Rough Around the Hedges Read Online Emma Hart

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Funny Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
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“No, you weren’t. That girl couldn’t lie her way out of a wet paper bag if her life depended on it.”

Goddamn it, Isadora.

“It’s fine, Dad. Gotta kiss a few frogs, right?” I smiled again. “This frog was just a big, fat, slimy, smelly toad.”

“Say that to his face and I bet you’ll feel better.”

“Eh, I’ll probably say worse.” I shrugged a shoulder and pushed off the doorframe. “I have to get going.”

“All right. Don’t forget, if you need me, just call me.”

“I know.” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “See you later, Dad.”

“Later, darlin’.”

I left the house, only to run right into Jake coming home. He looked like utter shit, and I knew exactly what he’d been doing all night.

“Dad’s in the living room,” I said, reaching into Isa’s car and pulling out a packet of face wipes I’d bought during my disappearance last night.

He stilled, staring at my offering.

“You’ve got pizza sauce on your face. Do you want him to know you were so drunk last night that you fell asleep in a pizza box again?”

He took a few wipes out of the packet and scrubbed at his face. “Thanks for the warning. You look like shit, do you know that?”

“That’s hardly a compliment coming from Mr Hangover himself,” I said dryly. “But yes, I know that.”

He scrunched the wipes up in his hand. “Sorry, Rose.”

“You? Apologising for something? Are you still drunk?”

“Nah. The allotments. I heard he signed the contract.”

I grimaced. “Yeah. Well, we all tried. It was inevitable.”

“You want me to beat him up for you?”

I laughed and pinched Jake’s nose. “What could you do to him, you scrawny little git? Besides, Dad already offered. You can drive the getaway car.”

He shoved my hand away from his face and rubbed his nose. “Ungrateful cow.”

“Daaaad!” I shouted, turning back towards the house.

“Your hair looks great today,” Jake said quickly, stepping back. “Really matches those bags under your eyes.”

“You little—”

“Jake, stop winding up your sister,” Dad said from the doorway. “Aren’t you two too old for this shit?”

We looked at each other and smiled. “Go shower,” I said to my little brother. “You smell like crap.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He turned towards the house and rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t get arrested, you whacko.”

“No promises,” I sang, climbing into Isa’s car.

“Call me instead of your mother if you do!” Dad shouted.

I gave him a thumbs up before closing the door behind me and started the engine. I sent her a quick text asking when she’d return my beloved Ramona to me, tucked my phone into the centre console, and pulled out of the drive.

But not before hearing my dad give Jake an earful about the pizza sauce in his hair and his teenage drinking habits.

Oops.

I’d obviously missed that bit.

He’d survive. And, really, it was his own fault that his drunk habit was falling asleep on pizza.

I drove towards the allotments. My stomach twisted tighter and tighter the closer I got, and paranoia had me scanning every car I saw just in case one was Oliver’s. I made it there without seeing his Range Rover, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled in next to Susan’s car.

I climbed out, locked it, and pocketed the keys, scuffing my feet as I made my way towards my plot. It seemed like a cruel joke, that the place I’d loved my entire life would no longer exist in the very near future.

I had so many memories here. I’d practically grown up on the very plot I now kept, thanks to my grandmother. My grandfather had been the chairman of the committee, and my love for the outdoors and gardening had grown as I had.

And the place that sparked that love was going to be torn down.

Decades of memories would be wiped away without a second thought.

Money really was the root of all evil.

I sighed as I reached my plot. Hades was chilling next door on Susan’s glass table, sunning himself without a care in the world. A lump formed in my throat as he rolled over, opening his amber eyes, and sent a little meow my way.

If I could, I’d take him home with me.

But I couldn’t.

Not because it was an issue—my parents wouldn’t care, even if Jake’s idiot cat would—but because Hades could never survive as an indoor cat. He was born in a barn, raised outside, and this was how he’d lived his entire four years of life.

It would be too cruel to force him inside.

Besides, the farm that had agreed to take him was a safe place. It was even further away from roads than the allotments was, and he would have acres upon acres of space for all his little hunts he loved.

The same went for the chickens, too. They would have a fully free-range life on the farm guarded by livestock dogs, and although I would miss seeing them every day, I would eventually get over it.


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