Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“Wow,” Imogen whispered. “That’s a pretty selfless act right there.”
“My mother is an amazing woman,” I agreed. “By the time the attacks stopped, I was already in school. Had friends. So the decision was made on my parents’ end to leave me there until I asked to go back home…which I never did.”
“Why didn’t you want to?” she pushed.
I grinned.
“I had a best friend—who became my brother when I was nineteen—when my father married his mother. His name is Michael, though he’s called Booth now,” I smiled fondly. “He was—is—my best friend. Booth is expecting his second baby any day now.”
“Your mother is the nicest person I know,” she murmured. “I was just protective of her, I guess.”
I grinned.
“I came to see her quite a bit. Every holiday. Every day off from school. My parents would meet halfway and pass me off.” I pursed my lips. “Why are you acting like you know me?”
She smiled.
“That’s because I do…or did.”
Chapter 5
Cunt.
-Coffee Cup
Imogen
“What’s going on?” I whispered, walking over to the door.
“A fight between Aaron and his girl,” my sister, Sunny, murmured as she watched the drama unfold through the peephole of our apartment door.
“Move over,” I ordered, pushing her so I could get a look as well.
“What’s going on?” Sunny pushed. “Come on. We need to drill another peephole. Do you think Carl will take our security deposit if we do that? This is the third time this week that this has happened.”
“She can’t even look him in the eye,” I murmured, taking in the two. “Every time she tries to lift her eyes to his, her face blanches and she looks away. But her words are distracting him.”
Her words, and her tits, always distracted him. They’d been distracting him for the last week.
See, there was a story behind Aaron and this girl, Tawny. Tawny and Aaron started kindergarten together and were best friends until Aaron moved away with his father when he was in third grade. Aaron and Tawny had been inseparable each time Aaron came home, and the whole town expected the two to be married.
But then he’d joined the marines, and Tawny had moved on when he no longer made it home as often as he had been.
Which had surprised not only all of us, but Aaron as well, when he’d come back for her the day he completed his first tour of duty.
He’d never been back since.
Not until a few months ago when he’d shown up out of the blue—across the hall from me.
Though, by the looks of his apartment, he’d been there a lot longer than a few days.
“Hey, Aunt Imogen? Aunt Sunny?” Davis called from behind me. “Would it be okay if I go play outside in the playground area?”
I paused, wondering if it was okay.
Was it?
Was he allowed to go outside by himself?
I didn’t know.
I really didn’t.
“Uhhh,” I hesitated.
“Mom and Dad used to let me do it all the time,” Davis added, knowing I was teetering on the edge of saying no.
“Yes, I guess that’s okay,” I finally settled on. “But stay where I can see you from the window, and if you go out of the area where you’re allowed to be, you’re coming back up here and you won’t be able to do that ever again.”
Forgetting Aaron and that woman were in the hallway, I yanked the door open to let Davis pass by, and immediately froze when I saw Aaron running his hand up the back of Tawny’s shirt.
“There’s a time and place for that,” I snapped. “And in the hallway where little kids are isn’t one of them.”
Sunny snickered behind me and I turned my glare on her.
“Davis, remember what I said,” I ordered as he passed by, not even noticing what was going on right in front of him.
I sure as hell did, though.
“Hi, Mr. Aaron,” Davis said as he passed.
“Hi, Davis.”
Aaron’s voice was laced with humor and I had to resist the urge to smack him.
Once Davis made it down the stairs, I walked back inside and closed the door, immediately walking to the window and staring outside to make sure he got to the playground okay.
He did.
And he was talking animatedly with another kid—one who looked like a hoodlum in his baggy pants and way too big t-shirt.
He was likely only Davis’ age, but looked a lot rougher around the edges.
“Hey, Sun,” I called. “Do you know that kid?”
Sunny came over, thankfully abandoning the peephole, and looked over my shoulder.
“That’s Kaleb…or Kalen. I can’t remember. He’s the one who lives in the apartment below us with that creepy brother,” she muttered. “The one that has all those tattoos that look like gang signs.”
I shivered as I thought about the man she was describing.
The man’s name was Kevin. Such an unassuming name for a man that had the power to scare the crap out of me with just one look.