Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“Not this time, baby. We’re not even going to finish talking about this,” I ordered.
She crossed her arms across her chest so cutely, then pouted the rest of the way to the school.
I parked and got out, leaving Morrigan to hold down the fort in the car while I went inside and got my kid.
The woman at the front desk called Bowie for me almost reluctantly after I proved that I was Bowie’s father with not one but two forms of identification.
The moment that Bowie stepped out of his classes, I gestured for him to follow me outside without saying a word.
He walked behind me, and I could almost hear his brain thinking.
Does he know that I snuck out of school?
Does he know that I did something bad?
“Whose car is that?” Bowie asked curiously as we walked up to it.
I opened the passenger back door as I said, “Morrigan’s.”
He paused halfway into the car, and I finished his descent by pushing on his head and all but demanding with steady pressure that he get into the car.
He looked up at me, started to protest, but I leveled him with a glare that could peel paint and said, “I wouldn’t argue with me right now.”
He opened his mouth and then closed it.
“Get in,” I ordered.
He got in, swung his legs around, and I closed the door.
When we were all inside, I said, “Buckle up.”
Bowie did, and Morrigan turned around in her seat and waved at Bowie. “Hi, I’m Morrigan. I’m…”
“My girlfriend,” I finished for Morrigan.
She turned her gaze to me and glared.
I smiled again, this time a lot happier than the last.
God, I loved the woman with my whole heart.
I still hated myself for leaving her.
All these years, I’d thought she’d been safe and happy. All these years, her father had done nothing but lie to me about her happiness.
“Uh, hi,” Bowie said, sounding like the words were pulled from his strangled throat. “Nice car.”
That last part was said facetiously.
Morrigan didn’t own a nice car.
Far from it.
It was the same damn one she drove all those years ago when I’d left her behind.
It was time for a new one, but I couldn’t very well buy her one with her being an independent person. What were the odds she’d just take it with a smile? That’s right, zero.
Morrigan turned around with a fake smile on her face, and we drove to Danyetta’s in silence.
When we got there, Danyetta, Wake, Dutch, and Sunny were standing on the front lawn.
Danyetta looked more than pissed, letting me know that Sunny had caught her up on the news.
We got out of the car and walked toward them, and Danyetta’s dam burst.
“What were you thinking?!” Danyetta screeched.
I heard the neighbor’s weed eater stop two houses down and said, “Let’s take this inside.”
Bowie looked like a frozen deer in a spotlight, so I caught him by the shoulder and gave him a small push to get him moving.
He did, but kept glancing back at Sunny, who was in his full uniform looking intimidating as hell. Beige tactical pants, beige tucked-in, skintight long-sleeve shirt. Desert-tan-camo-patterned bulletproof vest with his large gold star pinned to the middle of it. And a gun on his hip as well as a beige patch on the upper right corner of his chest that said “sheriff.”
Let’s just say, he had the angry look down pat, too.
“Sit.” I gestured toward the one and only chair by itself across the room from all the other seating. That was where Lolo liked to sit and read. “And maybe you can explain to us why you thought it would be a good idea to sneak out of school, go burn down Morrigan’s coffee shop, and then return as if you hadn’t just committed a felony.”
Bowie swallowed hard.
Then with trembling words, explained what he did this morning.
“And why did you think that this would be a good idea?” I snapped.
Bowie flinched as if I yelled at him often, which pissed me off even more, because I didn’t. Not even close. In fact, I’d been more than patient all this time.
And honestly, I felt like I was doing a damn good job at being patient with him, when I could’ve just as easily gone the other way when it came to how he’d been acting toward me lately.
I’d been dealing with his bad attitude now for a year.
I deserved better.
“I…” He stopped, unsure what to say, because it was likely he didn’t have an explanation for what he’d done.
“You…” I urged.
He closed his eyes and opened them, and not even the tears in his eyes were enough to break my anger.
“Son,” Sunny said, inserting himself into the conversation. “What you did would get you fifteen years in a federal prison if you were tried as an adult. Though you’re too young for that, you made an adult decision today that could very easily affect the rest of your life.”