Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 94903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
My phone rings as I pass Cotton’s. When I see it’s Gavin, I answer. Thank God it’s not Luke.
“Hey,” I say.
“What’s up, lover boy?”
“Gavin, this isn’t the day, and now isn’t the time.”
“Sounds like you’ve had a bad day.”
I roll my eyes and turn up the volume on the speakers. “Have you talked to Luke today?”
“Yes, and that dumb motherfucker thinks he knocked up Alyssa.” He pauses. “I’m assuming he told you that.”
“He did.”
“What in hell’s bells was he thinking?”
“Clearly, he wasn’t. Typical Luke shit, you know? Do what feels good now and worry about the consequences later. Well, buddy, later is now, and the consequences are hitting hard.”
Gavin chuckles. “I hate it for him, but, man, does it make me feel better about myself.”
I grin.
“So is this a better time because I want to talk about that dime living in your house,” he says cheekily.
She’s a ten, all right. I wipe my hand down my face.
I expected to struggle with this setup. Hell, it’s why I refused it in the first place. There was no getting around being distracted by Megan. She’s a dime. She’s a ten. She’s fucking perfect, and just like I figured, the more I get to know her, the more I want to know.
My stomach forms a knot. It pulls tighter and tighter the closer I get to home.
The real problem—one of them, anyway—is that it’s easier being around her than not. When she sits across the table or walks next to me through a muddy field, I don’t think about how it could go wrong. I’m just sucked up in her world. I’m listening to her laugh, waiting for her next joke. I’m watching her smile and feeling it warm the inside of my cold, black heart.
I’ve reasoned with myself. I’m probably this way because I haven’t allowed myself to get to this point in so many years. Women have served a particular purpose. That purpose can occur at their house, a motel, or on a blanket in the back of my truck if the situation requires it. For no reason—absolutely none—have I allowed a woman in my house who didn’t share my blood or wasn’t fucking one of my brothers since Kennedy was in first grade.
And here we are.
“Are you okay with Megan being there?” Gavin asks. “I’ve given you hell about it, which you probably expect. But it occurred to me this morning that I’ve never asked you if it’s what you want or if you just agreed to the whole thing because you don’t have a choice.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have a choice.”
“But you’re okay with it?”
I exhale. “It’s fine. Things are fine.”
“Dammit, Chase. I know things aren’t fine. I’ve seen her, remember?” He whistles. “But fuck if she isn’t fine.”
I half laugh, half groan. Thank you for stating the obvious.
That’s the thing, though. She’s more than fine.
I meant everything I said to her last night. If those girls could see her now … But what stayed with me after we said good night was the pain in her eyes. The raw despair. The tears forming. “And I was shamed and dirty because of it.”
That has rolled around my head ever since. Each time I recall those words, my blood pressure rises. Fuck.
I hate that she had to go through that, but I truly hate that she still carries the weight of it. That a part of her still connects to those disgusting words. That they still affect her.
I would dismantle anyone who ever said anything remotely close to that to Kennedy. Because, perhaps, her mother had been forced into a similar situation. And I didn’t know. I don’t know. And that slices me open too.
At least Monica left my identity with someone so they could relay it to the authorities. Thank God I was given Kennedy to love and raise. I’m also thankful that Megan was the one who showed up to help this month. Megan—the bewitching woman who’s entirely more than a hot nanny.
“We’ve all heard about people who were just meant to be,” he says. “And when—”
“Whoa. Gav.” The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“You don’t think this whole thing is … I don’t know—fate?”
My eyes go wide. “No, brother, I abso-fucking-lutely do not.”
“Well, I abso-fucking-lutely do.” I can almost hear his smile through the phone. “But maybe I have my signals mixed.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
“Maybe she’s in Peachwood Falls for me—not you.”
I chuckle. The sound houses an angry edge that amuses Gavin. He laughs, not bothering to hide his entertainment with my reaction.
“Would that bother you?” he asks. “Would it be a problem if I, say, ask her out? Buy her flowers? Bury myself in her hot little body.”
I grit my teeth. “Can you not complicate this?”
“How would it be complicating it? You don’t want her, so I’ll occupy her for you. I’ll distract her—dazzle her. She won’t be able to stop talking about me, which will irritate you so much that you’ll forget how much you want to fuck her.”