Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“Because we’re speedy quick and sly as a dog, right, Uncle, right?”
“That’s right, little man, that’s right.”
Then the boy sobered into seriousness. “But we love everyone the same. Because we’re family and we got to stick together no matter what.”
Logan chuckled, a soft swell of love rippling from his mouth.
I didn’t know how I remained standing.
The way my spirit clutched, and affection tried to become the reigning emotion.
“That’s right, Gage. Because we’re family, and we stick together. No matter what.” He touched Gage’s chin.
I swore the barista swooned as the customer in front of them took his coffee and walked away.
Oh, wait.
It was me.
Get it together, Aster. Otherwise, this was going to be a suicide mission. My mangled heart no longer fit to beat.
Logan tossed the barista one of those cocky smiles that could melt a glacier. “Good morning, beautiful. It seems we need a hot chocolate and a doughnut. Large black coffee for me.”
Her smile was edged in interest as she punched in the order, her eyes raking him with a wash of familiarity. “Sure thing, Logan. Anything else I can get for you?”
“My uncle is pretty cool. You want to marry him? He doesn’t got a wife and my daddy says it’s a sad, sorry state of affairs, way he’s out tappin’ about everything that walks.”
Logan choked and moved to clamp his hand over Gage’s mouth. “Um, you’ll have to excuse my nephew. He’s a pathological liar.”
Gage squirmed out of his hold. “Liar? Lies are bad, Uncle Logan. Don’t you know nothin’?”
The barista laughed while she eyed Logan over the counter. “It does sound like a sad, sorry state of affairs.”
I might have wanted to stab her in the eye if it weren’t for the fact that I was still getting pummeled by swells of relief brought on by the details this conversation had brought to light.
Logan wasn’t married.
Wasn’t tied.
And I was the stupid, stupid girl who wondered if he’d never moved on.
SIX
LOGAN
“We’ll see you tonight, yeah?” Trent pressed like he thought I was going to swindle my way out of tonight’s duties as he helped Gage into the backseat of his white Porsche Panamera.
The kiddie wagon.
It cracked me up he drove it half the time considering my oldest brother was the scariest motherfucker I knew.
Covered in tats. Deathly quiet. Sight of him caused grown men to stop in their tracks.
Old MC before he’d left that life behind. Now, he ran Absolution, a club across town.
But I doubted much you could fully purify your blood of those kinds of metals.
Oil and leather and perversion ran through our veins.
Ruthless depravity.
Mine flowed differently, though.
Greed the fix my body craved.
It was funny that I hadn’t given a shit about any of that until having it had become something I needed to prove.
“Dude, come on, have you ever known me to miss a good time?” I grinned.
Trent all but rolled his black eyes. “Yeah, man, I’m sure spending a Saturday night at a kids’ dance performance is exactly what you had in mind.”
I pressed my hand to my heart, all dramatic like. “Trent, you wound me. You know my niece and nephew are my world. Isn’t that right, Gage?” I shouted it a little louder to get Gage in on the antics.
“That’s right, Uncle. Families got to stay together, no matter what,” he hollered back from where he was strapped in his seat, kid cute as fuck as he kicked his little feet.
“See?” I drew that one out.
Trent grunted. “Sure, sure.”
The truth was, Gage was my life. He was the one who’d given me a reason to move. To put one foot in front of the other. A purpose when Trent had needed me to have his back, to stand in and help him raise his son when he and Jud were trying to get their new businesses here in Redemption Hills off the ground.
Holding him for the first time on the day he was born? I could still distinctly remember that moment.
The way it’d felt.
The way something had thawed.
Cracked.
And I’d smiled for the first time in six months.
My teeth gritted as a slew of the memories I’d repressed slammed me from out of nowhere.
I could thank Aster Rose Costa for that.
Girl had fucking crushed me, and now she had me stumbling all over again.
I forced myself to keep the grin plastered to my face as Trent tossed Gage’s backpack to the floorboards.
“Just be sure to leave the rest of the teachers alone, yeah?” Trent razzed as he closed Gage’s door.
“Of course…that is if they can keep their hands off me. Impossible, I know, but I’ll do my best.”
Trent shook his head, though his eyes glinted with amusement. “That ego is going to bite you in the ass one of these days.”
“As long as she’s cute, I don’t mind.”
“For my own sanity, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you say that.”