Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
“According to her, she doesn’t realize what time it is, so she just flies by the seat of her pants. She says she’ll try to make it in on time, but there’s a high possibility that she could be upward to an hour late.”
“Oh, boy.” Brecken laughed. “Kids these days.”
Brecken knew what I was going through.
She worked with juniors and seniors in high school, which was a lot of the pool I hired from to work.
Pretty much, working at a coffee shop was an entry-level job for most people. They worked there for a few years while they either went to school or figured out what they really wanted to do with their lives.
The ones that were older than twenty-five either loved the job, or didn’t want any more responsibilities than what they had working for me.
For instance, I had one long-standing employee that was twenty-seven and only worked because she was a people person and wanted to get out of the house for three to four days a week.
Her husband was a pilot, and she only worked on the days he was out of town.
She was fantastic, and I loved her to death. But she was adamant about not working when her husband was home.
Which was why I’d been looking for a new hire.
Sadly, finding new hires that were competent was hard.
And I was exhausted from searching.
“Okay, okay.” She added, “How about we bring pizza over?”
I winced. “It’s already eight…if you’re stuck in traffic for who knows how much longer, I’ll be ready for bed. I’ll just do a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and we can celebrate tomorrow.”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “I’ll relay it to Maven and Nastya.”
After a few more minutes of talking, she finally let me go, and I collapsed onto the couch.
I closed my eyes and contemplated just going to sleep, but a sound had my ears straining.
That sound got closer and closer, and it finally came to a stop outside of my house.
There was a knock at my door moments later, and I was unsurprised to find out who it was when I looked through the peephole.
I cautiously opened the door and said, “Asher, what are you doing here?”
“I came back early to make it in time for your birthday.” He looked sort of apologetic.
Like he was kicking himself for acting like he’d acted.
And because I was such a sucker, I didn’t tell him to go fuck himself like I should have.
Plus, I was bummed because everyone was busy tonight.
Maven’s son, Redford, had been in a school play tonight. Everyone had gone to watch but me because I’d had no employees to cover the shift at The Grizzly.
That had to be why I agreed to go out on a ride with him.
Feeling sorry for myself and all that.
When we got outside—me dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved tee and boots—he smiled at me sheepishly and said, “We have to go to my house to pick up your helmet. I came straight here.”
That was when I should’ve automatically said no.
That’d been something that I’d done from day one.
For some reason, the thought of my brothers and sisters finding me dead from riding a bike without a helmet really made me feel awful, so I’d always been sure to wear one.
I shouldn’t have disregarded that gut feeling, but I did.
I got on the back of his bike, wrapped my arms around his torso, and had the thought of “this feels wrong.”
Especially when he put on his own helmet and started to ride.
At first, it wasn’t too bad.
He kept it slow in the neighborhood.
But he got faster.
And faster.
And faster.
Until my heart was beating so hard there was no way he couldn’t feel it.
“Would you please slow down?” I begged.
I wasn’t wearing a helmet for Christ’s sake.
Why had I agreed to go on a slow ride with him around the lake without a helmet?
How dumb could I be?
He didn’t slow down.
He only laughed and said, “Live a little, Milena. This is what I’m talking about. You have no clue how to let loose.”
I felt my stomach clenching.
“I’ll fucking call my brothers,” I growled, knowing he could hear me, and knowing it would piss him off. He hated when I threatened to call my brothers, or brothers-in-law, to come get me. “Slow down and let me off!”
He only sped up.
He was going so fast that I was hyperventilating now.
He left the lake area and shot off onto I30, making my heart feel like it was going to burst inside of my chest.
We were on one of the busiest roads in Dallas now, weaving in and out of traffic, and I was so scared that I was seconds away from throwing up.
My hair was flying straight back from my face, and I swear to God, my skin was being flayed off with each whip of my long strands.