Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
My brows rose.
“Two.”
My stupid smile was hurting my face.
“Two and a half…”
She leaned down and caught the hose hanging on the fence.
“Two and three-quarters.” She started to press down on the nozzle.
“Children.”
I looked to the side to see Janet standing there nearly laughing with amusement.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Get going, please. Wendy’s going to be worried if Constance doesn’t show.”
She had a good point.
And I didn’t want to traumatize Wendy after the day that she’d had yesterday.
I’d known that Constance would send her. Not because she wanted to, but because Wendy wouldn’t allow her not to send her.
That was why I’d asked another one of the prospects to sit at the school this morning.
I crouched down and gently moved the dogs out of the way of the gate.
The gate opened and Constance stormed off, stomping across the yard in rubber boots that were too big for her.
I started to follow her, but Janet caught my sleeve. “Leave her be. She’s frustrated and had a bad morning.”
“Bad why?” I asked.
“She didn’t sleep well last night,” Janet explained. “Saw her light on more than it was off. And when she went to find you this morning, she couldn’t. She wanted to talk to you, and my baby girl doesn’t deal well with frustration.”
I watched said girl stomp through the yard, all the way up the stairs, and into the house. The door slammed behind her.
“So what you’re telling me is I should’ve called,” I guessed.
“You should’ve called,” she confirmed.
Shit.
I was no good at this relationship thing.
I was rusty, and the last one I’d been in had ended in disaster. I needed to get my butt in gear and figure it out.
“I think you should’ve called, too,” Denver pointed out.
He’d actually told me to call her last night and tell her what was going on, but by the time we’d gotten into the nitty gritty of it, and I had something to share, I’d realized that I didn’t have her damn number.
Which was quite stupid of me.
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
The guys crowded close, and Boone squatted down, ass to calves, to study the dogs.
“Look familiar?” I asked Boone and Denver when they got close.
“Aren’t those the two missing dogs?” Thumper wondered. “The ones that went missing when the teen boys yeeted themselves?”
Crass as ever.
“They look it.” I crouched down next to Boone. “Same markings.” I touched the white spot on the top of one of the dog’s eye, making him look like he had an eyebrow. “What the hell do you think is going on?”
“I was thinking they looked familiar,” Janet said. “What were they dropped off here for?”
I tugged the note free that was stapled to the rangy looking dog’s collar and flipped it over.
It said nothing more than “thought the families might want them back.”
“This is so freakin’ weird,” Janet said.
The door to Constance’s house slammed for a second time and then she was marching down the stairs, looking only a small amount more put together.
She still had the sweatshirt on. She also had the boots. But now she was wearing leggings without holes and socks that came up to her mid-ankle, slouched down low into the boots.
Her hair wasn’t any better, either.
I grinned.
“You love her, don’t you?”
I looked at Janet, who was crouched down low in the middle of the dogs and my club members.
“Yeah, I do.”
“She deserves it,” she exclaimed. “She’s beautiful and kind. Loving and determined. But she is so focused on Wendy that she’ll never take care of herself like she needs.” She studied me with eyes so intense it was uncomfortable to face her. I forced myself not to look away. “My baby is the best thing that’ll ever happen to you.”
I sobered immediately as the SUV peeled out of the driveway. “I won’t disappoint her again, Janet.”
She patted the dogs lovingly on the sides before she turned to Boone.
“They’re gonna take extensive rehabilitation,” she said. “You have the room for that? And the time?”
Boone shook his head. “No. You willing to take them on?”
My heart leaped. “Is that safe?”
Janet laughed. “Take a look around you, Odin. This is your new life. Wild animals and chaos both.”
I guess she did have a point.
If I went all in, I’d be dealing with my fair share of wild animals.
“Okay, but Wendy gets nowhere near them.”
Janet burst out laughing. “You’ll do, Odin. You’ll do.”
Twenty-Three
I’m actually a very nice person once you feed me.
—Constance to Odin
Odin
I waited outside until she came out a half hour later, her shoulders a lot less tense than they’d been before she’d left to go eat lunch with Wendy.
I stepped out of the truck and whistled.
Her head whipped around and she froze when she saw me.
“You did not just whistle at me like a dog,” she growled.
I flicked my pointer finger at her, gesturing at her to come to me.