Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Jace Eugene!”
“Middle name,” Vincent mutters. “Harsh.”
“Sorry,” Jace mutters. “I just wanted to swim in the pool.”
“Come here,” Vincent says, making Jace’s eyes dart to mine before deciding what he should do.
I’d never let Vincent be too harsh, but we also need to be a united front.
Jace drags himself off the bed in Vincent’s direction, his eyes downcast.
“We don’t cuss in front of ladies,” Vincent says. “We respect them too much to do that, understand?”
Jace swallows as he looks up at the man. “Okay.”
“Now that that is settled, I know for a fact that they keep a wide variety of spare bathing suits in the pool house. Give me a few minutes to get changed into my suit, and we’ll go look for your sizes.”
“There’s no TV in here,” Luca whines from his bed.
“There wasn’t a TV in your room back home either,” I explain.
Two nights in hotels and these kids are already a little spoiled.
At Vincent’s insistence, I leave the room with Sutton.
“They’ll be fine. They’ll probably flush things they shouldn’t and pee all over the bathroom floor, but they’re safe. We can put a bell on their door that rings when it’s opened if it makes you feel better.”
“I don’t think they’ll cause too many problems. They’re very well-behaved. I think they would get into trouble at home if they caused too many problems. A lot of it is learned behavior.”
“I noticed Jace’s maturity level,” Vincent says with a frown, also knowing that it has come at a price to his childhood.
“Are you really going to let him cuss around you?”
He shrugs. “Better than cussing around you. I’ve found that sometimes people do things because they aren’t supposed to. Taking away the shock value of it almost always deters the behavior. Get ready for the pool. I’ve been dying to see you in a swimsuit.”
The man freaking winks at me like a frat boy before walking in the opposite direction of my room. Em has situated us in rooms that puts his closer to the mouth of the hallway. I have no doubt that’s as purposeful as how he picks the bed closest to the door in the hotel rooms.
Chapter 23
Stormy
“Close your eyes,” I tell Jace as he walks up.
It’s his turn to be sprayed with sunscreen.
His little nose squishes as he angles his face up to me.
“Keep them tight for just a few more seconds,” I urge, tugging his arm a little to indicate that he can turn around so I can get the back of his neck.
The available swimsuits came with matching long sleeve swim shirts which are a very good idea considering New Mexico only seems a half a block away from the damn sun.
A sheen of sweat is already covering my skin, and I have a new respect for anyone responsible for others. Normally, I’d be able to walk out of the clubhouse and dive straight into the pool, but I now have two little boys to watch out for.
“I told you I know how to swim,” Jace says, annoyed when he opens his eyes to see me holding a life jacket.
“You also said you wanted to swim in the deep end. The rules are you have to be twenty-one not to wear a lifejacket where you can’t reach.”
I don’t know that there is such a rule, but it sounds really good.
“Look,” I say, pointing to Kincaid who is in the pool, relaxing as he floats on the top. I know the man is wearing a lifejacket because it means he doesn’t have to use much energy just to float and chill, but Jace doesn’t have to know that.
“He can’t swim?” Jace asks, more awe in his voice than there should be if the child actually knows how to swim.
I know he wants to appear bigger and older than he is. I hate that Carlen and Janet put him in the position that life is already a competition rather than just letting him be a damn kid.
Jace doesn’t complain further when I crouch in front of him to snap the buckles on his life vest.
Luca’s squeal of delight when Oracle picks him up and tosses him a foot or so in front of him fades for the briefest second as he dips below the surface of the water.
I step forward, ready to light into his ass when Luca comes up sputtering with a huge smile on his face, begging to be tossed again.
“I bet,” Hound says to Jace as he approaches, “if you ask nicely, Oracle will toss you around too.”
Jace doesn’t even look back at me in his urgency to get into the pool.
“You looked like you were ready to kill him,” Hound says.
“I mean, shouldn’t he ask me first?”
“You didn’t seem concerned last year when it was my kids getting thrown around in the pool,” Hound says.