Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73756 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
He snorted. “I don’t think so. That’s my place.”
Delanie snorted out a laugh. “You can share your place, Asa. Especially when it’s some of your friends that you’re sharing it with.”
“I don’t have friends. I have family. And the ones that I want to share it with already know how to get there,” he said.
With that, he left, leaving to go to Moses who he hadn’t seen until just then.
Moses moseyed out of the woods soaking wet, and I wondered idly where he’d been.
I hadn’t seen him at the creek with us, and unless he was on someone else’s land, that was the only place he would’ve gotten wet…
I forgot all about Moses, however, when Booth came up to me looking pissed.
He glared.
“You could’ve told me, asshole,” he snarled.
My brows rose.
“You could’ve stood up for me yesterday,” I countered.
Delanie stiffened slightly in my arms, but I shoved my hand up the back of her shirt and into her pants, causing her to roll her eyes.
Also, it made her still, which was my original objective.
“I can’t say that it was my most shining moment,” he snapped. “But I would’ve wanted to be there for you.”
I looked my brother in the eye and said, “You got to be yourself for a couple of years. Now it’s my turn.”
“But you’re not leaving forever,” he confirmed.
I shook my head. “One or two weekends a month, couple weeks here and there.”
He took a deep breath, then blew it out slowly.
“I hope that you fucking hate boot camp,” he said. “I’m going to send shit to you that’s not allowed just because you piss me off.”
My eyebrows rose. “You wouldn’t do that.”
Booth grinned salaciously at me. “Of course not.”
Chapter 17
My favorite thing about your opinion is when you keep it to yourself.
-Bourne to Booth
Bourne
Four weeks later
Week one blew big ball sacks.
Week two blew even hairier ones.
Week three, shit started to level off, and I finally got to call home.
My grin was as big as Texas when the call finally went through.
“Hello?” Asa answered, sounding miffed. “This better be important, I was on level fifty-five hundred.”
I grinned even wider. “That’s like eight hundred levels in just four weeks, kid.”
“Uncle Bourne!” Asa screamed.
So loud, in fact, that I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
I smiled like a fuckin’ sap, though.
And then chatted with Asa for a good fifteen minutes before I just couldn’t take it anymore.
“How’s your momma?” I asked him quietly.
“She’s sad,” Asa said. “She misses you. Cries all the time. Aunt Dillan said that she’s acting like she’s pregnant. Momma told her that she was having sympathy pains because Aunt Dillan is psycho now.”
There was a lot of information going on there.
“Can I talk to her, bud?” I asked.
Asa sighed. “If you have to.”
I threw my arm over my eyes and waited as Asa finally walked the phone to wherever Delanie happened to be.
I heard her talking before she realized I was on the phone.
“Moses, you monster,” Delanie growled. “I said sit. Don’t you dare. No, you’re muddy. How do you keep getting wet? You have to have a bath. No. No. No. Noooo, shit.”
“Hey, Momma?” Asa called. “Uncle Bourne wants to talk to you.”
There was a long pause and then Delanie gasped.
I heard the movement of the phone, then Delanie’s breathless, excited reply.
“Bourne?”
“Hey, baby,” I purred softly.
I heard it the moment that she started to cry.
“Asa said you’re crying,” I murmured, feeling my heart clench tight.
“Maybe,” she admitted. “But, to be honest, there’s a lot going on.”
“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.
I felt like I’d missed so much.
Sure, there’d been a lot of talking going on in letters, but those just weren’t the same.
“I’ve befriended Ellie,” she admitted. “And… God, Bourne. She makes my heart sad. I feel like she’s wasting away, and every time I go out of my way to talk to her, she just seems to be angry. Obsessed. And she cries. All the time. And… I guess that I just can’t help myself. I can’t help but cry when I get home. It’s not totally all you.”
I understood at once.
“That’s sweet of you, baby,” I said softly.
“I had a lot of free time on my hands when my man went and joined the Reserves,” she teased, then, more seriously, she said, “How are you doing?”
In all honesty, I felt like I didn’t belong.
I was by far one of the eldest in the group. And, on top of that, I was more fit than everyone here, even some of the instructors.
So… it was enlightening, that was for sure.
But, I was learning a lot and had to admit that despite feeling a bit out of place, I finally felt like I was doing what I’d always wanted to do with my life.
Which I told her.
“That’s good,” she said softly. “I’m so happy that you’re liking it there. I think that would make this all harder if you were hating it.”