Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 113837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“Yay!”
* * *
“She said they aren’t castles, but I think she’s lying.” Arlo stood outside my car, hitching his pants up in the dark while he waited on me to scoot across the passenger seat.
“These aren’t castles,” I said.
“They look like them.”
And they kind of did--at least compared to the houses in Dayton. Two and three stories. Brick. Manicured lawns.
“Why’d we have to park all the way down here?” he asked as we started up the small hill.
“Because.”
“Because isn’t an answer.”
God, I loved him, but sometimes the kid was exhausting. “Because Scrooge McDuck doesn’t want people to visit her.”
“Why!”
“She’s in trouble.”
Arlo shook his head. “Your fault, huh?”
This one actually wasn’t my fault. It was all on her and her anger, ramming a Maserati into my car...“No it’s not my fault.” I gave him a playful shove and he giggled.
“I don’t think she’ll poop on you.”
“No?”
“Nuh-uh. She’s nice. Nice girls don’t poop on people.”
I laughed, scrubbing the top of his head before we started up her drive, the enormous house lit up with landscape lighting. “I hope you’re right, buddy.”
He took off, running up the porch steps to ring the doorbell. Repeatedly.
Light cut across the porch when the door swung open. He darted inside without a Hello.
“Butthead! You’re supposed to say hey first,” I shouted, kissing Drew on the lips as I stepped inside.
He stomped back over. “Hello, Miss Drew.”
“Hey, Arlo.” Drew cut into the living room, then came back with her hands behind her. “I got you presents.”
Arlo jumped up and down before she gave him another unicorn toy, this one with a blue shiny horn. “Thank you.”
She lifted a brow. “No, that one you won.” Then she handed him a pair of SpongeBob swim trunks. “You can swim in the pool this time, Peehead.”
He snatched the shorts, squealed, then hugged her. “I like you, Miss Drew.”
“I like you too, Arlo.” She smiled before leading us through the kitchen and outside.
Arlo stopped on the porch steps and gasped. A massive unicorn float drifted across the surface of the illuminated pool.
“A horse with a horn!” he shouted, barely stopping to change his shorts.
Drew sunk into a lounge chair then sat right back up when Arlo jumped in, her gaze focused on water. “He can swim, right?”
“Good enough…”
She started to push up, and I latched onto her arm.
“Yes, Drew.” I almost laughed, but didn’t because that shit right there was chipping away at my armor. “He can swim.”
“Asshole.”
Yeah. This girl was doing my heart in, for sure.
I tapped her shoulder and motioned for her to scoot up. She hesitated before she shifted, allowing me to sink behind her. Her stiff body slowly relaxed against me, and I rested my chin on the top of her head.
“Where’d you get the shorts from?” There was no way the girl had a pair of kid’s SpongeBob pants on standby.
“Me and Nora went to Wal-E-Mart and got some, in case he came over again. Kid gave me hell about swimming last time.”
And for the first time, I thought I might understand why people fell in love. Because that...that made my chest go a little tight when nothing else ever had. “And the float?”
“That I actually bought last summer. Dad says it’s a monstrosity so we never get it out.”
I skimmed my chin over her soft hair. “It is a monstrosity…”
“Arlo doesn’t think so.” She nodded toward the pool.
His legs were wrapped around its neck. He fist pumped the air and let out a war cry. “To the death, Horny Horse!” Water splashed when he kicked his feet.
“Now I’m just picturing a horse with a boner,” Drew laughed.
“You’re sick.”
A long beat of silence stretched between us, filled with the sounds of Arlo splashing around.
She took a deep breath and turned her cheek to my chest.
“Is your mom okay?” Her words were barely a whisper.
This was the crap I wasn’t good with.
No one outside of the guys and Nash knew about what a shitshow my life was, and she did. There wasn’t much in life I was embarrassed about. I’d grown up wearing thrift-store clothes and shoes with holes, just like most everyone in Dayton, but that shit--the crap with my dad, that wasn’t someone not finishing school, not making the cut. That wasn’t someone who hit the bottle a little too much or got hooked on a drug that controlled their lives. That shit wasn’t just a lifetime of bad decisions; it was inherently who he was.
And now she knew that, and she was still right here.
“She comes home tomorrow,” I said.
“That’s good.”
Minutes passed. I watched Arlo have the time of his life, playing some make-believe shit with that unicorn float.
“Are you going to get in any more trouble over it?” she asked.
“No.”
Her fingers played over my arm before she let out a heavy breath. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.