Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“Okay,” I said as I took the seat with my back to them.
The table that was previously filled with laughter went quiet.
“What are they even doing here so early, anyway?” Shade asked. “It’s the morning. Don’t they have jobs?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“It’s also ridiculous that you don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “He’s your father. You should know this.”
I should.
Only, they’d never given me that information.
“The least they could do was let you drive a snowplow,” he muttered. “They make a fuckin’ killing.”
They did.
By the end of the winter, Cody had enough money saved up to not have to work for the entire summer.
I’d never know what that was like.
“Whatever,” I said as I looked at the menu.
The waitress came over and took our order. The moment she was gone I heard a throat clear from behind me.
I looked up and over to see Mable with her arms crossed, forcing me to turn around to face her otherwise I’d have to stare at her through an awkward angle.
“What do you want?” Shade asked.
“Shade,” I chastised him.
He rolled his eyes, but got up to give me privacy anyway.
Then Cody joined Mable.
Each of them stared at me with disappointment. “Why would you do that?”
“Do what?”
Even though I had a fairly good idea what they meant.
“Don’t play dumb, Birdee. It’s unbecoming.”
“I’m assuming you’re talking about Creed’s sister?”
Mable narrowed her eyes. “You know that’s what I’m talking about.”
I swallowed hard.
Was it a bad thing to want Bernice to have her brother? I wished I had that kind of love.
“Why do you care?” I rolled my eyes.
“We care because Creed is important to us,” she said. “Why did you put your nose into something that wasn’t yours to begin with?”
I didn’t need to give them the reasoning behind why I’d done it.
I mean, what was the fucking point of telling them that I’d kill to have a family that loved me? That I’d love to have someone that always had my back. That would be there no matter what.
So sue me if I wanted to make sure that Bernice got that back.
I’d do it again, too.
“Now’s not the time and place for this, and you know it,” I said. “Please respect that we need to have this conversation privately.”
And they damn well knew it.
Mable looked around, cheeks flushing, as she realized that she was actually the one bringing up stuff better left unsaid in public.
Then again, it wasn’t my man that would be in trouble if they were to be found out.
I didn’t have a man.
That was made painfully obvious today, now wasn’t it?
Mable and Cody went back to their seats.
I looked back to see my father frowning at me disapprovingly.
My stomach soured, and the food that was placed in front of me by Shade made me want to puke.
“What was that about?” Shade asked as he retook his seat.
“Nothing,” I lied, then changed the subject. “What are you doing here?”
He jerked his chin at the door. “You remember her, right?”
I did.
“Yeah?”
“I want to go out on a date with her, but she thinks that I’m an asshole because of Mable. I’m trying to change her mind.” He sighed. “I’m not sure it’s going to work.”
We both looked over at Cody and Mable as they chatted with my dad and the woman that’d told us to sit anywhere we wanted.
Oh, yeah.
The way they were now all staring at us didn’t give me good feelings at all.
“Maybe it’d be better for you to find someone new,” I suggested. “Someone not in Sawtooth.”
He grunted and we ate.
Well, he did.
I picked at my food and made it look like I ate.
“What’s their issue?” Shade jerked his chin toward a table in the corner of the room.
I looked that way and found that there was a group of men taking up the entire back corner.
Dixie Wardens.
It wasn’t a surprise to see them in here. A club member owned the place. But what was a surprise was the look of anger on all of their faces when they aimed their gazes toward me.
Even Boone was glowering.
I looked away, suddenly not hungry for even Reyelle’s sweet treats. “I don’t know,” I lied to my best friend for the thousandth time that day. “Maybe we should leave.”
Shade threw a couple of twenties down to cover our meals and walked out with me.
I tried really hard not to look at the men as I did.
By the time we got back home with my stuff, I was exhausted. “Thanks for the ride, Shade.”
“No problem,” he said. “Charleigh’s giving you one to work tomorrow?”
“She is,” I confirmed.
He winked at me and waited until I was on the path back up to my door before he pulled out of my driveway.
But as I looked at the splintered wood where Creed had just gone all Kool-Aid Man on my door, I figured that the door handle wouldn’t cut it. Neither would the wood I’d bought.