Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
But it could be better this time around.
“You are a brave man.” MaeBe sat down next to him and reached for the remote. “You know how I know Kyle’s not dead?”
He inwardly groaned because this was something she talked about a lot. Outwardly he simply tipped back his beer before answering. “How?”
“Because Charlotte doesn’t try to set me up anymore,” she replied simply.
It was a good indicator. Charlotte Taggart was the matchmaker of their world. She’d set MaeBe up with many a lawyer/doctor/engineer. And then Kyle had come to work for MT and that had shut down. There were other reasons Mae wasn’t considering. “Or it could be because you growl everyone’s way and threaten to punch them.”
“Could be, but I think she thinks Kyle is going to solve his problems and magically come back to life and I’ll be sitting here waiting for him like some love-sick idiot,” MaeBe replied. “But I won’t. If Kyle Hawthorne shows up on my doorstep, I’m going to punch him in the balls.”
If he didn’t stop her, she would spend the next hour telling him in great detail about how she would take Kyle apart. “You want to watch a murder show?”
It was what he called all true crime shows. MaeBe liked two kinds of TV. Romance/soapy stuff and murder shows. Lately all she wanted to watch were murdery ones, and she could be judgey about the victims. It was worse, though, with the romance. He’d thought she’d enjoy a romcom, and when the guy had told the girl he loved her, she’d thrown popcorn at the screen, yelled liar, and locked herself in her room for an hour.
So murders it was.
For now.
“Oooo, there’s a new one out.” MaeBe was already turning the TV on. “It looks like fun.” She turned to him. “Thanks for watching with me. And you don’t know about Daphne. She could be different.”
He sat back as the show started.
She could be, but she probably wasn’t. After all, she’d married a highly educated man, and he’d barely gotten through high school. Her kid was a genius. She would want smart people around her.
So he would help and then step back and let them fly free. Like he always did.
Puddles moved his head so it was laying across Boomer’s leg. The dog yawned and rubbed against him before falling asleep again.
Mostly did. Sometimes he helped them and they stayed.
Daphne Carlton wouldn’t be one of those. Probably.
Chapter Three
Boomer had just shoved his water bottle in his backpack the next morning when the bell chimed through his condo. He glanced up at the clock, and it was barely seven.
Mae looked over from where she was feeding Molly a carrot. “Were you expecting someone?”
“No. I’m supposed to take you in this morning, right?” There was a schedule when it came to MaeBe.
MaeBe was dressed to work out. The clothes she would change into were packed in her gym bag. She had early morning sessions every weekday with either Big Tag or Erin Taggart. They were teaching her some hardcore self-defense. Then at lunch she would work out with the bodyguard unit. She was rapidly losing the soft layer she’d always had—both inner and outer. “That’s what the schedule said.”
He moved to the door and glanced out the peephole. It was probably time he put in a full monitoring system so he could see who was coming up and down the hallway. What he saw had him opening the door quickly. “Daphne?”
The pretty brunette held her daughter’s hand, and there was a tight set to her face that let him know her morning wasn’t going well. She blew out a breath and wiped a hand across her face. “Hey.”
Lou, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. She was in her school uniform, the blue beret on her head and her backpack dangling from her back. “Hey, Boomer. Mom has a whole bunch of trouble at the bakery and she has to get there and it’s the opposite way from my school so she can’t get there and take me. I told her I could totally walk. Or she could call a ride share for me.”
Daphne practically growled her daughter’s way. “Or I could ask our very nice neighbor, who I know happens to walk to work and his work is one block away from your school.” She looked up at Boomer. “I’m so sorry, and I know I was not as nice as I should have been yesterday, but I just got a call and my bread guy is having trouble with the oven. I need to be there ten minutes ago. I’m so sorry…”
“Of course I’ll walk with her.” Damn, Daphne looked good even when she was worried. He wanted to give her a big hug, to wrap her up and let her know everything would be okay, but that was definitely not his place. “Mae and I were about to head out.”