Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Warm sun hit my face, and with each step I took across the lawn, I felt the weight of last night lifting off my shoulders. I was going to have a nice weekend with my parents and not think about Wolf. At all.
Halfway across the street, my steps faltered. The tires on the driver’s side of my Jeep were flat as a pancake. I rounded the back. Make that all four tires were slashed. I stared at my pitiful car, shock and anger swirling inside of me. Who would do something like that? My first thought was Brent, but deep down, I didn’t think he’d do something so extreme. Then again, I didn’t think he’d cheat on me. Or block Wolf. Regardless of what asshole had done it, I could not afford to replace four tires. And I definitely couldn’t drive to Dayton. Cassie had a double. Monroe had already left for Dayton last night, which meant I had zero options of getting there.
On a defeated sigh, I trudged back to the house and took a seat on the front step. I just wanted something to go right. Just once. Some days, it felt like I was cursed. I buried my face in my hands, fighting the urge to scream or cry. Something to let out the emotions.
The front door creaked open behind me. Squishy’s paws tapped the porch before his wet nose nudged my arm.
“You okay?” Wolf asked.
Great. Just what I needed right then.
“No. Someone slashed my tires.”
“What?”
He descended the porch steps. Squishy followed, hiking his leg on the bush at the bottom while Wolf stared across the street at my deflated Jeep. “What the….” He turned to me, his face reddening, jaw ticcing. “I’m gonna kill that motherfucker.”
The last thing I needed was Wolf murdering Brent. “I don’t think Brent’s that stupid.”
“He was stupid enough to block my number. Dumb enough to throw a punch.”
“I’m not even worried about who did it right now. I’m supposed to go to Dayton to see my dad.”
He swiped a hand over his jaw, the anger on his face shifting to concern. He glanced from me to my car and back. “I can drive you.”
That was the last thing I wanted. “You want to spend four hours of your day driving to and from Dayton?”
He had to have better things to do.
“I have a free weekend, thanks to the suspension. And Hendrix has been a whiny ass about me not visiting.”
So, he’d be staying in Dayton. Why did that bother me? It wouldn’t change my weekend at all. I wouldn’t see him, but he’d be in the same town, stealing the physical distance I wanted. Still, it was that or stay here… And seeing as he evidently had nothing going on all weekend, I really would have an entire two days with him. In that house. It was the lesser of two evils.
“Okay. Thank you.”
He already had his phone out, fingers tapping the screen on his way up the steps. “Let me just go grab some stuff…”
The door banged closed, and I sat there, dreading the next two hours. Wolf came out a few minutes later with a gym bag slung over one shoulder and Squishy on a leash. At least I’d have the dog to distract me.
“Just need to drop him at Mrs. Seaton’s on the way out.”
I followed Wolf to his truck. “He can’t come with us?”
“No. Hendrix said there’s a party tonight.” He nodded toward Squishy, waiting beside the passenger door. “He hates parties. Just like you.”
And unlike Wolf. I tried not to imagine the girls who would be there. At least tried not to let it bother me. I failed on both fronts.
When Wolf’s truck puttered to a stop outside my parents’ home a few hours later, I didn’t want to get out. Even if the ride had been painfully silent and awkward. The usual anxiety of seeing my dad settled over me, pinning me to the seat. Each time I came home, he looked worse, more ill.
The little house was a sad sight. The usually mowed lawn and weed-free flower beds were overgrown, with tufts of grass erupting through the cracked driveway. My parents used to be out in the yard most weekends, Mom tending to flowers while Dad bitched about having to mow the lawn. Now, it seemed as if the sickness inside had spread to the exterior.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said, reluctantly opening the door to the stifling heat. The faint scent of trash and distant roadkill greeted me. Ah, home, sweet Dayton.
“No problem. See you tomorrow?”
I turned to look at him, wondering whether he felt anywhere near the same turmoil as I did about what had happened in that barn. His eyes were the same unreadable blue, his face smooth and calm and perfect. No, he didn’t know what rejection felt like. He’d probably turned down hundreds of girls. Just an average Friday night for him.