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)
When he put it like that…
“I still don’t like him,” I muttered.
Vito snorted. “I never got the warmest feelings from him, either. But knowing he was sticking up for my girl when I didn’t definitely puts a different perspective on it.”
Mable entered the living room again, and I saw the exhaustion on her face.
“Time for everyone to leave,” I ordered.
“Heading to your place,” Apollo said as he correctly read the situation. “I’ll take care of the dog.”
I slapped him on the back as he and the rest of them left, Cody looking at Mable for a hot minute before she, too, decided to go. During everyone’s goodbyes, Mable hung back, looking uncertain.
I waited for the door to close behind Vito before locking it.
When I turned, Mable was staring off into space, looking stricken.
I walked up to her and pulled her into my arms.
“What kind of person does that make me that I participated in Birdee’s torture?”
“Unknowingly,” I pointed out as I folded her impossibly closer. My chin went to her head as I said, “She did the same. Would you blame her?”
She wilted in my arms. “No.”
“I think there’s going to need to be a lot of healing in this family. Your job is to participate. But it’s time that you stopped letting those people walk all over you. You have the ammunition, it’s time to use it.”
“I already spoke with my lawyer friend,” she said quietly. “We’re starting the eviction process tomorrow. Luckily, we only have to give them thirty days’ notice here.”
“Good,” I said. “Let’s go back to bed.”
“You’re staying?” she asked, sounding hopeful.
“Nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”
Nineteen
If he really wanted you, he’d kidnap you.
—Romance book lovers everywhere
Mable
The news hit that I was kicking them from their home of over two decades on a Tuesday.
I was in the middle of running a tree through what we called a “shredder” when I saw my father angrily marching across the yard grounds.
Today we were all working from one central location since we’d harvested what we needed for the next project.
I could see Romeo across the yard using his chainsaw to clean up the ends of the logs, and he was in the groove, unaware of the trouble headed my way.
If he’d known, he’d have stopped what he was doing immediately and head over.
Luckily, the rest of my crew had my back and stopped my father before I could actually use my tracks to run him over.
Which I wanted to, badly.
The last four days had been a nightmare.
The only thing that’d kept me somewhat sane had been Romeo.
Cody, Birdee, Vito, Grace, and I had been in a constant battle to make sense of the lies that Whitney had spun into a web of confusion.
We’d spent the last few weeknights ironing out what we knew. And only one thing was certain at this point, all the hurts and betrayals that we’d felt against each other had been nothing more than Whitney’s machinations.
Sleights that’d been dealt against us by each other were proved to be nothing more than Whitney’s lies.
At this point, we weren’t sure if anything that’d happened to us over the years had been true.
Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the end of the day.
And Romeo had been with me for everything.
He’d sat silently listening to everything, offering an outsider’s perspective when asked, and had been my support system. When we’d leave Vito’s place, he’d follow me to mine where he’d lie on the other side of my mattress with me.
Each morning for the last four mornings I’d woken up wrapped around him, soaking in every single second before he’d inevitably wake up and remember that it was inappropriate to be practically wrapped around your friend.
And each time he’d pull away and head to the bathroom, a little piece of my heart would break off.
But he’d never go far. He’d stay and help me cook each morning, then return home to deal with the horses and change clothes before meeting me at work.
Then we’d do it all over again the next day.
Even though I hadn’t gotten exactly what I’d wanted out of Romeo, he was still an integral part of my life that’d become something I’d needed just like breathing.
“Shit,” I said as Big John forced my dad to stop.
I reluctantly got to a stopping point and got out of the cab, heading toward my dad with the wind assaulting my every nerve ending.
I hated the cold. But I hated the cold more paired with the wind.
Every year I begged Cody to move with me out of state. Or to become a Florida citizen during the ‘Ber months. Yet, every year, she told me no.
Cody loved the snow. She loved plowing. She loved skiing.
Me, on the other hand? I thrived in the sun.
I thrived even more when my father didn’t look at me like I was a disappointment.