Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Oh, no,” she moaned. “Shit, shit, shit!”
She snatched up some papers off the table directly under where a board had obviously broken through the roof due to something—maybe extra weight from the rain on the roof—whatever the reason, it wasn’t going to be fixed tonight.
And it likely would need a professional.
“Damn,” I murmured, checking out the damage.
She mumbled something under her breath, and I turned my head down to study her.
“What?”
She sighed. “Karma.”
“Why Karma?” I questioned.
She pursed her lips in disgust.
“That cop whose truck you repossessed?” she murmured, her eyes flicking to mine and away. “He asked me if I wanted help with my roof a few weeks back when I went for some new shingles. I told him no, that I would be able to handle it. Obviously, I was wrong.”
I looked back up at the damage, and just then noticed the rotting wood that was exposed due to the ceiling collapsing. Then winced.
“I’ll get this checked out tomorrow,” I told her. “Anything we can do tonight will be just reserved for in here. The roof ain’t happening in the rain, and the damage is already done.”
I tried to close the door, and growled when it wouldn’t close due to the shift of the house around it.
“And it looks like I’m staying here for the night,” I said. “You got a couch?”
I looked at where a couch would normally be, and she made an aggravated sound.
“My sister needed one and couldn’t afford one, so I gave her mine,” she murmured, looking at where a couch might sit. “Dammit.”
Then her eyes started to fill with tears, and I knew that I couldn’t leave her.
And likely never would’ve been able to.
Not tonight…and likely not for a while after that.
She was under my skin.
I didn’t know who I was kidding. It sure as fuck wasn’t myself.
The moment the first tear hit the skin underneath her eye, I had her in my arms. When the second tear fell, it was against my chest. The material of my t-shirt soaked it up, then another, and another.
All I could do was hold her as a fresh wave of tears took her over, and I felt, once again, helpless.
I wasn’t used to feeling helpless.
When I felt helpless, I tended to use my fists.
But, at this point, I wasn’t sure I could use my fists again.
I couldn’t take it out on Kennedy’s brother-in-law, and I sure as fuck couldn’t take it out on the dying sister.
I did the absolute only thing I could, which was gather her in my arms and pull her into my chest as I carried her down the hall to what I assumed was her room.
I wasn’t wrong.
When I arrived at her bedroom door, I didn’t bother to flip on the lights. Instead, I kicked off my boots and headed to the bed, holding her close the entire way down to the softest mattress I’d ever slept on.
We stayed like that for what felt like forever.
Then she fell asleep and still I stayed.
***
I laid in her bed for most of the night, her tucked up to my side, and listened to her breathe.
I should’ve left hours ago.
In fact, I would’ve left hours ago…had she not been wrapped around me like a second skin.
She’d slept for over four hours before she slowly woke, and even then, I stayed where I was.
The storm continued to rage around us, and I winced every time something sounded like it was creaking in the living room.
When I felt her bring a piece of her hair up to her hand and twirl it against my t-shirt covered chest, I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
I had to talk to her.
“I have a military friend,” I said to the ceiling. “He calls this weather baby making weather.”
“It was one of his favorite sayings. ‘It’s baby making weather.’ Every time it stormed. It couldn’t be just regular rain, though. It had to be thunder and lightning.”
“That’s kind of funny,” she giggled, and her hand started moving down the length of my chest, stopping just above my belly button before it moved back up again.
“I should go.”
The abrupt declaration had her tightening her arms on me, holding me there as if that would actually stop me from leaving if I’d really wanted to go.
But since I didn’t want to go, I allowed her to stay my muscles, and continued to stare at the ceiling.
“I’m a bad bet, Kennedy.”
She snorted. “Everyone’s a bad bet.”
“You’re not a bad bet,” I countered.
She laughed humorlessly, her entire body shaking against my side. “Everyone in my family has had cancer at some point in their life. I’m the only one left standing that hasn’t been affected.”
She had a point.
“But you don’t know that you won’t ever get it. You’re just assuming.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Who wants to date a woman that has a seventy percent chance of getting cancer and dying before the age of fifty?”