Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68735 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 344(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“Thanks,” I said as I started my drive. “How’s Lottie doing?”
It’d been three days since I talked with Gunner about Lottie.
And in those three days, Audric had given me updates as they came.
I found that I really liked not hating Audric.
I effortlessly fell back into the easiness of friendship with my best friend’s other best friend.
“She’s doing better. The ear infection went away pretty quickly, and the doctor is satisfied with her eardrum for now.” He continued to talk as I navigated the main thoroughfare that was usually bursting with life.
Tonight, though, no cars remained parked along North Shore’s busiest street.
The one and only car I’d passed so far had been a police car, and they’d waved at me as I’d driven past.
As Audric talked and I listened, I got this little pang in my heart that made me long for what we used to have.
That sad simpleness before everything had gone to hell.
I longed for being angry about how and with who Laney spent her time.
Oh, how life had changed.
“Are you mad at Laney?” I asked.
I was.
I was so fucking angry at her.
Mostly because she wasn’t here anymore.
I knew it was irrational, but I missed my friend.
Mistakes and all, she was my ride or die.
She’d been there—as much as I allowed her to be—through it all.
“So. Fucking. Mad. But it’s like I’m missing a limb,” he admitted. “Sometimes, I wake up and reach for my phone to text her and tell her about a dream that I just had.”
I swallowed hard, then slowed down when my GPS started telling me where I needed to turn.
“Whoa,” I said as I pulled into the gates. “You didn’t tell me you and your dad had this kind of place.”
I eyed the hulking fence around me.
The banana trees that arched high over the sides of the metal gate.
“Code to get in is…”
I inputted the code, then inched the truck forward as the gates swung open.
“Umm,” I said as the gates closed behind me and I got a good look at the beautiful oasis I was pulling into. “How, exactly, would you know that your neighbors had packages if you have a fence and shrubbery keeping it impossible to see?”
“The people delivering have a code to get into our place,” he explained. “My neighbor had to have been standing at the end of the driveway at the time of delivery, though. Because they really wouldn’t be able to see in any other way.”
I would have to look in the morning to see if you could actually see, or if the guy was just being a pain in the ass.
I parked the truck as close to the front as I could get and got out, grabbing my carry-on as I did.
Today I’d be putting the same uniform back on, but that didn’t mean I wanted to stay in a tight skirt and white blouse for the entire time.
I’d brought a pair of shorts and a tank top to wear until I was needed back at the airport.
Just as I’d stepped outside, the lights turned on all around me, illuminating everything.
“Wow,” I breathed. “I’d always heard that it was gorgeous, but wow.”
“That was my grandma’s doing,” he admitted. “She spent all her days outside there. Pruning, planting and weeding. I don’t think I ever went over there for the day without her being outside for most of it.”
“Well, she did a really fantastic job.” I touched a flowery bush as I passed. “Tomorrow I want to look at these in their glory.”
“Which ones?” he asked.
“The red bush-like things next to the driveway.”
I climbed the steps as his melodic voice said, “’Ohi’a lehua.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
He repeated the flower’s name, and I tried to repeat it, but didn’t get close.
“You should try saying the state bird’s name.” He chuckled. “Make it up to the porch?”
I had, and I was staring at a ton of boxes.
“Every last one of them says ‘Dole’ on it,” I murmured.
Audric growled in frustration.
“What?” I asked.
“Can you get them all inside?” he asked. “I’m hoping that most of them are still good.”
I inputted the code to get inside after he’d repeated it twice for me, then started to get the boxes in, not stopping until the fourteenth one was on the kitchen table of the most beautiful house I’d ever stepped inside of.
“Wow,” I breathed as I looked around.
My heart was literally pounding.
The house wasn’t the most opulent of houses I’d been inside of—that belonged to the Combs’ place—but this one had charm and quirks, while also having almost floor-to-ceiling windows in the back that likely overlooked a breathtaking view.
“They’re all inside. Do you want me to open them?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said. “You can put the good ones on the counter, and I’ll have you throw the bad ones in the trash when you leave.”