Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Go home, Layla,” I said.
“Not until I know you’re okay. Where are you going?”
“Gotta find my necklace.” I went to the other side of the gazebo and stepped into the woods, unconsciously rubbing at the rope burn on the back of my neck. “Kage tore it off and threw it out here, and I’ve got to find it.”
I started rooting around for it, praying it hadn’t slid beneath the thick carpet of dead leaves on the floor of the woods. I heard the crunch of Layla’s steps behind me.
“Don’t move anything,” I growled.
“I’m not stupid,” she growled right back. “I know how to search the woods. Remember, I’ve seen every episode of CSI. We need to do it like in a grid pattern so we don’t miss anything.”
I sighed. “Fine. But I don’t want to talk, okay?”
“Fine.”
She and I followed a makeshift grid pattern for at least a half hour, walking with our heads down, seeing nothing but leaves and twigs and the occasional skittering spider or beetle. The monotonous crunching of our feet in the leaves did little to occupy my thoughts, leaving me too much time to think, and the longer the search went on, the more anxious I felt. Right about the time I was thinking my eyes couldn’t take it anymore, when everything started looking even more the same than it had before and I wondered if I was descending into madness, Layla shouted, “I found it!”
A more vindictive ex might have kicked it even deeper into the leaves, or stuck it into her pocket to burn later. But not Layla.
She bounced on the balls of her feet and waved the broken necklace in the air, doing one of her cheerleader high-kicks and sending leaves flying. I couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity of it as she danced around, shaking her ass and making celebratory hoots out into the woods, probably spooking every animal in the vicinity. I just stared, charmed by her audacity, remembering for a moment exactly why I’d started dating her in the first place.
When she finally stopped twerking and came over to drop the necklace into my palm, I looked down at it with a mixture of relief and regret. “Thanks. I don’t know what I wanted it back for, though. Doesn’t mean anything now.” I shoved it into the pocket of my jeans.
I walked Layla to the house to get her overnight bag, then to her car. After I opened the door of the VW for her, she reached up to put a hand on my shoulder. “Stop being such a downer, Jamie. The culero will be back. Trust me.”
“His name is Kage,” I corrected sternly. “Or Michael if you prefer. Anything but that awful word.”
“Whatever.” She smiled and climbed into the driver’s seat.”
I didn’t wait around to watch her drive away. I went back inside where Jennifer and Paul were on the sofa watching Cartoon Network.
“Mom’s still okay, right?” Jennifer asked apprehensively. “No change from when she got out of surgery? Dad called and said she was doing great.”
“Yeah, they said she’s doing really well, but they’re keeping her in ICU for a little while. No big deal. They do that with everyone, just to make sure they don’t start bleeding or something. In a few hours when she’s out of the woods— their words, not mine— they said they’ll move her to the floor.”
“When can we see her?” Paul asked, his eyes vulnerable and scared. He was so young, and he’d never been without his mother.
“Soon,” I assured him. “But don’t worry, she’s doing really great. And Dad’s there taking care of her. She’ll be home in three days, okay, buddy?” I wondered if I sounded like was talking down to Paul, as if he was a toddler instead of ten years old, but the tension drained from his shoulders and he grinned, so I figured I must have done alright.
“Okay, Jamie.” He snuggled into Jennifer’s side and turned his attention back to the television. “Do you like Johnny Bravo?” he asked.
I bounced onto the sofa beside him, squeezing him between Jennifer and me. “Are you kidding? I love Johnny Bravo!”
We watched TV for a while, and both Jennifer and I ignored the fact that she was the most annoying bitch on the planet and had effectively ruined my fucking life. There would be time for revenge when Mom was better, and when my feelings weren’t so raw.
I checked my text messages at least twenty times, totally cognizant of the fact that doing so was borderline insanity. Miraculously, my text notification sounded while I wasn’t looking, and I fumbled my phone trying to get to it. It was from Kage.
“Keep the shit. I don’t need it,” the text read, and I flushed with embarrassment. After waiting for hours for a reply, this is what I got— a big, fat fuck you.