Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64880 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Good to see you, too. What are you doing these days?”
“Still working for my old man.” Chad shrugged. “Been helping run the oil business for years and took over the charity stuff last week. Dad had his third heart attack so he’s on forced R&R.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Pike said, signing the ball Chad rolled across the table. Mia had told him only to sign pictures, so as not to devalue the signed ball she was auctioning off, but he and Chad had been on the same team in high school. He wasn’t about to tell him no, even if they hadn’t been close. “I hope he gets to feeling better soon.”
“I don’t,” Chad said with a laugh. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the man, but it’s been nice having him out of the office. I get a lot more done without another cook in the kitchen.”
Pike grimaced. “I get it. If I had to work with my old man, I’d be in the nuthouse by now.”
Chad laughed harder as he reached into the front pocket of his dress shirt and pulled out a card. “You should stop by my office while you’re in town. I’ve got a few meetings lined up this week, but nothing serious. I can cut out whenever you have some free time, buy you a beer?”
“Sounds good.” Pike slipped the card into his shirt pocket, figuring he’d want to get out of Mia’s hair sooner or later. “I’ll try to swing by tomorrow or Tuesday before the wedding stuff gets crazy. Mia’s got me booked after that.”
Chad nodded. “I know the drill. My sister, Kelly, got married last summer. Luckily, I’ve got three more sisters so Mom hasn’t started obsessing over me yet. I’m not ready. Life’s too short to have all the fun over before I’m thirty-five. But I’m preaching to the choir, right?”
Pike forced a smile. “Absolutely.” He promised to see Chad soon, and finished signing the last of the glossy eight by tens as fast as he could, trying not to let the quip bother him.
Chad had no idea that Pike had been saving up for a wedding ring when he was twenty-two. For months, Pike had survived on Hamburger Helper while he socked away every spare penny to buy Tulsi a ring. If he hadn’t been played for a fool, he would have been married for years by now.
“Smile,” Mia said through gritted teeth, appearing beside him as the last autograph hunter filed past the table. “You look scary.”
“That’s what I look like when I smile,” Pike said, with a scowl. “Are we done yet?”
“Almost.” Mia patted him on the back. “I just need to announce the winners of the silent auction and we’re out of here. You’ve done so well, don’t ruin it by glaring at innocent people on the way out.”
Innocent people, his ass. He let his eyes skim across the room. There were more strangers than he’d expected, but he recognized enough of the people in attendance to know many were far from innocent. There was Bart Cutter, the pharmacist, who’d been having an affair with his tech for years. There was Grub Pillman, the assistant principal of the high school, who was addicted to painkillers and got his rocks off bullying the students he kept in detention after school. There was Farrah Stewart, who’d left her husband of twenty years for her nineteen-year-old kickboxing instructor, traumatizing her eighteen-year-old son in the process. And those were just the people Pike was certain were guilty. Knowing human nature, the rest of the crowd had their share of black marks on their soul.
Even people you think are the good ones, the kind of sweet, sincere folks who wouldn’t tell a lie to save their own lives, couldn’t be trusted. Tulsi had proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
“Okay, we’re done.” Mia grabbed his arm, hauling him across the tent, through the tables covered in white tablecloths and decorated with centerpieces in Cardinal red. “We’re almost home free, just hold on a few minutes longer.”
“I’m fine, Mia,” Pike grumbled even as he let her propel them out the entrance and across the dirt road to where she’d parked the truck. “Are you going to hover like this all week?”
Mia released him with a frustrated sound as she dug into her purse for the keys, turning so that the light spilling from inside the tent illuminated her bag. “I don’t know, Pike, are you going to be a cranky bastard all week? Seriously, the way you’re acting is ridiculous. If you didn’t want to come to the wedding, you should have just told me.”
“Don’t be crazy,” Pike said. “Of course I wanted to come.”
“Because I could have made Bubba my Dude of Honor,” Mia continued, stabbing her key into the passenger side door and wrenching it open. “And you could have spent the rest of your recovery in Palm Springs with whatever supermodel you’re boinking, and not had to bother with this bullshit.”