Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“For Nancy, don’t you want to—?” Raye started in on Tex.
With practice, Otis casually swayed back to be out of the line of fire as Tex pointed another portafilter at her, this one used, and there it was.
No matter how tight he packed it, the grounds would come out. I knew this because we all had to jump away when they went flying in our direction and plopped on the ground five inches in front of Luna’s cute wedges.
“Shut it!” he thundered.
“What’s your problem with plants?” Jessie demanded to know.
“My woman had a stroke in her fifties,” Tex bit back. “And she isn’t gonna have another one under the baking sun, and I sure as fuck ain’t gonna be out in it.”
I refrained from sharing, if he didn’t wear jeans and long-sleeved flannels, he might be more comfortable, and that no one in Phoenix wanted to be out in the baking sun, that was why there were drip systems.
But it was too sweet why he wanted dirt and rocks only, so I kept my mouth shut.
The rest of the Angels felt the same because we all wandered away from the cubby, with Harlow running to grab a rag to clean up the grounds.
“We need a new pool as to whether Annette and Roxie are going to win, or Tex is gonna win,” Shanti, feeling herself after her windfall, said.
“I’m not betting against Tex,” Luna replied. “But I’ll take that action.”
We all got our heads together and laid down the money (and since it was only ten dollars, I bought in).
Luna, Harlow and Jessie said Tex would win.
Raye, Shanti and I picked Annette and Roxie.
The reasoning behind my pick?
Tex was all bark and no bite. He loved his girls and took care of them. That included Nancy, all the Rock Chicks, all the Angels, also Annette.
He even liked Dream in a bad-tempered way.
So he might bluster.
But in the end, he was going down.
SEVENTEEN
NOT EVEN CLOSE
I was in the kitchen in my apartment, close to being finished with decorating the birthday cake I was delivering that evening.
I’d also whipped up a quick batch of cupcakes to give to Duane that night.
And I’d packed all the stuff I was going to lug to SC the next day to start on my other weekly orders that afternoon.
Therefore, I was good to get what I needed to get done, hit the motel with my team after Shanti, Harlow and Jessie’s shift was over, and then get home to have lots of sex with Gabe.
Sure, after very little sleep, I was dragging.
But now Sunday was only four days away.
This was where I was at when I heard two sharp raps on the door, the locks started to go, and I smiled to myself because I knew it was Gabe.
A surprise visit.
Nice.
And it was Gabe.
But my smile died the minute I caught the look on his face.
“What—?” I began as he prowled to me, his expression thunder, his eyes a storm.
But that was all I got out before he shoved his phone, screen out, at me.
“You didn’t tell me about this,” he growled.
Completely flipped out at how mad he oh-so-obviously was, and completely mystified as to why he would be, I tore my eyes from his face and looked at his phone.
At what I saw, like any time that shit reared its ugly head, my lungs deflated, and my heart felt like it was going to explode.
“What the fuck, Willow?” he demanded.
On his phone was an old social media post about me being easy in high school, when I was not easy.
Even if I was, it was nobody’s business.
And to be easy, boys had to be easy too, so I shouldn’t have had to bear the brunt of it.
Then again, it happened in high school, so at that time, I hadn’t progressed enough in my thinking to understand everyone was being more of an asshole than they were actually assholes by putting me through all of that.
“How did you—?” I began.
He pulled the phone from my face. “When all the shit kicked off with the Angels, Brody did deep dives on all of you. As you add Angels, he does the research. He heard about us getting together, he thought I’d want to know.”
I’d never met this Brody, but when I did, I was going to kick him in the shin.
But now, I had to deal with…
Whatever this was.
I was shedding the residual fear and anxiety that automatically surfaced with any reminder of all of that and how it felt at the time, and I was beginning to get ticked because I wasn’t a fan of being confronted with it like I’d done something wrong, when I hadn’t.
And anyway, why was Gabe so mad about it?
We hadn’t shared cherry-popping stories yet, but I was pretty sure he knew he didn’t pop mine.