Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
He wasn’t, but Jack was, and I settled for him instead.
Jack was Winter’s husband.
He fought alongside her brother, and was intimidating as hell.
He was tall with the sexiest arms she’d ever seen on a man.
His nearly black eyes were sharp and all consuming, and always a little frightening to look into.
Walking in his direction, I avoided a car that was on the closest rack, and then two motorcycles in the process of being painted.
He looked up when he heard my approach and beamed when he saw I had his daughter in my arms.
Cat was six weeks old, and he was even more proud of her now than he was when she was born. Although I hadn’t been there for the birth and subsequent celebration with everyone afterwards, I did see him once they were home from the hospital, and could tell he was so very proud of not only Cat, but Winter as well.
As for why I didn’t attend the celebrations, I still wasn’t quite sure where I fit in with everyone. Although Sam was my brother, I didn’t feel like I belonged. Sam wasn’t trying any harder to get to know me now than he had eight months ago when I’d met him. The men took their cues from Sam and treated me as a nuisance, even though I’d done nothing to deserve it.
The wives were nice enough, but I felt so awkward around them that I avoided them like the plague. Winter was the only one who’d even said more than two words to me in the past month, which completely surprised me.
Once I reached him, I glanced down at his dirty hands and sighed. “I have to go, and Winter is yelling at someone in the office. She handed me Cat, and normally I wouldn’t complain about holding a pretty little baby, such as yours, but I have to go to work in less than twenty minutes.”
His black eyes flicked to mine, and then went back down to his daughter, then his hands, and finally his clothes. “Can you hold her for a few minutes and let me go change or something?”
I nodded and he left, hurrying in the direction of the bathroom. I’d never been further than the bay doors. I knew that further beyond there was a down room, but nothing more.
The night I came home with Sam, he rented me a hotel room and dropped me and my shit off, and nothing more. Not a single word came out of his mouth. Which wasn’t surprising since he’d done the same the whole ride home.
Once I realized that he didn’t like me, I was careful not to say anything the rest of the way home. Normally, I didn’t have a problem making friends, but Sam seemed to hate me just because he hated our father.
Which was so beyond unfair that I didn’t even want to think about it.
The day after I’d been dropped off in the hotel, I’d walked to a local diner to eat, and ended up leaving with a job and, even better, an apartment above the diner. It took me nearly five months to earn the money for a car, but I did it and was now the proud owner of a used Chevy Blazer.
Yes, it was twenty years old, rusted, and had an exhaust leak (so I’ve been told), but I was super excited that I didn’t have to walk three miles to the grocery store and back. Groceries were heavy little bastards when you had to hump it that far, even if they were only cereal, milk, bread, and peanut butter.
I’d made an appointment with Sam to have my car tuned up, and he reluctantly set a time for six forty five this morning. I should’ve known he wouldn’t keep it. He’d spurned every single attempt at trying to get to know me. He didn’t even want to talk to me.
There was only so much that a person could take before she just didn’t care anymore. Even if it was her brother.
A loud boom startled me from my reverie, and I jumped. Lightening danced across the sky, followed quickly after by another deep boom of thunder. Cat started wailing after the second one, and I started cooing and rocking her to calm her down.
When nothing soothed her, I started singing ‘You are My Sunshine.’
I’d just finished the last few words in the song, looked up, and noticed boots clomping towards me.
Jack was back with a soft smile on his face. “Sorry about that. She doesn’t like the thunder very much. You did well. Normally, I can’t get her to stop crying when we have a big storm like this.”
That wasn’t surprising with the sheer amount of storms we’d been having over the past three months. There’d been more rainfall in the past couple weeks than we’d seen all of last year according to the weatherman.
Handing the tiny little baby to Jack, I smiled. “No problem. See ya.”
Turning on my heels, I hurried past the two motorcycles, and ran hard to get to my truck before the rain soaked me.
I wasn’t successful.
My white dress was now soaked all the way through. Cursing, I yanked open the door and jumped inside, slamming it hard behind me.
Shivering, I stuck the key in the ignition, and said a quick prayer that the beast would crank. It took so long to start that I started to get nervous. Finally, the engine caught and I let out my held breath.
“Shew,” I said feeling extremely relieved, and reached for the wipers.
They didn’t flip on, and my stomach sank. Beating on the dash, I yelled. “Come on, don’t fail me now.”
The most beautiful sight in the world appeared before me, making the swish swish sound of water being squeegeed off the windshield. “Thank you!” I squealed and clapped my hands.
I didn’t want to be here anymore. I really just wanted to go home, crawl back into my bed, and cry. In fact, I wanted to do one better. I wanted to go home to Galveston, crawl into my bed, and cry.