Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
She chuckles and puts a hand to her forehead. “With the state of my brain right now, I’d be lucky to make it to ten.”
“Thank you,” I say with a wiggle of the list, which seems to confuse her, since I’m the one doing the favor, and off I go, leaving her and Samuel to stare at my back.
Since Bobby and Jimmy are inside, I figure it would be smarter to go around the outside of the house along the porch. That way, there’s zero chance of running into them. If I’m very lucky, I may not have to talk to them at all this evening. I can just fade into the background, right where I belong.
The moment I round the front corner of the house, I come to a dead stop at the sight of someone standing by the door, just about to let themselves back in.
Bobby Parker.
Chapter 4
My Life Could Be Worse.
Bobby and I spot each other at the same time, and the world freezes over in an instant.
Well, it freezes over for me.
I’m not sure about him.
Bobby looks the same as he did the night of our date three years ago. Smartly dressed. Crisp shirt buttoned all the way up except for the top one. Soft, light brown hair that’s been tamed into a cute part. Friendly, inviting eyes. Lean soccer build.
My heart is arrested at once. I don’t know if it’s with affection or fear. I really, really, really didn’t want to see him today.
And yet: “Malcolm?”
I barely have the breath to respond. “B-Bobby. H-Hi.”
“What a surprise!” He puts on a bright smile. “How are you?”
What a loaded question. “F-Fine,” I politely respond anyway, in my most politest polite tone of politeness.
“Gosh. It’s been ages since I last saw you. Wasn’t it at an event your dad catered a year ago or so? It was in the spring, I think …”
“I wasn’t at that event.”
“Oh.” Bobby bites his lip as he thinks on it. “I swear I ran into you. Maybe I’m imagining it?”
It would be quite a shock, to think of Bobby imagining me at all. “No. Last time we saw each other was the first time we saw each other. Our … date.”
“Oh! You sure?” He laughs uncomfortably, puts a hand to his head, then frowns at me. “Hmm. Wow. That was … years ago.”
“Three and a half.”
“Three and … and a half? Wow!” Bobby sits with that, his eyes still lingering on me like he’s trying to figure something out. “The time really just speeds by, huh? I can’t believe it was that long ago we had our … our little thing.” After another nervous laugh, he shakes his head. “We’ve come a long way since then, right?”
I don’t know how far I’ve come.
I don’t know if I’ve come any amount of distance at all.
Maybe I haven’t changed. Haven’t grown. Haven’t learned. I’m still as stiff, still as stuck, still as lonely as I was that day.
“We sure have come a long—” I start.
Until the front door swings open, and out pops Jimmy Strong, his fiancé. Athletic, as lithe as a panther, as strikingly handsome as his football star big brother, and bearing all of the charisma and cockiness that comes with it. Completely unaware of me, he puts an arm around Bobby, exclaims, “There ya are, babe!” and plants a kiss on his mouth so fierce, it nearly knocks him over.
I stand there and watch like a ghoul.
Every smack of their lips. Every breath between them. Every suppressed moan.
Like a country boy porno being recorded live, right in front of my blank-as-a-stone face, just to fucking spite me.
It even seems to go on in slow motion. Complete with the music of sexy saxophones. Or romantic, strumming guitars. Or a hard, thumping bass of dark club music, building and building to that inevitable drop of the beat everyone creams their pants for.
Neither of them mind me.
Even Bobby, who I might’ve believed cared about my feelings a second ago, is consumed completely by this display of affection.
I know my life could be worse.
But right now, I just want to be as fucking far away from this scene as humanly possible.
It’s about an hour (okay, maybe three and a half seconds) later that the kiss ends, Jimmy looks my way, and he happily exclaims, “Samuel! My man! How’s it going?”
My face scrunches up.
Samuel …?
Suddenly Samuel steps forward, appearing at my side. I don’t know how long he’s been there. “Hey, Jimmy! Bobby! Damn, every time I see you guys, you look more and more in love. Honestly, it’s kind of getting gross.”
That makes Bobby and Jimmy laugh—as if the idea of them being gross is the most ridiculous notion in all of Texas. “Samuel, I haven’t seen you once tonight,” says Jimmy, “and my mama keeps saying you’ve been running around here all day workin’ your tail off. Don’t you have your own shop to run?”