Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“I’m guessing at least a couple of hours. Man, not sure how I’ll ever be able to figure out my son. The way he spouted off shit, trying to blame some misplaced trauma in his childhood when you and I both know Wes had more than most, even without his mother.” We make our way through the house, stopping at the fridge before hitting the back deck. “Shit, hold that thought. Josie dropped her shit and ran to the garage thinking I chopped my damn finger off. I need to bring in her work.” I leave Coop to fend for himself. He’s been here plenty of times to know where everything is and to make himself at home. The same way it is when I stop by his and Gia’s place. I hit the door to the back deck and find Josie’s laptop, notepad, and pen lying scattered across the outdoor couch. The male pride inside me really fucking loves that she had no problem abandoning her work to come to my rescue, especially since she’s a workaholic, much like myself, each of us navigating our jobs to make it work in our favor. It’s taken a bit of time, a few issues along the way, her with staying up well past the time I’m in bed and me waking up earlier than normal in order to hit the garage to finish up a few things before going to the next project.
“Man, I gotta say, I’m liking seeing you domesticated and shit. A long-as-hell time coming. As for Wes, not sure there’s anything you can do. Hell, I know there’s nothing you or any of us can or will do. He needs to figure life out. Sucks that an innocent girl has a broken heart, but that shit he’s mouthing off with, that’s a reflection of him, not you,” Cooper tells me once I walk back inside the house. I place Josie’s stuff on the kitchen table before snagging the beer he set on the counter for me. Those words are easier to say, harder to digest, and even harder to believe. As a parent, you only want what’s best for your kid, no matter the cause.
“Yeah, until then, I’m going to nurse my beer, wait for my woman to get home, and then let her soothe me in an entirely different way.” Instead of the back deck, Coop plops his ass on the couch, grabs the remote, and turns on the sports channel. Probably better than hearing all of my woulda, shoulda, couldas in the parental department. I hunker down on the other side of the couch, prop my feet up on the coffee table, and settle in.
“I hear you, man. Don’t know how you were single for as long as you were. Gia’s been it for me for-fucking-ever. I get you were trying to do the right thing by Coop, but we couldn’t figure out if you were punishing yourself for becoming a single parent at an early age or what. Now, I understand. Gia does, too. When she was in on our phone call, she looked at me and said, “Josie is it for Trace.” Gia met her once, saw you together the same amount of time. You were waiting on Josie all along,” Cooper ends his statement. Truthfully, I’m glad. There’s a lot I’ve got to say, but Josie deserves to hear it before anyone else.
“She’s it for me. I’m gone for her.” I stick with saying the bare minimum instead.
“Figured that already, what with you willing to go up against Wes, damning the consequences, though your relationship has been rocky since he came home from college. That’s been what, eight or nine years now?” Probably before that. Wes went wild the minute he hit eighteen. It didn’t matter what anyone said, he knew it all, did it all, and wanted me to pick up the pieces of his mess.
“Been longer than that, unfortunately.” Coop changes the channel, stopping at a baseball game. We sit in silence, the only noises the clinking of a baseball bat and the cheering, and the day must catch up with me because my eyes close on their own.
“How long has he been asleep?” I hear Josie’s voice talking in a hushed tone. I must have been exhausted, plus a few beers and the sense of relief that Wes knows about Josie and me, plus the Raquel situation. Fuck, it was eating at my damn gut something fierce.
“About a half hour. How’d you girls get home? One of you was supposed to call for a pickup,” Coop grunts. My eyes snap open, and I’m trying to blink away the haze of sleep, wondering how Josie got back to my place when neither of the girls had a vehicle with them. And my woman had even less—shirt and shorts, flip flops, as well as my zip-up hoodie, which had mysteriously gone missing. I’d figured Wes nabbed it on one of his trips home. Knowing Josie had all along, fuck, it hits me right in the chest.