Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“How old are you?” I asked. “Sixteen? Seventeen? Eighteen?”
He bared his teeth.
“What does it matter to you?” He challenged, the rain drenching his body, revealing the bones of ribs and the lankiness of his body that only a teenager that hadn’t grown into his body still had.
“What matters to me is that I know your parents don’t give you the discipline that you need. I wouldn’t have gone about doing what your mother did the other day, but at least she did something. My kid ever did anything like what you did to me and I would’ve had her truck. Then she would’ve been grounded. Not to mention she’d be lucky if she ever saw the light of day again,” I growled, crossing my arms over my chest.
The boy’s eyes narrowed.
“Who are you to tell me what I do and don’t need?” He growled. “You don’t know me.”
My brows rose.
“You have a brand new truck. You dress in designer clothing. You live in a nice house. You have a light bar, a lift, and tires on your truck that cost a whack. Trust me, I would be the one to know what you were given,” I pointed to my own truck that was very similar to his, yet I’d bought it and not my mommy.
Not that my mom wouldn’t have bought it for me had I wanted her to. She was always trying to do stuff for me that I could do for myself. Yet, I never took her up on the offer.
This kid, though, struck me as the type of kid that would suck his mommy’s titty until he was pried off with a halligan.
The kid bowed up, and I waited for him to throw the first punch, but reason started to leach into his eyes before he took a hasty step back.
My guess was that he finally saw I wasn’t in the mood to play.
“You’re a fucking loser,” he said, turning on his heel and heading for his truck.
I snorted out a laugh when I made my way to Aspen’s front porch, turning slightly when I heard the slam of the door meaning that the boy had gone inside, too.
“Hey!” I heard.
I stopped when I reached the porch covering, then turned to find the friend that was in the passenger seat crawling out of the truck, his eyes wide and worried.
“What?” I asked shortly.
He turned his eyes to the door, gauging to make sure that the boy was actually inside, then turned back to me.
“I’m Mace Turner,” he said quickly.
“Okay,” I drawled, waiting for him to get on with it.
“I’m…I’m a friend of Attie’s,” he said.
My eyes instantly narrowed.
“How friendly?” I drawled, hands clenching into fists.
“I’ve been seeing her for a while…at school. We’re just friends.” He licked his lips. “Well, we were seeing each other. Then she abruptly stopped seeing me about six months ago. She changed.”
I blinked, not ready for that response.
“She changed?” I asked.
I nodded.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “But that’s not what I want to talk to you about.”
I gritted my teeth.
“Well then, what was it you wanted to talk about?” I said in exasperation.
He pointed at the door where the boy had disappeared. “That’s Ellison. He’s not very nice.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Then why are you with him?” I asked gratingly.
He pointed at my house.
“Your daughter lives next door to him,” he said simply.
I wanted to laugh.
“Okay,” I muttered. “Get on with it.”
“Ellison’s not a good person. If you’re not careful, he’s going to do something stupid, and you could get hurt in the process,” Mace explained quickly, the words seeming to tumble from his lips in his haste to say them.
“I don’t think that really matters at this juncture. He’s a kid. I’m an adult. There won’t be any more contact between the two of us, if I have my say so about it. But thank you for informing me of your concerns,” I said simply, surprised by his worry over me.
He nodded quickly, then tossed one look back over his shoulder before he sighed.
“I have to go home. I have to be at work in an hour. He was taking me home when you came out of your house,” he explained quickly.
My head hurt.
“How are you getting home?” I asked.
He pointed.
“It’s not a far walk. Just down the street and a left. I’m on the corner there,” he explained.
I nodded.
“Be careful,” I instructed. “And hey,” he stopped. “Do me a favor?”
He waited for me to explain.
“What favor?”
“Stay away from that kid, alright?” I told him.
He winced.
“I plan to,” he said. “After that…there’s no way I’m going to keep hanging with him. He was only a means to an end, anyway.”
I laughed, then, and pointed down the road.
“Go home, boy.”
He went, taking off in a jog into the still raining night.
I turned to the door and checked the handle.