Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Katy pulled back just as I arrived at the small huddle.
Luke’s eyes cut to me, and he narrowed them on me.
I offered him the small child.
Luke hesitated for all of a second before taking her into his arms.
Gibby stopped crying instantly.
It was such blissful silence that I wasn’t offended in the least.
“Oh, thank God,” I murmured, feeling the throbbing in my head start to lessen almost instantly.
I hadn’t been aware how bad it was starting to hurt due to the piercing screams until said screams stopped.
“We borrowed a car seat from the neighbor…and some diapers,” Reese said, eyeing the child. “We think they’ll work for now. Let’s go to the steak place and talk.”
I didn’t hesitate and neither did Katy.
We started toward Luke’s badass Suburban, the one that I’d always admired from afar seeing as I’d never be able to afford one, and got in.
Katy took the task of buckling Gibby in, and unfortunately, I learned that the piercing screams in an enclosed space were even worse than outside.
Luckily, the ride wasn’t that long, and Gibby once again stopped the moment she got into Luke’s arms.
“You have a way with kids,” I muttered as we walked to the front doors.
My hands were holding a diaper and wipes as well as a sippy cup that was now filled with the orange juice that Reese had gotten for Gibby from McDonald’s.
“Practice,” he muttered. “Raised Derek. He was an awful kid.”
Katy snickered.
I looked over at her to see her covering her face.
“What?” I asked.
“He really was. Derek was godawful. Rowen and I were like the perfect children, which I think gave Mom and Dad a sense of false hope that they could do this parenting thing together. Derek destroyed everything they thought they knew about being parents.”
I looked over at Gibby, then looked at Luke who was nodding softly.
“What did he do?” I asked.
“What didn’t he do?” Reese laughed. “We brought him home from the hospital, where he was the sweetest little baby on Earth, and he turned into the demon spawn from Hell. I’m fairly sure that if my parents and sister hadn’t come over to help, we would’ve given him up for adoption.”
Katy snorted. “He was sweet…just Chuckie sweet, you know? Like, he was good, and then he was just bad. I’m fairly sure he didn’t like Mom for the first six months of his life.”
“He really didn’t.” Reese nodded as she gestured for us to go inside. We did, and I continued to listen to her, holding the front door open for her to pass through. Once everyone was through, she continued. “Five, please,” she said to the server, then turned back to me. “If I even got near him except to feed him, he’d lose his shit.”
“You’re joking,” I said.
She shook her head.
“I had to get up with him at night,” Luke said. “Or Katy or Rowen. Once the breastfeeding thing was over with when he turned three months…”
“Ask why the breastfeeding thing was over with at three months,” Katy suggested.
I raised my brows at Reese, who sighed.
“He got a tooth,” she said. “And when he was done eating—it was always at the end—he’d bite the absolute shit out of me until he drew blood.”
My mouth dropped open. “Sounds like a serial killer in the making.”
“He didn’t really care for any of us, really,” Luke muttered. “It wasn’t until he turned ten that he really started liking Reese and me. Katy and Rowen he’d always liked. My parents. Reese’s parents. My sister, her husband. Fuck, he liked everyone but his actual parents until one day he just…clicked with us. It was the weirdest thing, really. We didn’t tuck him into bed. He’d give us hugs, but we could tell he didn’t actually want to. Then one day I was almost shot and killed during a SWAT raid.”
“I remember that,” I said. “Dad was all frazzled. Said you almost died three times.”
“I did,” he confirmed. “That was also the last day that I was the leader of the SWAT team. I became a periphery advisor after that because I couldn’t do it anymore. Plus, it was six months before I could walk without a limp, but at that point, I realized that I was done. I wasn’t a young man anymore.”
“And what, Derek just realized that you almost died, and then started liking you?” I asked as I gestured to the lady that we were ready.
She led us to the table as Katy started to explain.
“I think it was seeing how scared Rowen and I were that he kind of started to pay attention,” she said. “We went to the hospital to see Dad, and Derek watched us. It wasn’t until we got home that he kind of started freaking out. At that time, I was fifteen. Old enough to stay at home with Derek. We went home, and Rowen and I slept in the same room that night. We stayed up late talking, telling each other funny stories we remembered of Dad and Mom when we were younger. And we didn’t realize that Derek was there listening to every word. That next morning, we woke up to Derek actually asking to go see Dad. From that point forward…”