Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 34292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34292 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
“Good. I’m almost done.”
“Are you planning on becoming a baker?”
“You remember that?”
“I’ve known you your entire life, Viv.” I shake my head.
“I’m not sure. I only do it for fun. I used to help out at the bakery.”
“What stopped that?” She looks around the room.
“Oh. Yeah…” I want to say that I’m sorry about that, but having her here is so damn worth it.
There’s a bag for cleaning up the food and as we do, I see a small emergency bag that says just in case. “Your mom was prepared for everything, including this?” She lifts out two condoms. I gasp and snatch them.
“I can’t believe she did that.”
“Are you kidding? I’m surprised your mother hasn’t put up a neon sign that I’m up here and single.”
I let out a deep rumble. “You’re not fucking single, Vivian.”
“I think we’ve been through this.”
“Fine. We have no need for these,” I say, tossing them in the trash.
“Well, I’m glad we cleared that up.”
“Trouble, we haven’t cleared shit up. We don’t need them because when I get inside of you, I won’t be sliding a condom on. You’re mine, and I’m yours.”
“Fuck. Why do you have to say things like that?”
“Does that bother you?”
“Yes and no.”
“Tell me why, and maybe I’ll let you go without a kiss like you need.”
“Because you make me horny. That’s the truth, and like you said before, I’m too young and we have too many unresolved issues.” She might have turned eighteen when I was recovering, but she’s still in high school and I’m in college, miles apart.
“I only said the too young part. The other shit I’d love to get through.” I can’t believe I did anything too serious because it’s not in my character. Despite forgetting that weekend, it didn’t mean I would have abandoned my morals. I wouldn’t have cheated on her, and I wouldn’t have dared to lay a hand on her, so there wasn’t anything I could have done that wasn’t forgivable, or so at least I believed.
“I told you the truth. Now if you’ll excuse me. I need to use the ladies’ room.”
“Okay, but we’re going to talk about this later.” She slides right past me, brushing my shoulder, although she did her best not to touch me at all. I smirked because it wasn’t like she didn’t want my touch. If I wasn’t afraid of pushing too hard, things would have ended different here today.
She doesn’t come back right away, but I hear the door so I go greet the bastard so he doesn’t meet my woman first. As I get to the entrance, that’s when a woman I don’t recognize enters the workshop, and she’s dressed inappropriately for the weather and the shop.
A grumble comes from me because I have a feeling shit is about to go down. The look in her eyes is full of deceit and calculation. She quickly adjusts it when I say, “Pardon me, ma’am. How can I help you?”
“Excuse me, handsome, but my car broke down just down the road and I need a tow.”
“Why didn’t you call for one?” I question. Something about her feels like a fucking set-up, and a sense of unease washes over me.
She tilts her head and then pulls out her cell before she waves her phone at me. “It’s dead. I guess I’m just having all around bad luck,” she mutters, smiling at me with too many teeth. I nod and then I whistle—two heads lift up from the vehicles they’re working on.
When they step over to us, they wait for my direction. “Hey, Petrol, Tommy. This lady…I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“It’s Mackenzie,” she says with a purr, attempting to flirt with me as she refuses to even look at the other two. I do my best to hold back the vomit in my throat. I’d been happy to have lunch with Vivian; now I regretted it as I felt it coming back up.
“No offense, pretty lady, but you’re barking up the wrong tree,” Tommy says with a chuckle behind his gloved hand.
“Why? He’s clearly not married.” She looks right at my hand, smirking with a brow raised.
“Should have tried another name. Where did you get that one from?” Petrol asks.
“Because that’s his mom’s name,” my mother huffs, crossing her arms. Seeing my mother only makes the situation wilder. This woman is playing a stupid game.
A barking laugh comes from behind me, and I already know it’s my father. “Nice try, little girl, but flirting with a man and then using his mother’s name isn’t the best idea, and we know damn well that’s not your name.”
“Hey, Pops,” my brother says, walking into the shop.
“You,” she hisses.
“You know her?” I ask them.
“Yes, she’s from Colorado. She’s the one who lied to Viv about being with you that night. Then, she had to take it back, otherwise she would have seen who ran you over.” I remember hearing something like that from the police when they were questioning me, but since I had no memory, they dropped it. This was the woman at the center of it all. A deep rumble starts to build in my chest as my temper elevates, but I’m interrupted by Trouble.