Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“You’re the girl that used to sneak up here.”
I knew the minute he saw me that he remembered who I was.
Though, it was hard not to when a couple of teenagers used to be on your property as much as Reed and I had been. We’d swam naked in the man’s pond, and ran these woods like they were our own. Sure, it’d been wrong…but Reed and I hadn’t done anything truly illegal. We’d just spent time here.
I bit my lip. “Yes.”
The man’s smile was genuine.
“That boy still around?”
Something in my face must’ve showed my dismay, because his eyes closed.
“You and him…y’all reminded me so much of my Jossy and me,” he said. “You want it?”
I nodded my head. “Yes, sir.”
His eyes took me in. “You got it.”
Relief like I’d never felt before poured through me.
“You really mean that?”
He grinned, showing me that he didn’t have his teeth in.
I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t.
“Yes, I mean it,” he answered. “But, before you go walking these woods…”
I paused, looking at him. “Yeah?”
“Have someone come out and sweep it for traps…I gotta say, in my younger days once I got back from war, I wasn’t in a good place.” He cleared his throat. “My Jossy saved me from that. But before she came…everything made me jittery. There are a few traps set up throughout the acreage…I don’t want you to get hurt walking out there by yourself.”
I should’ve listened, but I didn’t. Why? Because I thought I knew. I thought, since I’d spent so much time here, and we’d never seen anything like that around, that there couldn’t possibly be anything there.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Chapter 6
Well aren’t we just two scoops of grumpy with a dash of asshole this morning.
-Baylor to Reed
Reed
Present
I read the scribbled note and smiled.
Just because you drive a big truck, doesn’t mean that you can park like a dick. :)
It wasn’t signed, but it didn’t need to be. I knew exactly who it was from. I’d know that pretty handwriting anywhere. Krisney had always had such pretty handwriting. Though, now, it looked a little more elegant.
I flipped the paper over and saw a receipt for a package of Skittles, two Dr. Peppers, and a bag of pork rinds from yesterday.
Krisney.
Though, she likely didn’t know that it was my truck she was writing that note on. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have bothered.
I wanted to tell her it was hard as hell to park a dually in a fucking parking spot made for a goddamn compact car, but then I would have to talk to her. Then I’d have to admit to myself that I fucking missed her.
I’d arrived in town two days prior, and I was walking into my new job located at the county hospital. The private practice that I accepted a position with had their offices there.
My brother, Travis, was kind of pissed that I wasn’t working full-time for him like he’d hoped, but the OB position at the clinic in town had opened up suddenly and I’d pounced on it.
Not that I didn’t love the auto recovery business, but I didn’t like it as much as my job as an OB/GYN.
But the real excitement didn’t have to do with actually being at home. Nor did it have to do with the fact that I was no longer in Germany away from my family.
Nope.
The one and only reason I was excited to be home had to do with a certain strawberry blonde with the long hair and bouncy curls. The one who had the power to bring me to my knees with just a look.
Yep, that woman was my heart and soul. A heart and soul that I couldn’t have.
The night that I found out that her brother had raped my sister—and had been raping my sister for quite a long time—I had called it quits with us.
I loved her, but I wasn’t sure how the hell we were going to come back from that.
I mean, how do you look a person in the face and tell her that it’s okay that her brother raped your sister?
Sure, she didn’t have a goddamn thing to do with it, but my mind wasn’t fucking rational.
It was a swirl of emotions, and I was just trying to do the right thing.
Not to mention I knew it’d be hard for Amy to see Krisney every day and not be reminded of what had been done to her. Now, it didn’t matter, because Amy had committed suicide.
Goddammit.
I wiped my hand across my brow and wiped it on my slacks, wishing I could wear jeans.
And I would…eventually.
Once I was established, then I’d start wearing whatever the fuck I wanted. Until then, though, I’d make it look like I was one to follow the rules.
Which was laughable, really.
Rules were meant to be broken.
Which made me look like a hypocrite seeing as I wouldn’t break my own rules when it came to Krisney.