Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I couldn’t even find it in me to smile.
Chapter 14
I always mean what I say. I may not always mean to say it aloud, but I always mean it.
-Baylor’s secret thoughts
Baylor
It was two nights later before I finally saw the carefree Lark again.
It’d taken her two whole days to get out of her head, and I’d been there with her when I wasn’t at work or running.
She’d even gone with me on my run today, only she’d ridden her bike while I’d taken a new route that didn’t take me to Pongo’s old home.
Two days of waiting had ended up with nothing remarkable.
Nobody said anything about a missing dog.
There were no whispers. There were no questions.
It was like nothing had even happened, only my whole life had changed.
Lark had committed a crime for me, and I’d let her.
She’d been so caught up in her head that I hadn’t even had the nerve to ask her why she’d done it.
Sure, she’d said that she wanted me to be happy, but it wasn’t every day that someone committed a crime for me. I needed to know more.
Was she feeling the same thing I was feeling? Or was that just me?
The door to her bedroom slammed, and my eyes came up to meet hers.
“Where are you going?” I asked the woman who was slowly starting to own my heart.
Lark smoothed her hands down her pants in a nervous gesture.
She grinned at me. “I heard that there’s an HOA meeting, and I’m going.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why?”
She shrugged. “I decided a few days ago that I was going to start finding me. And that’s going to start with me standing up for myself.”
“You’re going to go up there and try to get him kicked off the board?”
She nodded.
I grinned and stood up, polishing off the beer that I’d just popped open before offering her my hand. “Let’s do it.”
Five minutes later, we arrived at the swimming pool/banquet hall that all of the people in the neighborhood could use thanks to fees they paid each month to keep the pool clean and the banquet hall stocked.
I frowned when I saw the sheer amount of people in the parking lot.
Backing my bike up into a spot that was clearly not meant to be used as a parking space seeing as there was a dumpster at the back of it, I turned off the engine and stared.
“What the hell?” I asked. “There have to be at least a hundred people here.”
Lark snickered. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the last few days.”
I looked at her over my shoulder and said, “Yeah?”
She nodded and swung her leg over, using her hands on my shoulders to be sure that she stayed steady. “Yes.”
I rolled my eyes and swung my legs off as well.
“And what have you been thinking about?” I pushed, tugging at her ponytail.
She threw a smile my way and then started to remove her helmet.
“Well,” she bit her lip. “I’m tired of being walked all over.”
My brows rose. “And who does that?”
She opened her mouth to say something, and then closed it again.
“I don’t want to say,” she admitted, and I was proud that she’d given me the truth instead of a pretty lie. “But suffice it to say, I’m changing my old ways, and I’ve decided to start that by dealing with Harold.”
“Okay,” I said. “And how are you going to do that?”
She placed the helmet on the seat and crossed her arms over her chest.
My eyes automatically went down to see the soft swells, and my mouth watered.
Over the last two days, we hadn’t made love again. I didn’t want to push her, and since it seemed like something was going on with her, I’d thought it best to leave shit alone and let her work it out on her own.
Which was how I liked to deal with my problems as well.
So I’d done that but stayed close to her side, ensuring I’d be there if she ever wanted to talk.
But apparently, she hadn’t, because a few seconds later, she let me know just how much she hadn’t shared.
“I’ve talked to almost everyone in our neighborhood, and I’ve found quite a few who are just as fed up with Harold’s antics as we are.”
I would’ve been hurt that she hadn’t shared something that big, but she was proud of herself. I could see it in her eyes that were shining with excitement.
I blinked. “Okay.”
Her smile was fierce.
“I asked them to come to the homeowner's association meeting tonight so we can bring up our…problems with him,” she finally settled on.
I nodded my head. “And?”
“And I’m going to demand that they do something, or else.”
“Or else what?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know yet, but this is getting ridiculous. Did you know that your brother was fined for a noise complaint because he’d taken your infant nephew outside early in the morning instead of letting him wake up the girls? And it hadn’t been a neighbor that’d submitted the complaint, it’d been Harold who was walking by as he gave our neighbor another fine for forgetting to put up his trash can.”