Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Naw, it ain’t your style. Case in point, your new live-in nanny. You like savin’ people, Dr. Pierce.”
“She’s here for my kids.”
“Cut the bullshit. You ain’t talkin’ to Skyler. It’s me. Man to man, ain’t nothin’ wrong wit’ movin’ on, Aiden.”
“Don’t.”
“How long you gonna live like this? Bailey wouldn’t want that, and you know it. I’ve let it go on long enough, yeah? You can’t keep this shit up, cuz your gonna lose everythin’ you worked so fuckin’ hard for. You saved my ass more than once, now save your own. Ya feel me?”
“I wish it were that easy.”
“Stop livin’ in the past, there ain’t nothin’ you can do to change what happened with Bailey. It ain’t your fault.”
“Don’t,” I advised again, holding back my temper.
“You can say ‘don’t’ to me all ya want, it doesn’t change the fact Camila is here. For you.”
“For my kids.”
“Whatever ya gotta tell yourself, bro.” He patted my back. “We both know I know women, and that woman is good wit’ your kids, and she’s good to your friends. Ya got any idea how many times she’s sent Skyler home wit’ food for the MC without ever even meetin’ us? You don’t do that for someone you don’t care ‘bout. And from the way she was just lookin’ at you, there’s sure as fuck somethin’ there between you two.”
“Noah—”
“For Christ’s sake, at least stroke your cock to her once, so it takes the fuckin’ stick outta your ass.”
I growled, and he smiled.
“You did good today. Havin’ Camila here might be the distraction you need. I gotta go. You can thank me later.” He turned and left, flicking me off from behind. This was Noah to a T, blunt as fuck. He didn’t mean any harm, he just wanted to see me happy. Back to the man he used to know.
I shook him off and spent the rest of the day thinking about her…
And I wasn’t referring to Bailey.
Chapter 8
<>Camila<>
I laid Journey down for her afternoon nap and walked down the hall to take care of some unfinished business. Needing him to hear me out, whether he wanted to or not.
“Jackson!” I shouted through the door, knocking.
“Go away!”
“We need to talk!”
“No, we don’t!”
“Jackson, please! Just ope—”
The door abruptly swung open. “What?!”
I jumped back, not expecting him to be so abrasive. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. You don’t have to bite my head off.”
“I’m fine,” he calmly remarked.
“You don’t look fine.”
“What do you need me to say? I’ll say whatever you want to make you go away.”
I snapped, “What the hell, man?! You’re worse than a moody teenage chick! You can’t be nice to me and then—”
“Nice to you? When was I nice to you?”
I didn’t want to bring this up, but it seemed like I had no choice. “Last night, you defended me to your fath—”
“I did that for Journey, not for you.”
“Oh, come on, Jackson. Even you don’t believe that. Why can’t you just admit you like me? That maybe we could be friends, especially now that I liv—” I stopped myself.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that shit. What were you about to say?”
“Well…what had happened was…last night, I umm…drank a little too much…and uh…didn’t make wise choices,” I stumbled over my words, not knowing how to express myself correctly.
“What does that have to do with what you were about to say?”
“You remember, ‘don’t answer’, on my phone?”
“Yeah.”
“Well…I answered…sort of…and now…I umm… he’s just…and your father intervened and… yeah… so…”
“Speak woman!”
“I kind of live here now.” I shrugged.
His glared at me.
“Not forever! It’s not like that. Just until I can figure it all out. Honestly, everything just kind of happened really fast and your dad is—”
“An asshole.”
“I was going to say protective and stubborn.” I nodded. “But your adjective works too.”
“My dad moved you in?”
“No.”
“No?”
“Maybe. You’re confusing me with your trickery, like your dad did this morning.”
“This morning? He spent the night with you?”
“What? No!”
“No?”
“Well kind of, but not like that. You’re twisting it again.”
“I’m not twisting shit. I’m going off of what you’re saying.”
“Listen.” I put my hands out in front of me. “The contact ‘don’t answer’ is not a good person, and last night I was angry and went to my friend’s club to let off some steam dancing, and for a split second, I forgot he was who he is, and it got me into trouble. Your dad showed up uninvited and kind of rescued me, and that sounded so weird even saying it,” I expressed, shaking my head. “I kind of passed out and he took me home.”
“So what you’re saying is you got shitfaced, hooked up—”
“I didn’t hook up with ‘don’t answer’. We danced, for like five seconds and your dad showed up. Things kind of spiraled out of control after that.”
“Are you okay?”
I was surprised he followed up with that, but I went with it. “Yeah, for the most part. I didn’t want any of this to come about, and I feel horrible because it did. Your dad thinks I’m in danger if I stay in my apartment, and he might be right. At this point, I honestly don’t know.”