Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65948 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
I was sure he’d be seeing it today and then he’d give me a lecture.
He’d already told me not to do what I’d done.
But hell, the itching was real.
“Love you, too,” I said as I watched her go.
Etienne gave me a head nod, then he took off out of the parking lot, leaving me to wheel myself into the office and head upstairs on my own.
I hadn’t expected to see Braxton walking out of the doctor’s office, too.
He had a cast on his right arm and he was wearing a scowl the size of Texas.
“What happened to you?” I asked him as I shifted my weight from foot to foot.
My legs were weak.
The doctor said it would take me a few months to get back to normal.
Which sucked. But anything was better than being in casts up to your crotch.
I could tell he didn’t want to answer me, which inevitably caused a smirk to rise on my face.
“None of your fuckin’ business.” He scowled.
I had a feeling anything my brother did would be my fuckin’ business.
From now on.
Mostly because anything my brother did seemed to backfire on my family and me.
Such as a now almost nine-week-old Tatiana.
Now, that kid was definitely my business.
After some discussion, it was decided that we’d ‘share’ her.
Not for any length of time or anything would she be coming with me, but it would be something that, if needed, we would be there.
Right now, my mom and dad were making it work and enjoying themselves.
They’d never had a girl before and they fuckin’ loved it.
Luce loved it and her, too.
But come a few more months and Luce would be delivering our own daughter into the world.
Though, she hadn’t admitted it to herself just yet. Even though we both knew, about six weeks ago as a matter of fact, that she was pregnant.
You didn’t have that much unprotected sex and not have a baby. At least when you were healthy and whole.
Which, other than my legs, we both were.
“I had a mishap.” He shrugged. “Like I said, none of your fuckin’ business.”
I shrugged and walked stiffly away, not bothering to talk to him any more than I had to.
It was enlightening, knowing that your own brother would not only help send you to prison, but when you hoped to forgive him for that, he tried to kill you in a roundabout way.
I was all the way in my seat when I looked back and saw Braxton on the bench right outside the doctor’s office, looking… contemplative.
Could it be? Was he upset that he’d ruined this relationship?
A grin on my face was the first thing Luce saw when I pulled up at her jobsite.
But I had to say, she was way more excited than I was when I all but fell out of the truck in my excitement to show her that I now had full use of my legs.
“You got them off!” she squealed as she hit me.
I curled my arms around her, buried my face into her neck and let out a satisfied sigh.
“I did,” I confirmed. “They feel like I’ve just been through the most brutal of leg workouts. It’s… humbling.”
“It’s great is what it is,” she pulled back with both of her hands locked around the back of my neck. “You ready to go?”
“Go?” I asked curiously.
“To check out my new office.” She smiled. “Etienne marked it all out for us on the concrete.”
I caught her hand and slowed her down when her excitement would’ve rushed us forward.
“Slow down, pretty girl. I know you’re excited, but I don’t want to fall on my face in front of Etienne’s foreman and Matilda.” I paused. “What’s that?”
She looked in the direction that I was looking and saw Etienne and Matilda chest to chest. Matilda was pointing her finger into Etienne’s chest and she was snarling softly at him.
When we got closer, they both broke apart.
“That,” Luce whispered, “is the newest development between the two of them. I’m not quite sure what’s going on, but I do know that neither one of them is telling me what’s what.”
“Hmm,” I said as we got closer.
Matilda looked downright pissed.
Etienne looked like the cat that ate the canary.
“What’s going on?” I asked the two of them, though the question was mainly directed at Etienne.
“Nothing,” Matilda was quick to reply.
“Nothing at all.” Etienne rolled his eyes.
I couldn’t help the smile that lifted the corner of my lips. “Right.”
“Right,” he confirmed.
“Come on, walk me through this building. I want to see it all.”
CHAPTER 22
Well slap my ass and call me McDonald’s ice cream machine. I’m broke.
-Luce upon making her first car payment
LUCE
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade pie. Or however that saying goes.
The last ten weeks after Bain’s accident had been hard to say the least. What it hadn’t been, was a struggle, either. If that made any convoluted kind of sense.