Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
8
Connor
Sabrina was wearing a huge pink sun hat that made her easy to find. She’d spread out a picnic blanket on one of the wide, grassy tiers of the amphitheater. Jeremy added his offerings to the fried chicken, potato salad, and strawberries she’d brought, but I was too embarrassed to bring out my little sack lunch. I’d look like a kid playing with the grownups.
“You’re welcome to everything I brought,” Sabrina said. “I’m not going to eat all this.”
“Where’s Ingrid?” I asked. “I thought she was coming with you.”
“She cancelled on me at the last minute. I was so glad you guys were coming.”
“What happened?” I asked.
Sabrina shrugged. “I don’t know. She probably had to go have her energy aligned or decided last minute to attend a spirituality retreat so she can pretend she’s going to dive into a new practice that she’ll be over in about five minutes.”
Jeremy laughed. “She sounds interesting.”
“Flaky is more like it. But she entertains Connor.”
I rolled my eyes. “Where I grew up, we didn’t have hippie weirdos like that. I’m still trying to adjust.”
“Where did you grow up?” Jeremy asked.
Shit! Why had I said anything? Of course, Jeremy was curious now. I wished I at least had some food on my plate so I could pretend to be chewing and unable to talk. “I… uh… I don’t like to talk about it.”
Jeremy frowned. “Bad memories?”
"Yes. It was just a boring little town in Ohio, but my family… things weren’t good.” For a moment, I returned to my childhood.
“Can’t you do anything right, boy? Get over here and clean it again.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out, sir.”
“A dog could do a better job than this.”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“I told you what would happen if I found any wrinkles now, didn’t I.”
“Please, sir. I…”
And then the blows would come. Any protest, any contradiction, and I got hit again. I could never meet my stepfather’s standards. No matter how hard I tried. I escaped by joining the Marines where discipline reigned, and now I ran a cleaning business. I was sure Sabrina’s psychologist friend would have a field day with that.
“I’m sorry,” Jeremy said.
“It’s okay. I got out, and I’ve never been back.” Please don’t ask any more questions about it.
“How long did you serve in the Marines?” Jeremy asked.
“Eight years. For the first time, I was damn good at something. For a while, I thought I’d stay in as long as I could, but once I was on a recon team—”
“Wow, that’s like Special Forces, right?”
"Yes, some of the things I saw…” I shook my head, trying to banish the memories. “The last year of my second tour was rough.”
“How’d you end up here?” Jeremy asked.
Sabrina raised her hand. “Me. My brother and Connor were on the same recon team, so when Connor decided not to re-up, I offered him a temporary place to stay. Then his business took off, and he offered me a job so I could save money for grad school.”
“Is your brother still in the Marines?”
“Yes,” I answered for Sabrina, knowing it was a sore subject for her. I ran a hand over my hair, ruffling the buzz cut that was growing out more than I liked. “Can we change the subject now?”
Jeremy nodded, watching me with a soft look in his eyes. It wasn’t the kind of sympathy I hated, the kind that was really pity. No, Jeremy looked like he understood. But how could he with the soft life he’d obviously had?
His mother died. His aunt and uncle were cold. There wasn’t anyone to love him. You call that soft?
Fuck, I guess not.
“What’s it really like being a professor?” Sabrina asked.
Jeremy laughed. “Frustrating. Most of the students aren’t interested in what I’m teaching, departmental politics are depressing at best, and I end up with very little time to do any research or writing of my own. But honestly, I can’t imagine doing anything else, unless I was a full-time writer. Until I got this unexpected inheritance, I never thought that was a possibility. Now I’ve got to decide what direction to take.”
Sabrina’s eyes twinkled. “You could’ve gotten a sugar daddy.”
Jeremy grinned. “I was never that lucky.”
Something painful tightened in my chest. I didn’t like the thought of Jeremy with some older lover who treated him as a toy. Jeremy might look all soft and effeminate, but he was no toy. He’d had a sucky childhood, but he’d put himself through school and found a job in a field where there weren’t a lot of opportunities. “You don’t need some asshole telling you what to do. You can make it happen if that’s what you want.” I deliberately echoed Jeremy’s earlier words.
Jeremy gave me a quizzical look. Did I sound like an idiot? Maybe I did, but I wasn’t going to take back what I’d said.