Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“But we don’t have dates,” I stated the obvious.
“I’ll have a date, even if I have to ask Joe.”
My brows rose at that.
“You’d ask Joe?” I questioned in surprise.
She nodded. “Yeah, Joe.”
Joe was her ex-husband, and he was her ex because he was so vehemently against her being a cop. He was so against females becoming law enforcement, at all, that it wasn’t funny.
Joe hated that his wife was going out and putting her life on the line night after night.
Joe hated that CeeCee wouldn’t just stay at home, barefoot and pregnant, content being his little housewife, and I couldn’t say that I was totally against that idea, either.
It wasn’t that I thought women couldn’t handle themselves, I just felt like my sister shouldn’t have to.
She was all of five-foot-nothing, and would go down in a swift wind like she did one year at a water park when a storm blew in.
I just didn’t know if my sister would be able to protect herself from some meth-head addict that was high out of his mind or a robber intent on getting away.
“What am I supposed to do?” I growled at her.
“Ask the brown beauty you were with last night,” my sister suggested.
I shook my head. “That isn’t going to work.”
CeeCee’s eyes rose. “And why not?”
I twisted the paper holder around the cup absently as I stared out the windows to my office.
“She’s Annie’s sister.”
“The one you have a crush on,” CeeCee teased.
I snapped my eyes over to hers.
“I never said I had a crush on her,” I informed her.
She shrugged.
“I didn’t say that you did, but you also haven’t tried to bring a woman home since you met her. Figured you had it bad for her if you weren’t trying to pound my wall down,” CeeCee said.
My stomach tightened.
“They’re my walls, and you said you couldn’t hear anything,” I grumbled.
CeeCee smiled.
“I lied.”
Shit.
“That…” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That’s just wrong. If I’d have known, I wouldn’t have brought anyone home.”
CeeCee shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal, Ten. When it happens, I turn my TV on, and I can’t hear a thing anymore.”
My sister moved into my house with me after her divorce. And, although she’d looked for a place here and there, she hadn’t found one that had caught her fancy yet.
I didn’t care.
I was rarely, if ever, there.
My business kept me gone until late, and if I did manage to come home, I was only there for a couple hours to sleep.
It was nice to have someone there to take care of Koda.
Koda was my dog.
She was a beast, and I loved her like she was my own kid.
I’d become her handler while I was on a tour in Iraq.
She’d saved my life by warning me of a roadside bomb before we walked past it, and I’d moved at the last minute.
Had she not been there to warn me that day, I would’ve been dead, along with eight members of my team.
Koda and I had some awesome PTSD from the incident, and we’d both been injured.
While she and I were recuperating, my team moved mountains and I’d kissed some major ass and pulled some serious strings to get her home with me.
And she’d been with me ever since.
“The doctor’s office called,” CeeCee revealed. “Did you mean to skip your appointment this week?”
I grimaced.
“Yeah. I had a skip,” I confirmed, dropping my empty cup down on my desk and circling around it. “Did you do the paperwork, or did Rhea do it?”
“I did it, boss,” my other sister, Rhea, called.
I grimaced.
Rhea was all of eighteen years old, and I wasn’t sure she really needed to be involved in my business. However, she was my little sister, and I’d rather her work somewhere where I knew she’d be paid what she was worth.
Rhea was what one would call a brainiac.
She’d graduated from high school when she was sixteen, graduated from college with her degree in electrical engineering two and a half years later and was now working as my secretary, of all things.
Why, I didn’t know, and I wouldn’t question her on it.
If she needed the time to integrate herself in the world, I’d give it to her.
“Thanks,” I said. “Did you get all the invoices paid?”
Rhea nodded. “Yep. Sent you the email this morning. I also paid your gym crew.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, scanning my emails.
I stopped on one I assumed was spam, but opened it regardless.
The email wasn’t spam.
But I should’ve deleted it anyway.
It was from Tasha.
How she’d gotten my email, I didn’t know.
But it was simple and to the point.
A picture she’d sent from her iPhone, with a caption that read, ‘Does my butt look big in these shorts?’
She was standing facing away from a mirror, and she was taking a picture of herself over her shoulder.