Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66200 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“Okay, I’m ready.” Soph huffed and came back with the fire extinguisher. She wasn’t joking around.
On the other hand, neither was Troy.
“Is this gift legal?” Soph asked.
I shrugged. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
She sighed impatiently. “Let me rephrase. Is it legal to use the way it’s intended?”
“Oh, probably not.” I wasn’t worried, though. Particularly not considering our location. The beach would be perfect to try it out. “You’re thinkin’ about the miniature fireball air balloons he and I made before college, aren’t you?”
The cops hadn’t been too pleased to spot several tiny air balloons over the fields that one evening. Less so when they all exploded and set off fireworks in the air. But did anyone get hurt? Nope. Not a single glowing ember landed in the field. Troy knew what he was doing.
“Yeah, no fucking shit.” Soph had lost her filters.
“Oh, Momma, look!” Teddy lifted his new toy from the box, a quite heavy RC car Troy had built himself. It was about a foot in length, and I’d ordered two of them. Both were designed to look like monster trucks. One black and one metallic blue.
“They’re ready to run, champ,” I told him.
Teddy was the best fucking kid to buy gifts for. He got so dang excited, and he showed it.
“Before we show everyone else, we need to have a secret talk,” I said. “I’ll tell you everythin’ you need to know about the features.”
He nodded, eyes wide and full of anticipation.
Seven
Fifteen minutes later, Teddy and I walked down the private pathway from Sebastian’s house to the beach. We had AC/DC blasting from the Bluetooth speaker Teddy had clipped on to his pants, and we each carried an RC car that was going to blow some minds.
This was our action scene. We had our mean game faces on, and the others were waiting for us in the sand, Sebastian with Mischa and Echo, Soph with the fire extinguisher.
“Thunderstruck” reached its climax as I instructed Dylan to film the magic. Then we set down the cars and completed a test drive to put some distance between us and the new gadgets.
Teddy struggled to withhold his grin. He’d asked me if we could look “badass,” and I couldn’t deny him. Of course we were gonna do this lookin’ badass as fuck.
The waves rolled in and washed up along the empty beach, sending salty spray and the smell of kelp into the cold air.
“Be careful,” Soph pleaded. “Blake, you know who you’re dealin’ with here.”
“I’m well aware, Mama,” I drawled. I turned my ball cap on backward as “Highway to Hell” started, and it was the perfect song. “Just step aside and let us men handle this.”
Sebastian snorted.
“Yeah, we got this, Momma,” Teddy said coolly.
With our devices in hand, we maneuvered our monster trucks around to face us, both waiting some 150 feet up the beach.
Teddy and I exchanged a firm nod before we started. I directed my blue truck down to the bank where the waves rolled in, driving it through the foamy wash, and Teddy followed with the black truck. Then up again, over and around the sandy terrain.
In my periphery, I noticed Echo following the movements closely. Hell, it would be fun watching him chase the trucks.
“You ready, champ?”
“Super ready.” Teddy jogged in place, unable to stand still. “Now?”
“Now.” We flipped the orange switches on the devices, and then I had to get Teddy’s reaction. I watched his whole face light up as the trucks were engulfed in flames, sending big fireballs up into the air.
To Troy’s credit, it really did look like the trucks exploded. But that wasn’t enough for my buddy.
“Gah!” Teddy gasped, pointed, and stared wide-eyed. Because these trucks didn’t merely explode. They survived. They emerged from the fire and kept going. “Uncle Blake!”
Fuck, my mask slipped off completely. Almost forty years old, and this shit still got me going. “I know. How fuckin’ cool is that? Troy built them to be able to take on fire and all kinds of shit. You can blow them up over and over.” We just had to refill the little fuel tank and replace a part for the ignition. “I reckon there’s enough gas for one more explosion. You wanna go?”
“Uh, yeah! Dad, film it again, please!”
“I’m filming the whole thing, buddy,” Dylan promised, chuckling.
Wanting to see how far I could push the truck I was driving, I fell to my knees and sat back on the heels of my shoes, and I got into it. Everything around me ceased to exist, except for Teddy and the black truck. This was just for us.
“Come Fourth of July, I bet we can make the trucks explode confetti,” I said.
“That would be awesome!” Teddy maneuvered his truck expertly. People automatically underestimated him most of the time, and it bugged me. He loved gadgets. He was smarter than many gave him credit for. It was as if people judged a person’s intelligence by their motor skills. It was fucked up.