Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“When’s he done with school?”
“About 3:10, why?”
“Gonna get him from school, too.”
“I can have my mo—”
“Gonna get him from school,” Stone repeated more firmly.
Taryn threw up her palms in surrender. “Fine.” Truth be told, that was a relief. She didn’t want to put that burden on her mother if she could avoid it.
Sunny sauntered through the kitchen, not sparing her or Stone a glance since her head was tipped down as she did something on her cell phone.
Did a ten-year-old really need a cell phone? Taryn mentally sighed. She had no doubt Wren would be asking for one of those next.
The back door slammed as she went outside.
“Jesus fuck,” Stone muttered under his breath and shook his head.
Taryn agreed with his assessment. The girl hadn’t even hit the moody teen years yet. If she was like this now… “Give her some time. Her mom just went to jail—”
“Nothin’ new.”
“And two strangers moved into her father’s house,” she finished. “Does Sunny need me to make her lunch?”
Stone shook his head. “She’s got scratch.”
Her brow pulled low. “Scratch?”
He rubbed the pads of his fingers together to indicate money.
If only there was a translation app dedicated to biker speak.
Smaller feet slapping on the floor came next and her little gremlin joined them in the kitchen. She grabbed his lunchbox off of the counter and held it out to him.
His little face turned up to her. “Mom, is the bus coming, or are you taking me to school?”
“The bus won’t pick you up here, buddy, so Stone will drop you off this morning.”
He squinted his eyes until they were almost slits and huffed. “Why won’t the bus pick me up?”
“Because this house is in another school district. For now, someone will have to drop you off and pick you up. Stone said he’ll come get you this afternoon, too, okay?”
His face lit up. “Yay!”
Great. She really didn’t need him to be worshipping a man who belonged to a motorcycle club, cursed, smoked, and drank. Possibly even did drugs.
Ugh. She should’ve asked him about the drugs prior to moving in. If he did anything more than pot…even if he only smoked pot, she didn’t want him to do it in front of her very impressionable son.
She would need to have that conversation with Stone but not in front of Wren. With his curious little mind, he’d be asking a boatload of questions she wouldn’t want to answer. Not when he was only six.
She’d hold off on the sex, booze, and drug discussion with him until her first grader was a little older.
Stone ruffled Wren’s hair. “Ready, Baby Bird?”
Taryn clenched her teeth in an effort not to scold the thirty-something-year-old biker.
“Tweet, tweet,” her son chirped and flapped his elbows. “Tweeeeeeet.”
Oh, good lord.
“Let’s roll,” Stone urged with a cocky grin, heading outside.
Taryn followed him out but stopped at the top of the deck steps since she was still barefooted. “Grab the booster seat from my Honda and please drive carefully!” she called out to Stone.
He flicked a couple of fingers above his shoulder. At least that was some sort of acknowledgment that he heard her.
Her gaze dropped from the tall man to the much shorter boy.
Wren’s short legs were scrambling to keep up with Stone’s much longer ones. Once again, his lunchbox bounced wildly off his legs. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was leaving bruises behind.
Sunny waited for her father just inside the open garage door, still busy fussing with her phone.
“Have a good day at school, okay? Please be good for your teacher.” When she didn’t get a response from her son, she called out to him again. “Did you hear me, Wren?”
Without stopping, but sounding annoyed, Wren yelled up to the sky, “Okay, Mommy!”
Her lungs seized when he almost tripped over his own feet. He quickly caught himself and disappeared into the garage.
She blew out her held breath.
That could’ve been ugly. Him face-planting on the driveway might have ended up with them spending hours in the emergency room. Beyond her baby getting hurt, she couldn’t afford a hospital visit right now.
Stone stopped in front of his daughter and when she didn’t look up, he snagged the phone from her fingers as she was still typing. Sunny glared at him as he tucked the phone inside his cut and shook his head to whatever she was saying.
From the girl’s posture, she was clearly giving her father some attitude. In return, he simply shrugged and disappeared inside the garage.
She waited on the deck just in case Stone had any problems installing the booster seat in his truck. More importantly, she wanted to make sure he actually used it.
Not even five minutes later, he reversed his old truck—old in age, not in looks—out of the garage, did an impressively smooth K-turn, then headed down the driveway.
As the restored Ford passed her, she could see Sunny pouting in the middle and Wren with his nose pushed up and smashed against the passenger window so he looked like a piglet.