Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56915 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Bliss laughed. “I promise, the next time mine gives me trouble, you’ll be the first one I call.”
“You do that.”
“You want marshmallows?”
“No, you’re the only sweet I need with my chocolate.”
“Aw, are you trying to be sweet to get in my pants?”
“Is it working?”
“Yes. Did I mention Ginny called me an hour ago? She’s spending the night at Willa’s house, so she won’t have to drive to the clubhouse in the morning.”
“You forgot to mention that.”
“I am now,” she teased.
“So, no hotel tonight? Damn, that’s going to be nice. I had to give an extra fifty bucks last time we stayed for breaking the bed.”
“I told you that ride was going to cost you.” Bliss giggled.
The cell phone in her pocket chimed, indicating a text. Bliss reached into her pocket to take out the phone, going to her messages.
Devon’s mom called. She found a couple of lice in his hair. He won’t be back until we get a note from his pediatrician that he’s clear. I’ll check the rest of the children’s hair when I get there in the morning. Night.
“Something up?”
“No, Jessie just needed to tell me something about work.” She moved away from him to set her mug down on the counter. “I need a shower. I feel like I’m covered in glitter and glue. If you’re hungry, you could order us a pizza. I won’t be long.”
* * *
Drake frowned at the kitchen door Bliss had rushed through. She had taken off like a scalded cat after her face had gone white when she had read the text message.
He would ask again what it was about when she came back. Whatever it was, it had bothered her. He almost texted Jessie, but he didn’t want to deal with her crazy-assed brothers’ questioning of why he had texted her.
They protected their sister like she was Fort Knox. Any man wanting to get close to her would have to take on those two knuckleheads, and Drake was man enough to admit he wasn’t up for that job.
They lived deeper in the mountains than his cousins. Drake had never been on their property, because he was smart enough to obey the “No Trespassing” signs that were posted with several dire warnings.
The Porter land was next to Creech land. Behind both lay the Hayes land. The two sets of brothers were constantly bickering over the property line, and Greer and Holt were constantly trying to outdo each other with their signage. Personally, Drake thought Holt had won it with his large white sign with red paint spattered across a drawing of a stick figure with a target circling it.
Tate had asked him several times to find someone to survey the Porter land for him, but Drake had just snorted. No surveyor in the state of Kentucky would be willing to take on that job. It would be their last.
He ordered a couple of pizzas to be delivered, thankful Jace wasn’t working with the weather getting so bad. The boys were both home, playing their computer games.
Drake finished his chocolate as he waited for Bliss, going into the living room where he turned on the television. However, when the thirty-minute comedy was almost over and the delivery driver had rung the doorbell, Bliss still wasn’t downstairs.
He paid for the pizza then carried it to the kitchen before glancing at his watch, thinking Bliss should definitely have been downstairs by that point.
Abandoning the pizza, he went upstairs to her room, figuring he would find her blow-drying her hair in the bedroom. Instead, he heard the shower still on.
Coming to a stop, he listened and became fearful when he heard crying and Bliss’s muffled voice coming from the bathroom. He hurriedly opened the bathroom door and was immediately hit with steam.
Once it cleared, Drake found Bliss crying in the shower stall.
“What the fuck!” He rushed forward, opening the shower door and staring down at her in dismay.
The water splashing on him was scalding hot, and Bliss’s entire body was bright pink from the heat as she scrubbed her hair that was covered in a foul-smelling shampoo.
“Get them off! Get them off!” Her cries were gut-wrenching.
Drake reached in, adjusting the water temperature so it wasn’t as hot. Hastily, he then jerked off his clothes before stepping into the shower with her.
“Get out! You’ll catch them. I have to get them off,” she moaned, still scrubbing her head through her cries.
Drake jerked her hands away from her scalp, ignoring her pleas as he swallowed back the bile rising in his throat at the damage she had done to herself.
He saw her nails were bloody and so was her scalp. Furthermore, tufts of hair were on the shower floor, slowly trailing a path to the drain.
“Stop it, Bliss.” He grabbed both her hands again when they went right back to her head, forcing them behind her back until he could hold her still long enough to get the thick shampoo out of her hair. “What kind of shampoo is this?” he asked softly, her sobbing tearing at his heart.