Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
And then Conleigh had surprised me by asking me if she could go see Matt’s parents.
Matt’s parents and Conleigh had always been close, and seeing the pleading look in her eyes had left me with a certainty that I needed to loosen my skirt strings a little.
“That’s good news.” He sounded relieved. “I’m having to look for people that can drive down there. You drive a car, correct?”
I grunted. “Yep. Mine’s not going to make it in anything more than about an inch of water.”
I looked out my window at the same time to glance at my car, only to find Steel backing his truck up to his camo boat that was always in his garage.
I only ever saw it when he was mowing his grass or was working on the car beside the boat and needed the door up for air.
“There are a lot of duck hunters in the area heading out in their boats. I know that a few of the husbands of some of the nurses are doing it. Let me check with them to see if they have any room in their vehicles for you and get back to you.”
Then Bob was gone with a promise to call me back, but I was stuck looking at the man across the street that I somehow knew was about to head down there and do the exact same thing Bob had just described some of the nurses’ husbands doing.
I shoved my phone into my pocket and winced when I took my first step.
I’d had therapy today, and the therapist had pushed me harder than she normally did.
A year ago, when I’d had my spinal stroke, I never thought I’d walk again.
Now, here I was walking...without my cane.
I hadn’t had to use it at all this week, which had been the deciding factor in my therapist handing out the ass whoopin’ she’d given me.
It felt good to have sore muscles, and, as I made my way down the steps with no help there, either, I was smiling.
My smile dropped as soon as I talked to Steel and asked him to take me with him.
***
Steel
“I’m not taking you,” I said as I packed up my truck.
“But why?” She pouted, propping both hands on her shapely hips. “Matt has Cody and will have him for the week since it’s fall break. Conleigh is spending the time with Matt’s parents.”
“Because you’re…”
“Don’t you dare say that I’m a cripple,” she snapped. “I’m NOT a cripple.”
My eyes narrowed.
“I wasn’t going to say that you’re a cripple,” I informed her. “I was going to say a civilian. You have no experience dealing with water rescue or even boats.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Both of my kids are taken care of,” she said. “I’m going because work asked me to and my EMT skills are needed at the hospital. And, honestly, I will be sitting in the truck with you on the drive down there. Nothing else. I swear I won’t say a word if you don’t want me to. Not to mention all you’ll have to do is drop me off at the hospital. Seriously, that’s it. I won’t be riding around with you. I will be there, safe, helping people that you bring in.”
I sighed, long and loud.
“Honey…”
“You know,” she growled. “Matt used to think that I was useless.”
My brows rose.
“He did?”
Winnie was anything but useless. Sure, now she was a little slower getting around since she’d had that spinal stroke, but that didn’t stop her from doing what she wanted to do. She walked faster with her cane at times than I walked.
I felt every single one of my numerous years catching up to me, especially when it rained.
Like fuckin’ today.
Mobile, Gulf Shores, and the rest of the coast had gotten hammered with a hurricane the likes of which I’d never seen before. The huge, category five Hurricane Matt—which still cracked me up that it was the same name as her POS ex-husband—spanned nearly the entire state. It dumped so much fucking rain on us that we’d be feeling its effects for months.
“Yep,” she said. “He said I was a useless pile of skin once after my stroke. It was when we were meeting with our lawyers about who would get what.” She looked down at where she was standing. “So I started going to the gym. Tried to get my ass back in shape…it’s hard, though. I don’t know what I’m doing. But at least I can walk now.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“He did not. Please, tell me he didn’t.”
She smiled sadly. “He did.”
I’d known Matt Holyfield for a long time now. He’d been on the force with us for so long that he was just as much family as my own family—whether I liked him or not. You couldn’t pick family.
But he’d pulled away from us after he’d met his wife and had his first kid. I had known about Winnie, but I hadn’t actually met her until she moved in across the street from me, newly single, with two children in tow.