Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“Jaysus, Date. I don’t need to see that much of ye.”
JJ was leaving the kitchen with a protein bar in his hand, and he pointedly looked at the floor as he went into the sitting room, which caused me to snort. “Sorry.”
Seeing me in all my naked glory was the risk of coming into my apartment, much to my brother’s displeasure.
I hated wearing clothes, and everyone knew it. Most of the time, I got away with wearing just trousers or my boxer briefs when I was around my family. As of late, I stuck to always wearing trousers around my nephews because they’d slap or punch my dick when they were sitting on my lap. They were little lads, but they didn’t understand the importance of having a cock yet, and since they played with their own all the time, they figured every other man’s was free game, too.
I was hell-bent on changing that view as they grew older.
Rapidly, I followed my triple S procedure. Shite, shave, and shower. I patted my skin with a towel, brushed my teeth, and slapped on some lotion and deodorant before returning to my bedroom and getting dressed.
“JJ,” I hollered as I eyed my work jumper. “Is it warm out?”
It was early June. Summer was fast approaching in Ireland, and already it had been unusually warm for our fair island.
“Yeah,” he answered. “I took off me jumper when I pulled into the car park. I was sweatin’ buckets. It’s twenty-five degrees out. Fuckin’ boilin’.”
What was mild weather for other countries was hell on earth for us Irish folk. After lacing my boots and straightening my work T-shirt, I slid my phone into my back pocket.
“JJ!” I shouted, ruffling my hair. “I’m good to go, bud.”
“Ye haven’t even eaten yet.” He walked out of my sitting room looking like my aul fella’s twin when he frowned. “Ye’ll be starvin’ in an hour.”
I shrugged. “I’ll get somethin’ from the deli in the village durin’ lunch.”
“If Aideen was here, she’d be convinced ye were starvin’ yourself.”
“Tell me about it.”
My sister meant well, but she could be a lot to deal with. She became a mother hen to my brothers and me when she was just a baby herself. Our mother passed away because of childbirth complications when Gavin was born, and Aideen took on her role as she grew up. Taking care of all of us was part of who she was. I truly believed she’d have a breakdown if that was taken away from her.
JJ and I left my apartment and pulled up to the garage fifteen minutes later.
The building was huge. Initially, it was a simple garage with a service and overhaul area that could fit three cars at a time, then my father bought the bigger lot next door and expanded our business. Construction had only finished last year. Our holdings for vehicles inside the garage had more than tripled, and the garage floor was one huge space we called the hangar. A large back room off the hangar kept most of the smaller inventory. The back wall of the hangar had floor-to-ceiling racks stocked with dozens of different tyre brands and sizes. There were now ten service bays in total, and each bay had its own double-wide entrance and a four-post car lift at its centre.
The reception area was no longer a small room with a line of cramped seating against the wall. It was an elegant foyer that looked like it belonged in the lobby of a fancy company. The reception was decked out with a ten-seated waiting area. A fifty-inch plasma screen was mounted on the wall and listed the customers’ names and vehicle status, so those who hung around to wait could see the stage of their repair and the estimated completion time. There were both male and female toilets, and a long hallway that led to the staff room, a second storage room, an employee toilet, and my father’s office.
I saw Harley in the pit of bay one, working on the underside of a raised truck while my baby brother, Gavin, was glaring at me from across the hangar while holding a flex-head ratchet awfully tight in his hand. He looked like JJ when he was mad. We all looked like JJ, who looked like our father, but Gavin was really my eldest brother’s double.
“Why d’ye look like you’re about to lob that at me, little brother?”
Gavin grinned menacingly. “’Cause I’m thinkin’ ’bout it real hard, cum drop.”
I locked my eyes on his and silently dared him to throw the tool because he knew well how that altercation would go down. He would only get one chance to hit me with that ratchet, then I’d have all the time in the world to shove my foot up his arse, and he knew it. Gavin’s left eye twitched as he sighed and placed the tool on a trolley next to him, making me snort. Gavin was a lot of things, but a fighter wasn’t one of them … or at least he wasn’t when it came to fighting me.