Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Black granite. White tiles. White toilet.
There was a shower, though.
Something I wouldn’t expect in a restaurant office, but whatever.
“Oh, yuck.” I said, as I unsnapped the onesie Danni was wearing.
Shit had crawled out the top of her diaper and started to mingle with her shoulder blades.
Thank God I’d been holding her with a blanket underneath or I’d have it all over me, too.
“Hey!” I called. “Do you mind if I, ah, borrow your shower for a minute?” I called.
“Have at it. Since I’m in here I’m going to do a little paperwork,” came his mumbled reply.
Well, he probably didn’t mumble, but the door was shut, so it was inevitable.
I got the shower turned on, then thought, ‘fuck it.’
I rinsed her off, onesie and all.
Setting her down carefully in the bottom of the tub, I unhooked the showerhead and started to spray her off.
“Wow, kid. What did you eat?” I asked.
She smiled and giggled as I used the man soap on the ledge to wash her down thoroughly.
And I knew immediately where the smell of pine came from.
Yummy.
By the time I was finished with Danni, she smelled like a Christmas tree with a hint of man and leather.
It was a very nice smell, and I couldn’t help myself as I pulled Danni up into my arms, ten minutes later, fully dressed in a new set of clothes, and inhaled her scent.
I came out of the bathroom with Danni cradled to my chest.
Seemed like pooping and eating had tired her the hell out.
The door to the bathroom opened silently, and what I saw when I walked out had butterflies taking flight in my belly.
“Do you have a bag or something I could put these clothes in? Trash bag, grocery sack? I just don’t want to drag all of this with me through your bar,” I explained.
Silas looked up from his desk, and my breath caught in my throat.
He wore glasses perched on the end of his nose.
Ones in which he ripped off the moment he saw me standing there.
“Yeah, I think I got one when I brought my extra clothes a few weeks ago,” he muttered, pulling open drawers.
He found what he was looking for and yanked it open before dumping the contents on the desk.
My eyes fell on the underwear that were on top, and I nearly let out a moan.
He wore tighty whities.
Holy shit.
Sweet baby Jesus.
“Here ‘ya go,” he said, holding out the bag to me.
I took it, then looked at the bathroom before looking back down at Danni.
“Do you…ahhh…mind holding her?” I asked.
His cool demeanor melted into a puddle of goo on the floor.
“Yeah, I can do that,” he said, holding out his hands for me to place the sleeping Danni in them.
I handed her over, and her body was engulfed by his massive, scarred hands.
He cradled her to his chest expertly, and I was left staring at him dumbly for a few long moments while he looked down at the baby in his arms.
“She’s cute. I can’t even remember when my girl was this size,” he mumbled. “My granddaughters though… they were cute like this. Now they’re just shit heads.”
I had to laugh.
No bullshitting from him.
Which didn’t really surprise me.
He seemed the type to tell it like it was.
I smiled as I shoved the dirty clothes and the blanket into the little bag, and smiled even more when I came back out to see Silas still staring at Danni as if she were a piece of spun glass.
“How many kids do you have?” I asked softly.
He stood when he saw me with the things I’d brought with me and went to take them from me.
I shook my head.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like you to hold her while I take all this out to Bristol. Then I’ll go wash my hands,” I said softly.
He nodded and walked with me out to the restaurant once again.
“I have three kids. They’re all older now. Now I’m working on ruining the grandkids,” he murmured softly as we walked down the darkened hallway once again.
My senses seemed to be honed as I listened to him.
The way his voice rumbled in his chest. The way he smelled.
I’d never felt like this around anyone in my life. It was an odd experience.
And when I got to the table where my brother and Bristol didn’t even seem to care that I’d had their child for over twenty minutes, I was very disappointed.
I didn’t want him to leave.
“Thanks man,” Dallas said when Silas handed the baby over.
I set the bag of dirty clothes on the floor and offered the diaper bag to Bristol. “I have to go wash my hands. There are things on them that I’d rather not think about.”
Bristol laughed, and I turned to find Silas gone, and nowhere in sight. Only the hint of pine in his place.
I couldn’t figure out why I was so disappointed, but I was.
Really disappointed.
But it wouldn’t be the last time I saw him. Nor the last time I smelled him.
Chapter 6
World’s greatest farter…I mean father.
-T-shirt
Silas
“Get the fuck out of my sight,” I hissed to Crotchet.
Crotchet narrowed his eyes. “Do you realize who you’re talking to?”
I smiled. “Yeah, I realize exactly who the fuck I’m talking to, now move.”
“You’re not authorized to be in here.”
“Crotchet, back off and let him through,” Rosenthal ordered.
Crotch Rot froze and turned where his boss’s boss stood behind him, ordering him to move when he hadn’t even had the chance to meet him yet.
Everybody knew what Rosenthal looked like, though.
He was infamous… just like I was.
“You heard the man,” I said quietly. “Move.”
Crotch Rot’s eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward. “You won’t get what you want. Trust me.”
I smiled. “Watch me.”
Crotchet moved to allow me to pass, and I barely held back the urge to pop him in the face with the back of my hand.
Rosenthal didn’t say a word until we were well away from Crotchet.
“You’re making an enemy where you don’t need to,” Rosenthal said amusingly.
I shrugged. “Like I give a fuck. I’m old and on the downhill side of dead. I don’t have to please everyone anymore. All I have to please is God and myself… and he’s neither.”