Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“You made that look easy,” she huffed. “Take me to get some more boxes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, glancing quickly around to ascertain that we were alone.
She sighed. “Thanks.”
It was the longest two days I’d ever experienced.
On the plus side, we got all her crap packed and moved. The downside? I lost my heart.
***
I, Tobias Roscoe Hail, known as Fender to my fellow asshole club members, was a dumbass.
Getting out of my truck, I walked to the front door with hurried steps.
I didn’t even get a knock in before the door was wrenched open and Audrey was staring at me with an accusing glare on her face. “What are you doing here?”
I held my grin in check. If she saw it, she’d narrow those fucking eyes and then my dick would start to fill with blood.
There was just something about the woman’s anger that really got my crank turning.
“I’m here to ask if you wanted to go to a concealed carry class,” I said by way of explanation.
Her mouth pursed. “Why would I want to do that?”
I didn’t answer with the obvious, ‘you are a scared rabbit who won’t even leave your brother’s house’, but chose to say, “You need to learn to protect yourself,” instead. “And I’m holding the class.”
She grunted. “How much does it cost?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s free.”
It wasn’t free. I’d already paid for her, in a way. Technically, as an instructor, I wasn’t allowed to hold ‘free’ classes.
But she didn’t need to know that I shelled out a hundred bucks to hold her spot. That was my next argument I would try if she said no. But she surprised me by nodding. “Okay.”
Too easy.
Way too easy.
But I’d take it.
“Do you have a gun?” I asked.
She tilted her head like I’d just asked her a question in a foreign language.
Sure, I knew other languages, but I didn’t ask her anything too crazy.
“You’re serious?” she asked me.
I nodded once.
She shrugged.
I faltered. “Have you ever shot a gun?”
She shrugged again.
I started to get a bad feeling about this.
“Come on,” I gestured. “Make sure you bring your ID.”
She did, picking up a purse that looked like it was five sizes too big for her body.
“You got a jacket?”
She stopped, turned around, and grabbed a large, puffy, pink monstrosity.
I held my tongue.
“Where is this at?” she asked.
I gestured to my truck. “My place.”
Her brows rose. “You bring people to your house to teach them to shoot stuff?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
She pursed her lips.
“Who are you?”
I grinned.
“Let’s go,” I said, conveniently not answering her.
Chapter 2
Never give up on your dreams, you stupid crybaby pussy.
- Words of wisdom from your best friend
Tobias
I was in a truck. With the one woman who I just couldn’t tell whether she hated me or liked me.
I was taking her to my house.
I was practically forcing her to go to a concealed handgun class because I thought she needed it.
I was stupid.
Sighing as I took the last turn into my driveway, I paused long enough to allow the gate to open, and then motored through it.
I chanced a look in Audrey’s direction, grinning inwardly when her eyes were glued to the huge Longhorns that we were passing.
“You have huge cows with massive horns in your driveway,” she pointed out.
I snorted.
“I do. They do what they want,” I said. “Good thing about living out in the country is that I can maneuver around them.”
I did just that, veering off the gravel driveway to the grass to go around one.
“This is a nice place you have here,” she said. “And a big house.”
It was.
I’d come into some money when I was twenty-one, and I’d spent every single penny buying the ninety-two acres that my house now sat on. Over the last ten years, I’d made it mine, and everything I’d ever wanted was now on it.
A two-story farmhouse with four bedrooms, three baths, and a game room. A large equipment shed for my tractors and equipment. A stable for my horses.
“Thank you,” I said. “I like it.”
She gave me a look that I couldn’t decipher.
“I’ve never owned a house,” she murmured. “I was to the point when I was thinking about getting one when Tunnel moved me here.”
I nodded.
What went unsaid was the fact that her parents were practically forcing her to move with them, and Tunnel, or Ghost as I called him, had stepped in, using his muscle, to ensure that she didn’t have to.
She’d then moved in with her brother, and she hadn’t moved out in the nine months that she’d been in Mooresville.
“Didn’t you live by yourself when you were in Louisiana?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. I had two roommates. Both nurses. We all worked opposite shifts, so we hardly ever saw each other, but it was nice knowing someone was there.”
I thought about Amy, my sister, and felt my stomach start to form into a tight knot.