Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70004 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“The country club?” He rolled his eyes. “You can’t be seen going here.”
My father’s disdain could barely be contained. He hadn’t always been so stuck-up.
When it’d just been me and him during my mom’s slow degradation into cancer, we’d been thick as thieves. We’d go to the thrift shops looking for clothes. The junkyard looking for bikes we could fix up together. Hell, we even went to the trades days Bear Pass had where everyone sold everything from homemade soap to crafts and garage sale items.
But now, he wouldn’t be caught dead doing any of those things.
He wasn’t the person I’d once known.
This man was a stranger, and he got more and more distant with each year that passed.
Hell, at some point in the not-so-distant future, we’d be just mere acquaintances that smiled at each other in passing if we happened to see each other out and about.
Not sure if that was happily or sadly, but that point wasn’t here yet.
“I am going here, and I get seen all the time,” I pointed out as I leaned into the interior of my car and pulled out the workout bag that I carried with me.
I’d need to change my clothes before work and take a quick shower. There was nothing worse than sitting in your own sweat all day, especially when you were a salty sweater.
There was never a time that I worked out in any capacity that I didn’t walk out of the gym with white flecks all over me. Dried salt everywhere from my sweat.
It was embarrassing as hell, and not a single person failed to point it out.
“You seriously can’t go here. My daughter can’t be seen going to this gym.”
The reason my father hated this gym so much was because my stepmother’s ex-husband owned it. And there was not a single person in the world who hated Vito more than my dad.
I, however, loved Vito. He’d turned into the greatest non-dad I’d ever had.
He was kind, caring, and actively took part in my life. We had lunch together a couple of times every month, worked out together, and had formed a bond of sorts.
A trauma bond, but still a bond.
He hated Whitney, and I did, too.
He missed his daughter, who all but cut him out of her life. I missed my dad and who he used to be. The same went for him. He didn’t recognize this version of his daughter, and it was no wonder.
She’d changed a lot since we’d first met, turning into this mean girl that no one could ever find appealing.
But when Vito had learned that Birdee had turned into this vindictive person, he’d finally had enough.
He’d disowned her and wanted nothing to do with her.
I couldn’t say that I wasn’t happy about that, either. Because Vito was seriously one of my best friends.
He ranked up there right along with Cody, my actual girl best friend.
Though, that was understandable since Cody was Vito’s second daughter. Though one that was a hell of a lot better. She’d been raised by a better mother, too. One who actually cared about making a quality human being.
Grace, Vito’s second wife, was the epitome of elegant. She definitely lived up to her name. She was the best person that I knew in my life, and to be completely honest, she had been the mother that I no longer had after my own had passed away.
Cody was a year younger than me, but that hadn’t stopped us from being best friends growing up, much to my dad’s absolute disdain.
He hated that I was friends with Cody, and went out of his way to make it harder for Cody and I to spend time together.
But when you have a best friend soulmate like I did, there wasn’t a single thing in this world that could keep you apart.
The moment that I turned eighteen, I’d moved out and in with Cody and her parents.
Vito and Grace had taken care of me like my own family should have.
And that had only made my dad’s and my relationship even worse.
I guess I should’ve known better than to leave Brawny with him. He couldn’t be trusted, and I could see that now in his eyes. He was completely gone to me.
“Listen,” Dad said as Brawny chose that moment to jump out of my truck, his big paws sinking into the snow. “Where’d you find him?”
“A man found him and has been taking care of him for six months. He saw a social media post I made and brought him home to me,” I said. “Your ‘daughter’ dumped him at his house.”
Dad blinked. “Birdee did no such thing.”
“Yeah, that’s why I have a civil lawsuit against her right now.” I snorted.
It was very ladylike of me.
“You need to drop that. Do you know how that’ll look having one of my daughters suing the other?” he asked, clearly exasperated with me.