Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 628(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Her father gave a satisfied nod. “You care more than you think you do.”
“I’m leaving,” Doom asserted.
“I hope you do. You’re not the man I would have picked for my daughter. I’m hoping, with you gone, she’ll find a better man than either of us. Arden has a heart of gold. She deserves a man who will put her above everything else. A man who will be there to wipe her tears away, to sleep next to her at the end of the day, and spend years with her rather than a few hours here and there. Time goes so fast, and I don’t want her wasting another minute with you.”
“Tink must take after her mother.”
Her father gave him a grim smile at the insult. “You rather she take after her mother than me?” He gave a sarcastic laugh. “You’re right; she does.” His head fell back onto the pillow. “You’re fucked and don’t even know you’re fucked.”
“What does that mean?” Doom’s jaw clenched. If her father wasn’t already at death’s door, Doom would put him there.
“You figure it out. You said stupidity wasn’t your problem.”
Having had enough, he went to the door. If he stayed any longer, he would hasten the fucker’s death.
“Send Arden a postcard when you get to where you’re going. She can put it in a scrapbook.”
I will not kill the fucker. Does he want to die so bad he’s trying to push me?
The thought had Doom turning around to stare at him. Taken off guard, he caught an unexpected expression on the man’s face. Doom’s jaw clenched not in anger but in another emotion he didn’t want to admit to.
Tink’s father was goading him into recognizing he was in love with Arden. Confined to the bed, he was fighting for his daughter’s happiness the only way left for him.
Doom looked at the picture with them sitting on the motorcycle. The adoration was visible on both of their faces.
“Can I get you anything before I leave?” he asked begrudgingly.
Surprise glinted in Tink’s father’s eyes. “You could sneak into the kitchen and grab me a beer.”
“Are you allowed to have it?”
“No, which is why you need to put it in my tumbler.” He gestured to the large tumbler sitting next to his bed. “You need to hurry; the nurse should be here any minute. Arden hides them behind the yogurts.”
“Where’s the kitchen?”
“You’re the Navy SEAL; find it.”
Getting the tumbler, Doom left the bedroom. Asking himself why, Doom made sure not to make any noise as he went behind Tink’s mother’s chair. He took a silent breath and made it to the entryway, past the dining room, to where he saw an archway. He walked through it and found the kitchen. Quickly, he located the beer and poured it into the tumbler. After hiding the empty beer bottle in the trash can, he went back through the archway, peeked around the wall, and saw Tink’s mother had fallen asleep.
Quietly, he maneuvered behind her chair to make it back out of sight.
When he set the tumbler back down, he saw her father was attempting to raise his bed. Reaching for the control, which had dropped below his reach, Doom raised the bed. Once he was situated, Doom handed him the tumbler.
“You good?”
“Yes, thank you for the beer. A Marine would have done it quicker. At least you beat the nurse getting here.”
Leaving before he coldcocked him with the tumbler, Doom tried to pass the chair as silently as before.
“You get him his beer?”
Startled, Doom paused in front of the chair. “What beer?”
Smiling, she adjusted the oxygen tubing under her nose. “The beer he asked you for. I must have dozed off. I didn’t see you go past me.”
“How did you know?”
“He asked for a beer?” Her hand went to the side table to pick up a small monitor. “Arden makes sure I have this when there is a gap before the nurse gets here. She doesn’t tell her father I have it. She doesn’t want to hurt his pride.”
“I guess it would be useless for me to lie about it then, wouldn’t it?”
“I’m amazed you would make the effort with how rude he was to you.”
“Can’t blame a father for protecting his daughter.”
“Are you going to tell Arden?”
“No.”
She gave him an approving smile. “I like you.”
Doom smiled back. “The feeling is mutual. Can I get you anything?”
“No, thank you. I have everything I need.”
“All right, I’ll be leaving then. It was nice meeting you.”
“It was nice meeting you, Karson.”
A question came to his mind, which he had no intention of asking, but she must have seen the indecision on his face.
She had picked up a magazine, turned to a crossword puzzle, and was lifting a pencil when her gaze turned back to him. “You have a question?”
“Did you know about the texts?”