Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
So an hour later, with a plan in mind, a sandwich, a couple bottles of water, and my whistle in my backpack, I headed down the stairs, hoping and praying that Mr. Rhodes was back in his house.
I wasn’t that lucky.
He had a shirt on, but that was the only difference.
Darn.
In a faded blue T-shirt with a logo I couldn’t place, he was standing off to the side of the pile of wood that he’d stacked at some point under a blue tarp. Beside him was Amos in a bright red T-shirt and jeans, looking an awful lot like he was either begging or arguing with him.
At the sound of the door closing, they both turned.
He’d caught me checking him out. Act cool.
“Morning!” I called out.
I didn’t miss the funny face that Amos made or the way he glanced from my backpack to his dad and back. I’d seen that expression before on my nephews’ faces. I wasn’t sure anything good ever came from those faces either.
But the teenager seemed to make a quick decision because he jumped right into it. “Hi.”
“Morning, Amos. How are you?”
“Fine.” He pressed his lips together. “Are you going hiking?”
“Yeah.” I smiled at him, realizing just how tired I was. “Why? Do you want to go?” I teased, mostly. Hadn’t his dad said he wasn’t an outdoorsy person?
The quiet boy perked up in a subtle way. “Can I?”
“Go?”
He nodded.
Oh. “If your dad is fine with it and you want to,” I told him with a laugh, surprised.
Amos peeked at his dad, smiled this super sneaky smile, and nodded. “Two minutes!” the teenager yelled at ten times the volume he normally spoke at, surprising me even more, before turning on his heel and disappearing up the deck and into his house.
Leaving me standing there blinking.
And his dad standing there blinking too.
“Did he say he’s coming with me?” I asked, in almost a daze from pure surprise.
The older man shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t see that coming,” he muttered more to himself than to me from the way he was still staring after the door. “I told him he couldn’t hang out with his friends since he’s still grounded, but if he wanted to be around an adult it was okay.”
Oh wow. I got it now.
“Damn, he got you,” I laughed.
That had his attention turning toward me, still looking like he’d gotten scammed.
I snorted. “I can tell him no after all if you want me to. I swear I thought you said he didn’t like doing outdoor things. That’s why I asked.” I’d feel terrible retracting the invitation, but I would if it really bothered him. “Unless you want to come too. You know, so he’s not totally getting away with it. I don’t mind either way, but I don’t want you to feel weird with me hanging out with your son. I’m not a creeper or anything, I swear.”
Mr. Rhodes’s gaze slid toward his front door again and stayed there like he was thinking very deeply about how the hell he was going to get out of the loophole he’d unknowingly given someone who was supposed to be grounded.
Or maybe he was wondering how to tell me that he was absolutely not okay with me taking his child for a hike. I wouldn’t blame him.
“It might be torture for him hanging out with me for a couple hours,” I told him. “I promise I’m not going to do anything to him. I’d invite Jackie, but I know she and Clara are going shopping in Farmington. I wouldn’t mind the company.” I paused. “But it’s up to you. I promise I’m only attracted to grown men. He reminds me of my nephews.”
Those gray eyes moved in my direction, his expression still thoughtful.
The kid burst through the front door, with a stainless-steel bottle looped through one finger and what looked like two granola bars in his other hand.
“You don’t care if he goes?” was the quiet question that came at me.
“Not at all,” I confirmed. “If you’re okay with it.”
“You’re only going for a hike?”
“Yes.”
I saw him hesitate before letting out another one of his deep breaths. Then he murmured, “I need a minute,” just as Amos stopped in front of me and said, “I’m ready.”
Was . . . was Mr. Rhodes coming too?
He disappeared into the house even faster than his son had, his movements and strides long and fluid considering how muscular he was.
I needed to stop thinking about his muscles. Like yesterday. I knew better already, didn’t I? Subtle, I was not.
“Where’s he going?” Amos asked, watching his dad too.
“I don’t know. He said to give him a minute. He might be coming too . . . ?”
The kid let out a frustrated sigh that made me side-eye him.
“Change your mind?”
He seemed to think about it for a second before shaking his head. “No. As long as I get out of the house, I don’t care.”