Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Let’s face it, you still act like a kid.
Yeah. She did.
And she’d decided that she wasn’t going to be ashamed of that anymore. Well, she was going to try not to be. So she liked to sleep with a stuffed toy and eat candy for dinner and watch kid movies.
Was there anything wrong with that?
Well, her father thought there was. How many times had he told her that she was ridiculous and embarrassing?
How many times had her brothers stared at her in bewilderment and pity?
Casey sucked in a harsh breath.
You left to be free.
Yeah, some freedom. She’d nearly been arrested for playing on a swing and now her car wouldn’t start.
No money. No car. No friends nearby.
Alone in Oddity, Colorado where the people seemed to hate her.
Do not cry.
It won’t help.
So it seemed like she was stuck here. And now it was nearly dark because she’d been staring at the engine for so long trying to figure out what the hell she was going to do.
Getting into her car, she searched for a mechanic on her phone. Great. Just the callout fee alone was horrendous, let alone the cost of fixing what was wrong.
What was she going to do?
If she waited until tomorrow, then at least she wouldn’t have to pay extra to have someone come out now. It wasn’t like they were going to fix it tonight. And she probably shouldn’t be driving when she was so tired anyway.
Maybe she should spend the night here in Oddity, get it fixed tomorrow, then be on her way. After a bit more searching, she found two motels close by. However, both were pricier than she usually paid.
Hmm. There was something else that she could do. Save her money and sleep in her car. Breathing out a sigh, she decided that she didn’t have much choice.
Deep breath. Do not cry.
Everything is going to be all right.
Chapter Four
Fuck.
Everything was not going to be all right.
“I don’t know why you are arresting me,” she stated, turning to glare at Happy as he put her in handcuffs.
Was this really necessary?
And Wyatt was wrong. She did not like Happy, despite his cool name. The guy was an asshole.
“I warned you not to loiter around,” he said. “And disturb the peace of the fine citizens of this town.”
Fine citizens?
Right? Like who?
Jeb the snitch?
How dare he call the cops on her? And tell them that she was high? She’d never taken drugs in her life.
Hell. She barely managed to take painkillers when she needed them.
All right, so maybe she hadn’t been thinking straight when she’d offered his son some candy. And she probably shouldn’t have been hanging around a kids’ playground. And perhaps she should have given Wyatt the swing.
Yeah, she could see how everything she had done seemed weird. But she’d just been . . . lonely. She’d wanted to talk to someone.
But a seven-year-old kid wasn’t who she should be talking to.
Even if his dad had lost him. Something that wasn’t her fault. She’d just been hanging with him until his dad found him so no one could do anything bad to him.
Hell, she was practically a hero.
Yep, screw Jeb Wilder.
He was a dick.
And so was this idiot deputy.
“I wasn’t disturbing the peace!” she said as he led her to his car. “I was sleeping.”
“Sleeping in your car in a public park in Oddity is illegal. Do you have permission to sleep here?”
“Illegal?” she whispered as he pushed her into the backseat.
“Yes,” he said pompously.
“Look, I didn’t know that. My car broke down and I didn’t have anywhere to stay. I was going to call a mechanic tomorrow and have them come and fix it. Then I would be on my way. So could you please just let me go?”
He glared down at her. “You said you were going to be on your way earlier. When I let you go.”
“You had nothing to arrest me for! And I was going to leave but my car broke down.” Was this idiot hard of hearing?
“You were on drugs!”
“No, I wasn’t! And if I was, should you have let me drive?” she asked him.
“No one likes a smartass,” he said stiffly.
“And no one likes to be arrested when they haven’t done anything wrong!” she exclaimed.
Happy shut the door before she could say anything more.
Wait. Shit!
He got into the driver’s seat.
“My keys! You can’t leave the keys in my car.”
“I thought you said it didn’t run,” he replied.
Was he kidding her?
“That doesn’t mean that there isn’t stuff in there that I can afford to lose. You need to lock it up and bring the keys with you.”
“I don’t have to do anything for you,” he sneered as he gazed back at her. “I don’t do nice things for criminals.”
“I am not a criminal! I could sue you for this!”
“For what?” he asked. “Now, be quiet. I can’t drive with lots of noise. It’s distracting.”