Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
The large group stood up and I realized that I might’ve been neglecting the rest of the diner—not that I really cared, what were a few more bad reviews?—and sighed.
I laid the baby down again and said, “Let me go get them checked out and make some rounds. I’ll be back.”
The large group tipped extremely well—likely because of Taryn the asshole—and headed out.
More people came in and I got them settled, then I waved goodbye to Tony and went back to Scottie.
She was idly playing on her phone, snacking on the odd fry here and there.
She must’ve gotten her food from the window, too.
If I had the money, I’d offer her a job.
“You doing okay?” I asked her.
“Yep,” she said. “I’m trying to decide which college I want to go to.”
“You should talk to your brother,” I said. “He’s probably pretty knowledgeable and might be able to help you out with where.”
“That’s the problem,” she sighed. “Originally, I told him I was going to go to A&M to study agriculture, but I just learned that one of my school bullies is going to go there, and now I’m not so sure that I want to go.”
“Who?” I asked. “And are you telling me that you have multiple bullies, including my sister?”
She sighed. “Unfortunately. When you’re poor, and you’re a bookworm, you tend to get singled out.”
“Y’all are poor?” I asked.
I mean, Posy didn’t look poor.
Then again, some people wore poor differently than others.
“Well, not anymore,” she admitted. “My mom and dad didn’t tell Posy how bad it was before they died. When he got to looking at paperwork for the ranch, he realized that it was leveraged to the hilt—something that even I didn’t know that much about. Anyway, long story short, he came in and paid off all the debt with their life insurance policies. And he’s been making bank because of some of the Truth Tellers’ business pool—don’t ask me about that. I don’t know anything more than there’s an MC-wide pool that they all skim some money out of. Legally, I’m sure.”
I wasn’t so sure.
I had to inwardly laugh at that.
“Anyway, now I’m trying to decide whether I want to go somewhere else and skip A&M.” She sighed.
I leaned my elbow against the counter and said, “Listen. Eventually you’ll get to this point, but you need to download a new attitude when it comes to people. Fuck ’em. That’s it. They don’t get to make decisions in your life. They don’t get to force you to go to a different school. If it gets to the point where you’re having issues with her, call me. I’ll go down there and kick her ass. It’s much more acceptable for a woman to do the ass kicking than a man.”
Her smile was brilliant, and her eyes, so much like her brother’s, sparkled with happiness.
“You’d do that?” she asked.
“In a heartbeat,” I said as I pulled out my phone. “What’s your number?”
After giving out my number, placing a food order for the new arrivals, and busing a few tables, I went back to the mom that seemed to be doing a little better now.
Her kiddo was still sleeping, but her eyes were hopeful when she saw me coming.
“You could always start messing with him,” I said as I took the seat across from her. “If you’re not ready to leave him, or tell your parents about it. I just watched a video about microaggression. Pretty much, you do small things that are not super harmful to piss him off, but do it in a way that he won’t know that it’s you.”
Six
Why are women evacuated first in a disaster? So men can think of a solution in silence.
—Text from Chaos to Posy
POSY
“I’m sorry, but what?”
My sister smiled. “But the diner lady helped me figure it out. Also, she’s a badass. Her and this guy got into a tiff at the diner today because he didn’t want to tip her. Well, maybe it was more me butting in. I heard that he wasn’t going to tip, and then I had to say something. He got all defensive, and then his dad came in. The guy’s dad made him feel like shit about it, so he left her a lottery ticket as a tip.”
“Huh,” I responded, “and what else happened at that diner?”
She got a pensive look on her face before she told me about her school bully, Melody Flores.
I’d hated this stupid girl since the first time that I’d heard about her, and the only thing saving her ass was the fact that she was a minor.
The moment she turned eighteen, though, I wouldn’t feel the same way about keeping my hands to myself.
There were only so many times that I could hear about my little sister getting her hair cut, or paint poured on her clothes, that I could handle.