Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I swallowed back the tears that rushed up at his words and walked toward the back of the house.
I didn’t mean to make light of what he’d told me, but I was grateful that he tried to make me feel normal.
That was what I needed right then.
“Would you mind feeding my mom’s cat? The food bowl is on the counter. Food is under the sink,” I said, pointing in the direction of the kitchen.
“Jesus Christ,” I heard Tai said. “You’re not a fuckin’ cat. You’re a fuckin’ sloth.”
I giggled.
Spaz was my mother’s very healthy twelve-year-old cat that, literally, did nothing but lay in the sun and eat all day. I was impressed that he could still get up on the counter myself, but mom said he never had any trouble.
I guess since Spaz’s only goal in life was to eat, of course, he would make sure he could get up there to do it.
I walked into my mother’s room and froze at the picture of Colt’s baby blue eyes staring back at me from a picture frame beside my mom’s bed.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.
Those baby blues had been so beautiful.
I walked toward the picture and ran my finger along the glass covering his perfect cheek.
“I miss you, baby boy,” I whispered.
This time, the tears didn’t come.
And I was grateful.
Tai had seen me cry a lot today, I didn’t want to break down on him again.
Turning away from that beautiful face I wanted to see again more than my next breath, I grabbed my mom’s nightgown from on top of her pillow, her slippers from the bottom of the bed, and headed into the bathroom.
I found the rest of the items she’d requested, too, and put them all into an overnight bag I’d found at the bottom of her bed.
Once done, I walked out of her bedroom to find Tai playing with a laser, making the old goat of a cat run and slide across the kitchen floor.
“Having fun?” I teased. “Where did you find that laser?”
He held up his key chain in his hand. “I carry it around because it bothers my brother’s dogs, and which, in turn, bothers my sister-in-law.”
I snorted.
“I’ll just take this home with me. Do you want to drop me back off at my car?” I asked.
He gave me a look.
“No. I want to take you to dinner.”
I blinked.
“What?”
He grinned. “You heard me.”
“Dinner…why?”
He moved closer until he was within reaching distance.
He touched my nose with one rough, blunt finger.
“Because I want to, girly girl…because I want to.”
***
I was nervous.
I’d dropped my mom’s clothes off at the hospital, and now we were on our way to The Back Porch, a restaurant that was sure to be a hopping place at eight o’clock on a Friday night.
It was also a cop and firefighter hangout. Or so I’d been told.
I’d never been there.
In fact, I’d never been out to a lot of places in the city.
When we’d moved here, we’d literally had no money.
I could count on two hands the number of times I’d gone out to eat during my high school years.
And that’d only continued as I’d put myself through my prerequisites at the local community college and then started nursing school.
I’d worked my ass off at an electronics store while going to school, and I’d kept my student loans down below ten grand rather than the forty-to-fifty grand it’d cost other students who didn’t have any help financially.
It’d taken me an extra two and a half years to do it that way, but, in my opinion, it was worth it.
Barely any debt meant being able to afford my bills.
Which also meant that I didn’t get the luxury of going out to eat.
I’d graduated school, then gone straight into working in my field until I had Colt.
There was just no time, no money, and, honestly, no inclination to do so.
Now, I was excited.
We were in Tai’s truck, and I had my eyes closed as I listened to the whine of his large tires eating up the main highway that ran through Kilgore.
The window was down and my hair was flying every which way, even with me having put it up into a pony tail.
I opened my eyes and looked sideways when I felt the truck come to a stop.
The red light in front of us had the lanes at our sides quickly filling up, and neither one of us missed the loud roar of a motorcycle pulling up beside us.
I looked down and my eyes widened when I saw the sexy man on the back of the bike.
He was on the older side, and I felt my pulse speed up as I took him in.
“Whoa,” I said, turning back when the motorcycle rumbled beside me. “That’s loud.”
“That’s Sam,” Tai said.
“Sam who?” I asked, studying his face.