Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 160732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 804(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160732 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 804(@200wpm)___ 643(@250wpm)___ 536(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled into my chest.
“What? Why?” I asked.
She tipped her head back, her eyes caught mine, and she wailed loudly, “I was such a bitch about your car!”
Then she burrowed her face into my neck and her sobs got louder.
Golly.
I forgot about my car.
I heard the door open, and I lifted my eyes, but not my head, to see Buck walk in.
“Don’t worry about that,” I told Tatiana, my gaze on Buck.
“If I wasn’t such a baby, if I didn’t take off on a hissy fit, I wouldn’t—”
Oh no.
Oh no, she was not.
My hand curved around her head and I dipped my lips to her ear. “Don’t,” I cut her off. “Don’t make what happened your fault. Don’t you do that, Tatie. It was not your fault. Not a lick of it.”
“I went off, lookin’ for trouble,” she sobbed into my chest, tipped her head back and cried, “And I found it!”
I cupped her healthy cheek in my hand. “You went looking for a way let off steam, honey. No woman looks for that kind of trouble.”
“I…I…liked one of those guys!” she wailed. “He never paid attention to me! I thought he was bein’ nice, me bein’ angry and all, listening. But he wasn’t. He was just…just…”
“Shh,” I whispered, moving my thumb to her lips. “He was just a jerk. He was just a big, fat, horrible jerk.”
She blinked.
Then she said around my thumb, “He’s not a jerk, Clara, he’s an asshole.”
I smiled at her. “That too.”
She stared at me.
I pulled in breath, took my thumb from her lips and decided to change the subject.
“This is our deal, okay? Weekends, you get the Charger. Weekdays, when you’re with your mom, I get it. We share. I think I can talk your dad into that. Do we have a deal?”
“You’d do that?”
I shrugged. “Sure. I don’t need a car much anyway.”
“No, I mean talk to Dad for me.”
“Well,” my eyes slid over her shoulder to Buck, “I don’t really have to since he’s standing right there and any dad’s going to see that’s a perfectly sensible arrangement.”
Buck’s lips twitched but Tatiana jerked around.
“Dad,” she whispered, her body tight.
Buck’s attention went from me to Tatiana. “Come here, darlin’.”
She didn’t move and didn’t speak, not for a while.
Finally, she asked quietly, “You aren’t mad?”
“Come here, Tatie.”
She hesitated then, slowly at first, she walked to him. It didn’t take long, though, before she ran and threw her arms around him.
He folded her little body into his big one and held her close, bending to put his lips to her hair.
“I’m not mad, baby,” he muttered there.
I turned back to the coffee, not wanting more conflicting feelings about West Hardy and our crazy relationship. I had enough of those. Too many. And seeing him being a caring and loving dad would add to them.
As I turned, out of the sides of my eyes I saw movement, and I twisted my neck to see Gear standing there.
Buck had taken the time to change his T-shirt and wash the blood from his knuckles. Gear hadn’t yet taken that time.
I walked to him and grabbed his hand but kept my eyes on his, which were locked on his sister.
“You need to clean up, Locke,” I said softly, and he tore his eyes from his sister and looked down at me. I squeezed his hand. “Give your sister a hug and then go clean up. I’ll make you a coffee and your dad’s making breakfast. Tatie’s choice this morning.”
“Waffles,” Tatiana said instantly, and Gear and I looked at her to see that Buck had hooked her around the neck and tucked her to his side. She had both arms around his middle and was pressing in.
“Waffles,” I agreed, squeezed Gear’s hand again and turned back to him.
That hand twisted so I had no choice but to let it loose.
But he didn’t move away, and he didn’t move to his sister.
Instead, he hooked his arm around my neck and he tucked me into his side, just like his dad had Tatie.
“Waffles,” Gear muttered, giving my neck a squeeze.
Hesitantly, I wrapped my arms around Gear’s middle and my eyes moved to Tatiana.
Golly.
So this was what being part of a family felt like.
I wished I didn’t know this.
I was conflicted. I was unsure. I got where Buck’s head had been at, I felt for him that he opened the bathroom door and saw what he saw, but I was still angry at their father.
But I had to admit, I liked the feel of family.
A lot.
Tatiana grinned at me.
I couldn’t stop it and didn’t try.
I grinned back.
* * *
“Jesus, your life’s pretty crazy, babe,” Minnie said in my ear.
It was late evening.
I was on my back on top of the covers on Buck’s bed.
It was after waffles.
It was after Buck made a call, took a shower, got dressed and took off to places unknown after he gave his daughter a hug and a kiss on the temple, grabbed me by the back of the head and laid a long, wet one on me and then gave his son a meaningful look.