Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 401(@200wpm)___ 321(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
But, as they say, actions spoke louder than words.
He’d helped carry heavy bags to my truck. He’d buried my chickens. He’d built me a freakin’ fence.
So, no, I didn’t think that this big man was as bad as everyone in town was making him out to be. I knew for a fact that he was kind, caring and a whole lot of awesome.
I just had to prove that to him.
Oh, and figure out how the hell to make him fall madly in love with me, because I was well on my way to going down hard for him.
***
Four hours later, I was sweaty, tired and on the verge of tears.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I asked hopefully.
“Can’t,” he answered. “Gotta take the truck to the lot and drop off my load.”
I nodded, wiping my hand off on my pants.
Then, I held it out to him.
“Thank you for your help,” I whispered. “I really appreciate it.”
He looked at my hand for so long that I wasn’t sure that he was going to take it.
But he did, and when he did, his hand engulfed my much smaller one.
“You’re welcome,” he muttered. “You made me a grand today by allowing me to help with your fence.”
“What?” I asked, startled.
He gestured to the driveway where his truck still had the one he’d picked up earlier hitched up in the air with the towing rig. “A grand on that one.”
I blinked, then turned to survey the truck.
“I think I’m in the wrong business.”
He grunted. “This business isn’t for women. No offense,” I snorted at his words. “But you’d be eaten alive.”
I shrugged, not knowing what he meant, but deciding that I’d get him to tell me all about his job.
“You want to have lunch tomorrow?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Got to work tomorrow.”
“Dinner?”
He stared at me, watched my eyes, and then seemed to come to a decision.
“Look…,” he growled. “I’ve been to jail. Being seen with me is like signing your own death warrant in this town. If you like delivering your eggs to the Mercantile and making money, you’ll forget you even know me in public.”
Then he was gone, leaving me with my heart somewhere around my knees.
But I made a promise to myself.
The next time I saw him, I would go out of my way to let everyone in the entire town know exactly what I thought about the man.
Chapter 10
It only takes one slow walking person in the grocery store to destroy the illusion that I’m a nice person.
-Fact of Life
Kennedy
Low and behold, that moment came the next day.
I was in town, picking up new nesting boxes for my chickens that I was going to go pick up tomorrow, when I saw the familiar tow truck out in front of the diner. The diner that nearly everyone in town ate at during lunch.
Making a split-second decision, I turned into the parking lot and came to a stop directly on the back side of the tow truck that I only assumed was Evander’s.
My thoughts were confirmed moments later as I made my way inside the diner.
He was sitting at the back of the diner, his back to the room.
Somehow, I knew he was acutely aware of everyone and everything that was happening in the diner.
I knew the moment he knew I was there because he stiffened.
He didn’t bother to look up from his tea, though.
He stayed exactly where he was, hunched over a book that was down on the table in front of him.
Without asking if it was all right, I parked myself in the seat directly across from him, and stared.
“Hello,” I smiled at him, causing him to bring his head up.
He blinked.
“What are you eating for lunch?”
He looked at his empty plate.
“Had a tuna melt.”
I nodded, and then flagged down the waitress, who was doing everything she could not to appear like she was staring at me.
“Can I have what he had, but a water instead of a tea?”
The woman, Phyllis, blinked. “Sure, darlin’.”
She stared at me, and then glanced at the man at my side, then shook her head.
“What are you doing?”
I returned my gaze to the man in front of me.
“What you expected me not to do. You were expecting me to ignore you, correct?”
He nodded.
“Well then, yes, I’m not ignoring you. And I’m actually kind of peeved that you think that I would.”
“Peeved?”
I nodded. “Peeved.”
“What, exactly, is peeved?”
“Pissed off. Annoyed. Irritated,” I informed him.
His lips twitched.
“Wouldn’t want to make you pissed off.”
I narrowed my eyes at his sarcastic tone.
“What are you, a buck ten?” he asked. “What could you do if you were pissed off at me?”
I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what I could do, but the server interrupted us.
“Your water,” Phyllis set it down, then immediately left.
I snickered.
“They really don’t like you,” I told him.