Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Yes,” I answered as I pulled the cushions of the couch up to show him her nook. “It’s warm there. When we go to bed, she likes to burrow under the blankets.”
He reached toward the cat and ran his fingers over her back.
He paused. “Usually, when you pet a cat, it’s like something easy, soft. This feels like I’m petting a goddamn foot.”
I burst out laughing. “She’s definitely not easy to pet, that’s for sure.”
The doorbell rang, and I started to stand up to go answer it, but he waved me off. “I’ll get it.”
He came back moments later with two pizza boxes, which he placed on the coffee table next to me.
Linda perked up, and I caught her up before she could make a mad dash for it.
“Be right back,” I said as I disappeared into the hallway to contain Linda so she didn’t try to share our meal with us.
When I got back, the pizza boxes were open, there were two fresh beers on the coffee table next to those boxes, and a couple of paper towels.
I smiled as I took the seat in front of my box and reached for a slice.
I dug into it, groaning the entire time.
“I had no clue how hungry I was,” I admitted. “This is really good. Like always.”
He reached for his own slice and took a bite.
I glanced over at him, waiting for his reaction.
“It’s good,” he confirmed. “There’s a place near where I just built my house. It’s called Pizza. That’s it. But it’s the best food you’ll ever put in your mouth. Maybe if you have time next week, we can check it out.”
My heart soared. “Where is it that you live?”
Saying you lived in ‘Dallas’ was a joke. There was Dallas itself, and then there was all the metroplex. Saying you lived in Dallas could mean you lived in Los Colinas, Plano, Ft. Worth, Grapevine, The Colony.
“Actually, I’m pretty far away from Dallas now. Sunnyvale. It’s about thirty-eight minutes away,” he admitted. “Farther than we’re technically allowed to be, since we’re on SWAT. But when we’re on call, all of us brothers just stay in the city at the apartment we rent not too far from the station for just such occasions.”
“Sunnyvale is a nice place,” I said. “Why did you move all the way out there, though?”
“Wanted to get the hell out of the city,” he said. “All of the brothers went in and purchased a block of land there. We built a family compound of sorts. I was the last house to get built out there.”
“You all built houses? Recently?” I gasped.
With the housing market the way it was, the prices of materials sky rocketing, and the quality of workers… that had to have been a nightmare.
“Yep,” he said. “My house cost about 100K more than Quincy’s house, which is the same size as mine. Lesson learned on waiting, I guess.”
My stomach knotted.
One hundred thousand dollars?
That was a racket!
“Trust me, I raised holy hell. I mean, my house might as well be a shoe-in for a combination between Quincy’s place and Garrett’s. The only thing I didn’t put in mine that they put in theirs was a dog washing station,” he grumbled darkly. “When the builder gave me the price of the full build, I laughed because I thought he was joking.”
“But obviously you went through with it,” I pointed out.
“I did,” he agreed. “But only because my parents encouraged me to go ahead and do it. Truthfully, none of us would’ve built houses like we did had we not gotten a big chunk of it paid for thanks to our grandparents’ investments. Each year, both sets of our grandparents, and our parents, would put a thousand dollars into an investment account for us. It’s grown significantly over the years. And,” he swallowed hard, “when our sister died, all of her assets went to us. We split it all evenly, and that was a big chunk of change as well. The military had provided a lot for her death, as had the insurance policy she’d gotten on herself and listed us as beneficiaries for.”
I looked over at him.
I’d heard a little about Addison Carter—the senior Addison, not the daughter of Keene and Ande—and what I knew was heartbreaking.
A few years ago, Addison had gotten into an abusive relationship that she couldn’t find her way out of. In desperation, she’d tried and failed to find ways out until she’d taken the last step she thought she could—taking her own life.
Though, all of this I’d heard secondhand by Ande, Addison’s twin.
In an attempt to get that look off his face—the one where he looked like he was getting lost in his own head and he didn’t like it there—I said, “What was the worst part about building a house?”