Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 300(@250wpm)___ 250(@300wpm)
“M…”
At hearing the first sound, Ariya spun on her heels, scooped the little girl up in her arms, and took her inside.
Confused at her words, and sudden departure, I walked to the truck and got in, thinking for the life of me that I wished I knew that particular back story.
Ariya had always been an odd girl to me, and always would be.
That’d been partially why I couldn’t find any common ground with her.
Everything that I liked, she loathed.
Slamming the door to the truck, I belted my buckle in place and headed off to my second appointment for the day—my parole officer.
***
Four hours later, I was knee deep in mud that felt like I was stepping in warm shit.
It smelled like shit, too.
“Why the hell would you drive in here?” I muttered. “Sometimes it’s good to use common sense.”
Baylor looked at me like I had a screw loose.
“It wasn’t mud when I drove on it, dumbass,” he shot back. “And that fucking man over there is the dumb one. Who the hell would think that they can drive on fucking water?”
I didn’t have an answer to that. Not a single one.
Hooking the last of the chains in place, I slugged through the knee-deep mud to the back of the truck, pressed the button for the winch to start pulling forward, and hoped that this would work.
We were in luck. It did.
Ten minutes later, I was calling in to dispatch and relaying my location.
“I’m not going to be back until I can get a shower,” I told dispatch. “And lunch.”
“10-4.”
Instead of driving all the way home, I drove to the gas station to get some chicken, and nearly ran straight into Hennessey the moment I opened the door.
“Jesus, you scared the shit out of me,” she declared, placing one hand over her heart.
I grinned. “Just openin’ the door, darlin’.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped to the side, but instead of taking her order, I made one of my own.
“You might as well come out so I don’t accidentally brush up against you.” I gestured to my clothes.
She blinked. “How the hell…”
I snorted. “Baylor tried to pull someone out, and in the process, got his own truck stuck. I had to go get him out, and this was the result.”
“I hope you got paid enough for towing them,” she mentioned.
I nodded. “He got charged for two tows.”
She snorted out a laugh and stepped outside.
“Wow, it’s even worse from the back,” she mentioned once she was behind me.
I laughed and walked inside without another word.
When I came back out, it was to find her leaning against her car, watching me.
She was snacking on a chicken taquito, a lovely fried morsel that I would forever love due to its deliciousness, and obviously waiting for me to come out.
“You mind?” I gestured to the hood where she was leaning.
She shook her head and gestured with her taquito.
“Help yourself,” she said. “Car’s already pretty dirty.”
It was.
“You should wash it,” I teased.
She snorted.
“I would if we weren’t supposed to get two weeks of rain,” she explained. “Starting tomorrow, we’re supposed to have at least a fifty percent chance of rain every single day.”
I grimaced.
Rain meant work. Work meant I’d never get to work on the house.
Wonderful.
The house would never get done at this point.
“Why the long face?” she asked, taking a drink from her cup.
The way she hovered over the straw had my dick stirring in my pants.
It was the familiar voice calling my name; however, that had that deflating in seconds.
“Tate!”
I looked toward the sound of the voice, and found my smile growing.
“Rosemary!” I grinned and stood up from my lean against Hennessy’s car, fully facing the woman.
Rosemary was Ariya’s sister. She was the one good thing that Ariya had, yet continued to treat like utter shit.
“I didn’t know you were back!” she cried out. “How the hell are you?”
I shrugged. “Doing good I guess. Working. Seeing Ms. Hanes here.”
Rosemary’s eyes went from me to Hennessy, who was still leaning against her car, munching on her lunch.
“Hennessy!”
Hennessy grinned at Rosemary.
“I didn’t know if you’d recognize me,” Hennessy offered a huge smile. “You’re looking well.”
Rosemary looked down at her body.
She was in tight black yoga pants, a black t-shirt that had a suspicious white stain on it that resembled baby puke, and tennis shoes.
“I had to run to the store for chocolate milk,” she held up the bag. “My daughter doesn’t function well without her daily dose of chocolate.”
“If I remember correctly, neither does her mother,” I teased.
Rosemary grinned for a few seconds, then that grin faded. “Have you spoken with Ariya yet?”
I nodded. “Had dinner with her a few days ago. Saw her at the pediatrician’s office this morning. That your little girl with all that red hair?”
Rosemary’s face went ashen.
“Uhhh, no.” She smiled. “I gotta go. It was good seeing you, though.”