Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75643 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“So the point you were trying to get across as you explained all of that was that you’re married to the Army and that you want me to know that no matter what I say or do, you’re not leaving it.” She sobered.
I shook my head. “No, I’m just telling you that it’s important to me but…so are you.”
She softened at my words. “I’ll be able to deal. I won’t go out and shag every single man that points his penis in my direction while you’re gone.”
“Shag?” I laughed. “Who says that?”
“Me!” She narrowed her eyes.
“And you just said you’ll wait…is that what I heard?” I asked.
She softened. “I’ll wait…as long as you give me a good enough reason. You have to do a lot of convincing in between today and when you leave next week. I need to have a lot of memories to remember why I’m waiting while you’re gone.”
Chapter 8
Eat food off of other people’s plates. Those are their calories. They don’t count.
-Life Hack
Pru
I couldn’t believe I’d said half of the things that I had.
Honestly, if I was going to do this, I needed to have the understanding that it could, and might very well, go bad.
I didn’t want it to go bad, though. I wanted it to go oh so good.
Though I hadn’t known Hoax long, I realized rather quickly that he was beginning to mean quite a bit to me.
When he kissed me on my porch step last night, I’d decided that I really was going to give this a try.
Military men weren’t all bad, and Hoax was proof.
But, it scared me that he was going away for an unknown amount of time.
He hadn’t corrected me when I’d guessed he’d be gone for six months.
I’d been curious, of course, about what exactly he did in the Army, and when I asked him he diverted the topic.
Which was why I found myself standing in my dad’s garage bay watching him work as I contemplated what I was going to ask him and how.
“Would you just get over here already?” my father questioned.
My lips twitched. “Yeah.”
Then I moved to the car he was working on and leaned my hip against the front fender as I watched him bend nearly in half to reach a bolt that was inside the hood.
The motor was missing, and he looked like he was in the process of rebuilding it based on the scattered contents on the massive table behind him.
His wrench slipped, and he cursed.
“Here, reach in here and tighten this bolt,” he ordered, handing me the wrench.
Having done this for him a thousand times before, I reached in the small space and did as he asked, handing it back to him moments later.
“I’ve been working on that goddamn bolt for five minutes now,” he grumbled.
I smiled.
“There are some things women are better at,” I teased.
He grunted out a ‘whatever’ and held his hand out for the wrench, which I promptly slapped back into his hand.
His hand closed around the tool and he placed it on the rolling tool chest next to his other side before resting both of his large hands on the frame of the car and looking at me expectantly.
“What?” I feigned innocence.
“Today’s your day off and you’re usually sleeping in, not hanging out with your dad.” He paused. “You could’ve brought donuts, you know.”
My lip twitched. “If I’d brought you donuts, Mom would’ve thrown a shit fit.”
He sighed. “It’s high cholesterol, not the end of the world. Seriously, it won’t hurt to have a donut every once in a while.”
“Your high cholesterol is a precursor to heart disease. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to deal with the consequences of a heart attack,” I promised him.
This was an old argument, but something that came up constantly.
He grunted. “I realize that. And I’m on meds now, so it should be a moot point, correct?”
Technically, yes.
But still…
“It’s not easy for anyone, Dad,” I pointed out. “Do you think Mom likes it any better than you do? She’s literally the absolute worst when she doesn’t get her sugar. You should see her at work lately. She’s awful. Everyone hates her, and me by association.”
Dad grunted. “Not everybody.”
I winced. “You heard about Kelley?”
“I hear a lot of things about Kelley.” He paused. “For instance, I heard from your mom, who heard it from Kelley when he called her into his office to light a fire under her ass about you, that you were caught making out in a hospital hallway with a certain man that you promised you wouldn’t be seeing more of.”
That promise had come from me to him when I told him he didn’t need to run a background check on him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied.
He shifted his weight to one hand, and then lifted his free hand up to rub some grease on my cheek.