Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76347 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76347 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“Shit,” Orion mutters as he takes it in. “No wonder people didn’t want to come and give her a quote. This place is a teardown. How’s she even living here? If she’s old, we have to help her. I know it’s not really in our wheelhouse, but we can figure out something, surely. Maybe crowdfunding if Granny won’t let us spend the money.”
Before I can respond, the front door opens, and a woman as beautiful as the lovely honey alto voice from the phone appears. She’s just a slip of a thing. She’s young, her face heart-shaped with a ripe peach blush on her pale cheeks, riding her sharper cheekbones. She has a body that would make any man want to sin, willowy but somehow with an abundance of curves. She’s wearing faded and worn jeans, the kind that would have once been called mom pants but are now in fashion for moms and non-moms alike, and a small yellow ribbed crop top that kisses the denim waistband. It’s her hair that immediately captivates me. It sparkles like white gold in the sunlight, and even though I can tell it’s dyed because her roots are jet black, I’m still captivated.
“Shit,” Orion says again. “I can see why you agreed to this.”
“Couldn’t see her over the phone,” I muttered, grabbing the keys from the ignition. I love my brother, I seriously do, but right now, I’d very much like to blindfold him and leave him in the car. We’ve shared just about everything in our life, but women have never been on that list. Obviously.
“Well, let’s go see what we can do to help.” I try not to scramble out of the car, but I still nearly bash my head because I can’t peel my eyes away from the angel of this dilapidated dump.
As I tumble out of the car with all the grace of a lumbering hippo, she sidesteps the gaping hole in the porch that’s yawning like an open maw of a mythical beast and descends the porch steps. Her bright yellow flip flops with little daises on the front click-clack over the boards.
She smiles at us, even though her eyes narrow at the car. Atlas and I are wearing our tool belts like the two tools we are. I suddenly feel entirely ridiculous and wish that the weedy ground I’m about to step on would swallow me up. As in, I wish that those harmless, albeit tall-looking weeds were actually human-eating carnivorous plants. We’ve all seen this. We were all raised on video games. I’ll just leave it at that.
To up our level of being tools, we’re both wearing matching black T-shirts and faded jeans. We’re similar in looks, too, with short-cropped hair, huge builds, hulking shoulders, and the same chiseled features and square jawlines.
“Hi,” I choke out, aware that I shouldn’t just stare as she approaches. “I’m Atlas. We talked on the phone. And this is my brother, Orion.”
Orion suddenly inhales sharply at my side, and it takes me a second to realize why. At first, I think he might have seen a wasp because he hates those things, but then I realize that no. No wasp. It’s because I just used my name. My real name. It might be my chosen name, picked out after we met Granny, but still. That’s something we don’t do. And giving his name out too? That’s a real double whammy.
“Hi,” Orion says, sticking out his hand as soon as the woman is near enough to shake it. He gives me a heck of a side-eye scowl at the same time. Orion gives insanely good side-eye scowls. Or bad if you’re on the receiving end of it.
“Victoria,” she responds, pumping my brother’s hand. I swear her voice could charm even the most feral of wild beasts, including one angry twin. “Thank you for coming out.” She steps back without shaking my hand, and I feel it like a travesty even though I didn’t offer mine because I’m currently frozen right into the ground a few paces back. Then, she looks over her shoulder, her lovely white hair billowing like puffy clouds around her face as she adds, “This is it. As you can see, it needs a lot of work. I thought we could do a walk around, and then maybe you could give me that quote. I don’t have much of a budget, but I figured I could prioritize the work.”
“Actually, we’re—”
I step up and slap Orion on the shoulder, cutting him off. “More than happy to do it,” I finish for him while he scowls at me. We’re not contractors. This is wrong. I get that, but I just need a few more minutes.
Alright, so maybe I’m for keeping up the charade. If I can help out, I’m going to. I’ve already decided that. There isn’t really a need to tell her that we aren’t who she thinks we are if I can find other people to do the work. I’d act like a…I don’t know…the boss of all the other people who actually know what they’re doing. Except, in this case, I won’t take a fee for my services, and I’ll be shelling out behind the scenes. Erm, well, Granny will be the one shelling out because she kind of controls the finances, but I’m sure I can convince her. It’s for a good cause, after all.