Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Everyone was, really.
Simi had the twins and had just enough time during the week right now to offer her two cents and get some business work done for the upcoming grand opening of our permanent circus.
Hades and Tony were newly married and living the good life. Crimson was practically married.
That left Zip, Keene, and me as the outliers. The ones who didn’t have a significant other to tie us down to anything just yet.
But mainly, it was just that we were all just… done.
Once the circus became somewhat self-sufficient, I had a feeling all of us would just… back off. Sure, we’d be needed to make certain huge decisions, but the day to day running of the beast would be left for our newest hire.
A man named Autry Bills.
He’d shown tremendous aptitude in being able to handle the randomness that always popped up at any given time on any given day.
He was the hire that’d happened right after all the shit hit the fan with my sister, Hades.
Once we’d known that we were all going to start heading our separate ways, we’d started the hunt for a ringleader for a circus. A man who could direct the show, but also run it behind the scenes.
And so far, he’d done an excellent job.
Even better, he’d handled the incident with Crimson and Winston, fielded all kinds of shit, ranging from calls about partnerships, cancellations of partnerships after learning what our father had been into, and then damage control as well as backing up the date that we would all be calling the official grand opening.
Not the bullshit soft opening that we’d done when Crimson was hurt.
“You don’t sound very good, either,” Winston mused as he took a seat on the side of my sister’s bed and leaned into her.
He looked just as rough, if not rougher, than Crimson.
Yet, he was acting like he was perfectly okay, and hadn’t been shot right along with her.
I got up and walked into the hallway, going up to the nurses’ station.
Coming to a stop I smiled at the first one who acknowledged me and said, “My sister’s husband would like a more comfortable chair to sit in besides the wooden one. Is it possible for me to steal a good one from one of the other rooms?”
Everything had been taken out of the one in Crimson’s room when she’d moved in, mostly because the hospital staff pulled it out to allow room for all of Crimson’s guests. Which were numerous at times.
But with Winston looking dead on his feet…
“Absolutely,” she said. “We just got a new chair in today, actually. Winston’s affluence is astounding. We have new chairs coming in for every room. Then there’s the private rooms that are set to be renovated very soon. Mostly when your sister’s ready to be released.”
Which was, hopefully, soon.
Not that I didn’t adore visiting with my sister during my lunch break, but I knew she’d be way more comfortable at home.
That was set to happen in just a couple of days if everything continued to stay stable for Crimson.
I had complete faith in her, though.
She had two really great doctors working on her. Ones that I completely trusted with my sister’s life.
“I’ll help you if you need it?” the nurse asked.
I shook my head and went where she’d directed me, finding a brand-new chair in the room three doors down from the semi-private one that Winston had obtained for Crimson.
Pushing it down the hall proved to be easy, and when I rolled into the room, it was to find Winston kissing the holy hell out of her.
“None of that now,” I teased as I pushed the chair over. “Sit.”
Winston glared, and I shook my head. “You look dead on your feet. You should be staying off of them more than you are, and since I know you’re supposed to be on crutches still, but you refuse, it’s time for you to acknowledge that you’re overdoing it. You’re not going to accomplish anything but setbacks if you can’t listen to your own body.”
Winston sighed, but it was Crimson who said, “Get off my bed and into that chair before I push you off.”
“You could try,” Winston drawled.
Crimson bared her fingers at him and wiggled them.
“So scary,” he teased.
But he did get into the chair.
The sigh he let out made me know that I was right in pushing him.
He was overdoing it.
“I have to go,” I said as I walked to the box of cookies. “Which one is mine?”
“All of them,” Winston said with his eyes half-lidded. “I didn’t know which one you’d like.”
I didn’t take all of them.
I took the cinnamon one then said, “I’ll come back for a snack later. Winston, grab a nap. Crimson, take the pain meds when they come to give you more later.”
With that, I left, biting into my cookie when I did.