Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25067 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 84(@300wpm)
“Come on, kid. One more round,” I said, nudging him with my knee. “Then, we need to get you a bath so you can go to bed.”
He huffed and threw his arms out to the side. “I don’t want to go to bed,” he whined.
I poked his belly, making him giggle and squirm while reaching out to push my hands away. “Well, tough luck, kiddo. Come on. One more round.”
He sat up, and we started another game. Trinity emerged from my bedroom, her wet hair hanging around her shoulders. A pair of long, plaid pajama pants clung to her bare thighs, hiding her long, freckled legs from my hungry eyes. A long-sleeve shirt covered her arms. I knew why she was covered so much, and it made me sick to my stomach. No doubt, bruises littered her skin from that sick son of a bitch, and she didn’t want Wyatt to be faced with them, even if we were aware he’d known she’d been hurt.
“Hey,” I said, reluctantly ripping my eyes from her to focus back on the television just as our last race started. “Good shower?”
“Yeah.” She took a seat on the couch, and fuck, she smelled so damn good. She smelled like me. “At some point, I need to head into town to get some toiletries.” But her voice faltered a little as she said it, like she didn’t want to go into town. I couldn’t blame her. After what she’d gone through, some uninterrupted peace and quiet while she worked through everything was what she needed. Not a trip into town or walking through a store, no matter how small that store might be. Because I knew without a doubt, it’d be filled with nosy old women wanting to know who she was, where she came from, who her people were, and how long she planned to stick around.
Fuck knew even our small town could be a lot for someone to handle on a good day. Just because there weren’t a lot of people who lived here didn’t mean the stores still couldn’t get crowded. There were a lot of elderly people here, and one thing those women liked to do was shop. And they liked to gossip while they shopped. With Trinity showing up, they’d have questions for her, even if they didn’t mean any harm when asking.
They were just fucking nosy.
“If you really want your own toiletries, just text Paige or Winter. They’ll pick it up for you,” I told her. “You don’t have to go into town.”
She sighed. “Not like I have my own car anyway.”
I snorted as I quickly rounded a curve while letting Wyatt ahead of me so he could win this race and end the night on a good note. “You can always use my truck when I’m home—” Because when I wasn’t home, I would have the truck— “but my old Jeep is still sitting in the garage. It runs, and Byron keeps up the maintenance on it. You can have it.”
She roughly cleared her throat, and I didn’t have to turn around and look to know that she was more than likely trying not to cry. Her emotions were so heightened lately. I knew it would take time before she felt anything like normal again.
Though she’d never truly be “normal” ever again. She would just find a new normal.
“Are you sure?” she asked, her voice thick.
I nodded, keeping my eyes locked on the TV screen. “Yeah, baby. The Jeep is yours. I’ll get the title from my safe tomorrow and sign it over to you, then we’ll head up to the tag office to put it in your name.”
She remained quiet, probably not trying to give away how emotional she was while Wyatt was in the room. So, I dropped the conversation, groaning dramatically for Wyatt’s sake when he crossed the finished line. He stood, jumping around the living room and cheering. When he settled, I set the controllers on the coffee table, then stood and scooped him over my shoulder, making him squeal with laughter. “Bath time, bud. Then, Mama can put you to bed, okay?”
He sighed like a grown man who’d just been told he had to work overtime. “Okayyyy.”
Bath time went quick, and after only a few minutes, he was bathed, dried off, and dressed in his pajamas that had cars all over them. “Go find your mom,” I told him. “Goodnight, bud. I love you.”
He turned and hugged me. After smacking a kiss on my cheek, he said, “Love you, too, Daddy.” And then he was off, sprinting down the hall and shouting for Trinity. I headed for the kitchen to clean up from dinner.
I was just closing and starting the dishwasher when Trinity came into the kitchen. I smiled at her as she pulled out a barstool and took a seat at the counter. “Beer?” I asked, heading over to the fridge to grab myself one.