Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Jesus.
“You don’t mean that, Buttons.” That was the wrong thing to say because she lets another ball loose and I jerk, thankfully dodging it because it probably would have taken my head off. “Damn it, stop this shit!” I bark.
“Somebody give me a ball!” she screams. I shake my head when I see Slater give her two more.
“What the fuck, Slater?” Yep, that seems to be the only question I can form right now.
Slater shrugs. “Seems you screwed up. Mary would never forgive me if I didn’t help out her girl. Besides, you lost the game for us. You kind of deserve it.”
“Fuck you,” I bitch. “Tillie, what’s going on.”
“Why, Ryder. Just tell me why.”
I rub the back of my neck. “Since I have no fucking clue what I did wrong here, I’m going to need you to be a bit more specific.”
“Okay, let’s start with something simple. Why didn’t you tell me that Emily had been calling you?”
That stops all thought. Emily?
What. The. Fuck.
Maybe I should try to trademark those words. “What are you talking about? I haven’t heard from Emily.”
She looks at me and the pain I see on her face right then makes my heart stop. “Don’t lie to me!” she screams, but the scream gives away to tears as she starts to crumble. She throws another ball at me, this one bounces off my stomach, but I ignore it and the one that half-heartedly follows it. I get to her, and she begins slapping at my chest, hitting me over and over with one word breaking from her lips. “Why?”
I finally grab her arms and hold her still, needing her to listen to me.
“Baby, I haven’t spoken to Emily in years, and I don’t want to hear her voice ever again.”
“I bet,” she laughs bitterly—clearly not believing me. “I guess I should be glad you’re not a complete liar because I know you haven’t spoken to her. Emily said you won’t pick up when she calls.”
My head jerks back? “She’s been calling me?”
Tillie wipes her face with her hands. Her tears have slowed, but they’re definitely still there. “Like you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t. Jesus, Buttons. I get hundreds of calls that I don’t answer. I never do if I don’t recognize the number. Which, just to say, if it was her ass I wouldn’t. Why in the hell would Emily be calling me? I haven’t spoken to her—”
“Oh, I know when you spoke to her last, Ryder.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, about the time you fucked her and knocked her up.”
My body goes taut with that. “What the actual fuck?” I roar. Yeah. I’m going to need to trademark those words.
Tillie’s tears get harder. She spews out her next words as if they’re poison. “She’s pregnant, Mr. Break Your Headboard. You knocked her up!”
“And that’s it,” I snap. I lift her up over my shoulder and start stalking back toward the locker rooms.
“Put me down, asshole!”
I reach up and slap my hand down on her ass. I do it hard, though not as much as I’d like at that moment, because of the awkward position. “Shut it, Tillie,” I warn her. “I’m taking you back to the locker room. I’m changing and then we’re going to get to the bottom of this and if you’re very lucky, I’ll let you suck on my cock to calm me down before I spank you again.”
“You get your cock anywhere near my face and I’ll bite it off,” she threatens.
I slap her ass again, harder this time. “Don’t challenge me. This is not the time, and you won’t like the outcome, Buttons.”
“Ryder, damn it! You can’t just leave the game!” Green yells.
“Fire me,” I growl. “I couldn’t give a fuck about the game. I have to get this taken care of.”
Tillie goes still. “Ryder,” she hisses. I feel her trying to lift up on my shoulder. “He doesn’t mean it, Green! He loves baseball. He’s just joking. Don’t fire him.”
“I mean it. Fire me!”
“Will you stop that? You’d be lost without baseball, Ryder”.
“I love you, Tillie. You, I’d be lost without and since you’ve apparently gone batshit crazy, I’m going to get you sorted and if that gets me fired, then I don’t really give a fuck.”
Shit, maybe I should just trademark the word fuck and be done with it.
This woman has made me crazy.
Ryder
I let out a sigh as I turn into the long, winding drive of the ranch. I glance over at Tillie and she’s still staring out the passenger window. We haven’t spoken much on the ride here from the airport and we didn’t exactly speak on the plane either. I don’t guess there’s a lot to say. I swore to her that I haven’t had contact with Emily at all since the day we broke up and she just looked at me. I don’t think she believes me at all and that just pisses me off and burns in my gut.