Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
“Whoops,” I muttered. “I haven’t had a sec to check my texts.”
“I gathered that.”
“What did you text?” I asked curiously.
“Did you want to come to mine, or did you want a night on your own? Also, that we got a lock on Mountain.”
“I would have gone to yours, because I had nachos, but I learned recently, as in, right about now, there’s always room for leftover pastitsio. But just to say, I was going to text you when I had the chance. However, my plan was to hit the grocery store because I’m making us mocha icebox cake next. It’s probably too late for that now, but even if it isn’t, I’m finding a kidnapping kills the cooking mood.”
That muscle jumped again.
So noted.
Don’t joke about the kidnapping.
Yet.
“Is Stella okay?” I asked. “Daisy says she’s having Rock Chick flashbacks.”
“It’s her opinion I should try to talk you out of being an Angel.”
Well!
From what I knew of them, that didn’t seem very Rock Chickian.
“She got shot in the beginning of her Rock Chick gig,” Eric explained. “A graze, but it was deep. She and Mace were then shot at onstage. That time, they missed. And I could go on. She thinks you women are cool, but she also thinks you’re nuts.”
Well, again!
Eric read my affront.
“In the end, her apartment exploded, and she was holed up in a warzone that was the house where her apartment was located while she, Mace and Mace’s dad were all under heavy fire. They survived that, only for Mace’s dad to be picked off by the bad guy right in front of her eyes. He took that bullet for her. Which meant he died for her, and he did it in her arms.”
Holy fuck.
“So, yeah, she thinks you women are nuts,” Eric concluded.
I’d let her have that.
And I decided again I wasn’t reading those books.
Because…
Cripes!
“We are nuts, just not the bad kind,” I told Eric just in case he was worried.
His gaze hyper-focused on me. “You okay about your brother?”
I was not.
“Jeff has never been a dick to me. He’s obviously been harboring shitty feelings for a long time. I think he’s transferring. He is what he’s always wanted to be now, and I don’t know. I’m not in his head. I’ve never done anything but care. Maybe how I did that was too much for him, but we both speak the English language, so I have no clue why he couldn’t just tell me to back off. But I honestly don’t think it’s that. I don’t know how this shit got twisted up for him, and why it all landed on me, but that’s not my problem.”
I took another sip of cocoa while I watched the banked fire continue to burn in Eric’s eyes.
Then I kept sharing.
“Did what he say hurt me? Yes. Was the abduction way over the top? Yes. Am I still worried about him? Yes. Am I going to back right the fuck off? Yes again. Something else to know about me in our deep sharing, you get to hurt me once. Then I’m done with you. I’ll always love him. And I might get over it. But right now, I’m done with him.”
“I sensed that about you with the unemotional kill shot you delivered your ex. He waited two very long seconds for you to stop him from leaving, and you just stared at him. Then he left and you didn’t even watch him go.”
“You were right. I wasn’t catching his vibe. I’m glad you pointed that out because he needs to move on.”
“And the way you laid into Luna’s sister.”
My lips turned down. “That was wrong.”
“So you know, both you and Luna were right about what I was communicating. I thought it was Luna’s battle, not yours, and you needed to butt out. But also, the woman was obviously begging for a confrontation. She dresses like a hippie, but she’s a drama queen. She feeds off negative attention. It’s her drug of choice. You were giving her her fix, so I was also telling you to chill out. She wasn’t worth it.”
“Whoa,” I breathed at this revelation. “She is a drama queen. How did I not see that? It’s always about the drama with Dream.”
“Shocked as shit that woman is Scott and Louise’s daughter, and Luna’s sister.”
“Do you have a take on that?” I asked.
“On what?”
“Why she’s so different from all of them? You’re also right about the negative attention. Which is weird. It’s not like Scott, Louise and Luna are always rays of sunshine like Harlow.” I reconsidered. “Well, Louise is. But none of them are like Dream.”
He shrugged. “Could be she feels left out because they’re tight. But she’s a grown-ass woman, so she should learn to deal with her feelings without lashing out.”
“No truer words spoken.”
And he had a point about Dream maybe feeling left out.