arms and legs.
Between their curious stares, the out of control fight, and our lives falling apart around us it triggered my flight or fight response. I’d been holding on to it by the skin of my teeth since our father died, but the dam burst. Adrenaline pumped through my system in waves, speeding my heart rate to a thundering pace, paralyzing me instantly with fear. This was my worst nightmare come alive. That in the end I’d fail everyone, and we’d be forced to split up.
I tried to force air into my lungs to gain control, but it felt like I was in a vacuum being sucked down a dark hole with no end in sight. I needed to move to burn off the excess adrenaline and felt my hand reaching for the driver’s door and escape.
How had we gotten here? How had everything gone to hell in a moment’s time? It wasn’t bad enough we lost both our parents before we were ready to be on our own. Or our only living grandparents ignored us to fend for ourselves while I worked twelve-hour days to keep the lights on. Now we had to worry about losing everything. And with winter only days away, that meant no tourists. Our income was about to be cut in half for the next seven months. If I didn’t sort this out quickly, we’d have no home and no income. The boys would end up in foster care because I couldn’t provide for them. I was so scared, it felt like the darkness was winning, and for a brief second, I was ready to let it pull me under and not come up for days.
They said God doesn’t give us more than we can handle. What they don’t tell us is your absolute limit might be the rockiest of bottoms with the sharpest edges. And every one of them will seem insurmountable to climb.