Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
No one asked me what my favorite childhood movie was—The Sandlot—or the first song I’d ever danced with a girl to—I Wanna Know—or even what adult experience made me look at my parents differently—when loss, fear, and anger had made me understand how his time in the service had turned my father hard.
I’d learned shit about myself through Sabrina’s questions that I’d never known before. It was a new experience for someone who thought they’d seen and done just about everything already.
Maybe it was that depth of connection that had me following her out to her car, had me reaching for her, and pulling her in for that kiss.
Fuck, that kiss.
That was the kind of kiss that warranted its own dramatic, slow-building musical score. Then the camera would pan out as my hands started to roam in decidedly not-appropriate-for-screen places.
I’d been seconds away from doing exactly what I said. Dragging her down an alley and easing the tension that had been building within the both of us.
Just the memory of the way her body practically trembled with the intensity of her need had my cock starting to stiffen right there in the damn common room at the clubhouse.
“Do I want to know what you’re doing?” I asked as Sully came walking out of the garage with spray paint and a measuring tape.
“Picking out the best spot for the hot tub,” he said.
“The one Fallon and Brooks haven’t approved yet?” Nave asked.
“They will. They know they want it too,” he declared with a nod.
“Out of curiosity,” I said, eyeing the bright orange cap on the can of spray paint, “are you planning to use that on the lawn?”
“On Perish’s precious lawn?” Nave added for emphasis.
“It’ll… wash off,” Sully said, sounding unsure.
“I would suggest showing it to Fallon and Brooks then cutting the lawn before he sees it,” I said, thinking of the absolute shit-fit Perish had one day when he’d realized Sully had orchestrated a water balloon fight in the yard, leaving tiny bits of multicolored balloons all through the grass. And that shit could be easily picked up.
“Good plan,” Sully said as he made his way out the back door.
“So no more stalking from a certain young girl?” Nave asked.
“Think the shootout scared her off,” I said. I was only partially lying. It scared her off for herself. But it somehow made her want to set me up with her mother.
“Probably good since you eye-fuck her mother when she’s not looking.”
Maybe I should have objected to that. But he was right. And what did it matter if he knew that?
“Ran into her at She’s Bean Around the other night,” I told him, finding that I actually wanted to talk about it. That wasn’t exactly like me. But then again, neither was this newfound interest I had in a woman.
“Yeah? How’d that go?”
“Good,” I said.
“Yet you haven’t seen her again?”
“She has work and a kid.”
“She has work and a nearly grown kid so she can’t see you for coffee or dinner again?” Nave asked, dubious. “Sounds more like your ass is too chickenshit to initiate,” he said, slapping my shoulder as he moved past me. “Nut-up, Callow. Can’t get shit in life if you don’t shoot your shots when they come up.”
I didn’t expect to get life advice from someone young enough to be my kid brother.
That said, Nave was a bit of a mystery. At least to me. He was a legacy kid, with his old man having been a really important member of the club in his day. Yet when he was old enough, he grabbed his bike and a backpack and hit the road.
For fucking years.
Even though he knew he could have easily just come back at any point to prospect and become a patched member of the club.
I didn’t know many specifics of his time on the road. Save for him meeting Voss on his travels when Voss had saved his life. And that the two had been best friends ever since.
Since he came back, he was an ever-present member of the club, but just about as bit of a mystery to me as the newer prospects.
Maybe he’d had a lot more experiences with women in his years away than I’d had. Anything was possible.
And, fuck, he was right.
I had no right to sit around pining for the woman when she was one text or phone call away. I was being a chickenshit by waiting for her to come to me.
Besides, if she’d found out that her kid was who had set up the encounter, she might be too embarrassed to reach out first.
I checked my phone to make sure she hadn’t texted before making my way outside to look for Sully. Because if there was one man I knew who could give me advice on womenkind as a whole, it was the Hawaiian-shirt-wearing, rom-com-watching, girls-night-tagger-alonger, ex-military biker with a hot tub obsession.