Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
And I knew I was in trouble for defying the men in my life on the ride home. They made that perfectly clear the entire silent ride in the heavy atmosphere of the cab of Darius’s truck.
The instant Darius switched on the light, he turned to Liam.
“Downstairs, son,” he ordered.
“With respect, Dad, I got things to say too.”
A muscle in Darius’s jaw jumped.
Then he jerked up his chin.
I put my purse and the tin of cookies Dorothea sent home with us on the island and rounded on them.
“You two can’t be mad at me,” I stated.
Two sets of beautiful brown eyes turned to me.
Beautiful angry brown eyes.
Yes.
They were mad at me.
“Before we got there, we were talking about respect. That was not respect. And you took it then ate dinner with it,” Darius bit off.
“I didn’t take it,” I slapped back. “But I wasn’t going to walk out of a house where your mom had spent hours cooking and totally ruin the night for her.”
“Someone disrespects you, you make it so they don’t do it again,” Darius retorted.
“Your sisters didn’t buy that food and cook it,” I returned.
“Right, then, you made me and Liam take it and eat dinner with it,” Darius shot back.
Well, hmm.
I did do that.
“It was the right thing to do,” I stated.
“So, Aunt Lena talked trash about Dad, you’d sit down to dinner with her after?” Liam asked me.
Uh-oh.
I caught my lip between my teeth.
Because…no. I would not.
“Yeah,” Liam grunted.
“Ma would have got it,” Darius declared.
She probably would have.
Aw, hell.
I lifted my hands and pressed down. “Okay, okay. I get it. You’re right. And I’m sorry I put you through that. Though, I was really happy to have some time to catch up with Miss Dorothea. But yes, I’ll have other opportunities and we should have come home.”
The doorbell rang.
“Fuck,” Darius clipped, then prowled out of the kitchen.
“It’s gonna be Aunt Danni or Aunt Gabby,” Liam said, staring at the wall between kitchen and living room like he could burn holes through it with his laser beam eyes.
“Fuck,” I snapped and followed in Darius’s footsteps, noting he’d switched on a lamp by the couch on his way to the door.
I was getting close to the front door when I heard him say, “You need to back off and let me cool down.”
“I’m here to apologize,” Danni said.
“I hear you. You still need to back off and let me cool down.”
I stopped in the archway to the entry and Danni, who Darius was barring at the door so she was still outside, looked to me.
“Malia, get him to let me in,” she demanded.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Danni. I intervened for your mom, but you have to work this out with your brother.”
I turned to move out of eyesight and nearly ran into Liam.
“Liam, honey, I’m so sorry,” Danni said pleadingly.
“Not me you should apologize to,” Liam replied.
“Malia, seriously. I’m sorry,” she called, and I stopped and turned back. “You were right. I should have connected with you so we could talk things out. That was fucked up.”
“It’s not me you should apologize to either,” I told her.
Her eyes went up to her brother.
“Darius—”
“What would Dad say to that shit?” he asked.
Ouch.
Low blow but deserved.
She suffered it, her face crumbling.
“Yeah, that’s what he’d say,” Darius whispered.
“We lost her when he died,” she cried.
I froze.
Darius froze.
Liam froze.
She looked to me. “I was mad at you then. Even before we knew about Liam. He needed you. I needed you.”
“Oh, Danni,” I said softly.
Yes, Darius’s sisters had liked me.
She dashed the back of her hand under her eye and pulled breath into her nose. “You were dealing with a lot. I know you called. I talked to you. I know you were trying to get to him. But all I was feeling got twisted up in all that happened, and I acted like a bitch. I’m sorry.” She looked again to her brother. “I am really sorry, Darius. It just all came back when you got hurt, and suddenly Malia was back, and everything was out with Liam, and I got wound up in being pissed instead of being scared because you got shot and smashed in the head. And I was scared.”
Her face crumbled again, and Darius swore, “For fuck’s sake,” hooked her behind the head and pulled it into his chest.
“Get her in out of the cold, honey,” I urged.
Darius pulled her inside, shut the door and led her to the couch where he sat her down, going down with her, his sister still held close in his arms.
I switched on another couple of lamps before I asked, “You want wine? Or something stiffer?”
“How can you be nice to me?” she wailed into Darius’s shirt, “I’m such a bitch!”
“Danni,” Darius said to the top of her head. “This is why you do what Malia said and talk shit through instead of being a bitch. Yeah?”