Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
After taking a large bite, I nearly moaned.
“Oh, man,” I said. “You should’ve totally gotten this one.”
She took a bite of hers and moaned.
“I guess I can see why they’re so popular,” she said as she held her sandwich up for me to take a bite.
I did, and then my eyes crossed.
“Shit,” I said. “I don’t know which one is better.”
And I didn’t.
They both were wonderful in their own way.
I offered her my sandwich, and we traded off like that until both were gone.
“I’m considering getting another one,” she said, eyeing the line.
I looked at my watch and grimaced.
“I have about fifteen minutes of my lunch left before I have to be back at work,” I apologized. “We don’t have time.”
She sighed. “Can we come back here tomorrow?”
I grinned wickedly. “Not tomorrow, no. Remember we’re going to my parents’ and I have the next three days off. But next week, hell yeah.”
She gave me a thumb up and said, “Sounds perfect.”
I looked up only once to see if Natalie was still there and was happy to see that she was gone.
Thank God.
Chapter 12
You can delete your post, but you can’t delete the screenshot I sent my best friend.
-Text from Royal to Justice
Justice
I knew the moment that I pulled up on my bike that I should’ve come straight home—with Royal in tow.
But Lock had offered to take Royal home for me when I’d mentioned an errand I needed to run, and I hadn’t thought it would be a big deal.
What I should’ve expected was for Natalie to be pissed off that she’d seen me and Royal together earlier at the food truck fair, and that she’d come by and confront me.
But I hadn’t expected it.
What I also hadn’t expected was to find Lock on the front porch leaning against the front door with Royal on one side of the front porch, and Natalie on the other.
He looked like a referee ready to intervene if blood was shed.
I stretched my neck and cursed myself and my stupidity.
I should’ve known.
Natalie had always been that way.
One time her dog had chosen me over her, and she’d gotten pissed and didn’t talk to me for three days. She also neglected to feed her dog and made me do it.
Needless to say, she was more than predictable.
She didn’t want me, but she didn’t want anybody to have me, either.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I parked my bike.
And, of course, that would be the moment that my mother chose to call and make sure that I was still on for this weekend.
And, since I never ignored my mother no matter what, I answered it with a terse, “Yeah?”
“Is that any way to greet your mother?” my mom asked teasingly.
“I just came home and found Natalie on my porch with the girl that I’m really starting to have a thing for standing on the other end of the porch from her,” I said. “I’m not in the best of moods.”
“Your dad told me you were bringing Royal. Let me talk to her while you deal with Natalie,” Mom ordered. “I wanted to talk to her anyway. Make sure that she didn’t have any allergies or anything that I needed to be accommodating.”
I didn’t bother arguing with her. I knew that it was likely the best option I had at this point.
Hanging my helmet up on the handlebars of my bike instead of taking it in with me like I would’ve normally, I dismounted and headed for the front porch.
“She’s pissed,” I said as I looked at Royal.
Her arms were crossed tightly underneath her breasts, making them pop up slightly. And her mouth was pinched into a tight line that clearly relayed that she was not just pissed, but irate.
I fixed my eyes on Lock as I took the steps up, and he shook his head in an ‘I didn’t know what to do’ way.
I rolled my eyes and turned to find Royal watching me with a narrow-eyed stare.
“My mom wants to talk to you,” I said. “Here.”
Royal, startled, took the phone and said, “Hello?”
Then they started talking like they were best friends. As if they’d done it a hundred million times before.
I grinned, knowing that was my mother’s doing and turned to see Natalie scooting closer.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
She smiled softly.
I used to love that smile.
“I love what you did with the place,” she said. “It’s everything we always talked about.”
I snorted. “You didn’t want to live in a cabin like this. You wanted to live in the city in a five-bedroom house that was a five-minute drive from Starbucks. I’m fairly sure those are the exact words that came out of your mouth.”
She shook her head, not the least bit deterred.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw you today,” she said. “You looked really good.” Her eyes trailed down the length of my body. “God, that uniform.”