Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
I’m met with Skyye’s loud laughter as the bed vibrates, and she holds her gut. I can’t help it. Even with my pounding head, I’m laughing along with her.
God, it’s great to be home.
Now, let’s hope I can get puke out of Dean’s cowboy hat.
CHAPTER
TWELVE
The Cousins
Skyye
I don’t think my parents would be okay with the fact that my aunt taught me to break in to a car and hot-wire it.
Skyye
Especially since it was my dad’s truck.
Flint
she taught us.
Flint
it’s good life skills.
Ash
she’s honestly helping you.
Skyye
True.
Skyye
did you know that you have to coat a cowboy hat in baking soda and let it sit in the sun to get puke out?
Skyye
*sends attachment.*
Ash
JFC who ruined that hat?
Ash
shit, is that Dean’s hat?
Flint
wild guess, this was my mom’s doing?
Skyye
bingo, that’s why she taught me to break in to a truck and start it.
Skyye
THEN she hired someone to clean out his truck because it smelled like puke.
Skyye
she apparently puked in the front, and my mom threw up in the back, while Sadie puked in the truck bed.
Ash
Dean is a saint.
Flint
I mean, at least my mom is sorry. Those other two aren’t doing anything!
Skyye
who said she’s sorry? She’s only cleaning up her messes.
Ash
LOL Mom is a hoot.
Skyye
*sends attachment.*
Ash
why is her head in the toilet?
Flint
what’s wrong now!
Skyye
she got sick cleaning the puke out of the hat.
Skyye
can’t tell if you guys realize this, but we’re having a blast.
Flint
LOL good.
Ash
Jesus, hydrate that woman and send me a link to Dean’s favorite hat place.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
Kenni
I’m still queasy as I walk toward the police department. After making sure the kids I hired to clean Dean’s truck did a good job, I put his freshly cleaned hat on the dash and made my getaway without anyone seeing me.
Thank God for Google and my precious niece, or none of that would have happened.
As I make my way through town, I’m hit with a wave of nostalgia I wasn’t ready for. This is my home, my safe space. The hot Tennessee air may be suffocating me, but for the first time in nineteen years, I can breathe. The little town of Thistlebrook is stunning all year-round. The mountains are an incredible backdrop, and the smell of cedar and pine adds to the ambiance. So much has changed, but so much is still the same. There are more businesses—new clothing stores, and we have a candy shop now. Noelle’s is bustling with customers, and there is a line out the door of the outdoors shop. Tourists are out in droves for our trails.
As I take a turn off Main Street, I take in the breathtaking steel structure that is the Ice Thistle. I have a meeting with Jett and Fable Cook tomorrow to pitch my services. Missy and Sadie have gotten me all kinds of interviews with folks wanting my services. It’s exciting, for sure. I’ve hit the ground running, which is the only way I know how to do things. I am a doer, a get-shit-done kind of gal, and I’m going to do that here. I am going to make the best life imaginable.
I never should have left, but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have the boys.
When I walk into the police station, my dad’s longtime assistant, Tammy, squeals when her green eyes fall on me. My grin takes up my whole face as we embrace and hug each other tightly. There was many a day when Tammy kept Missy and me when Dad was working late. She would make us food and get us gifts for holidays. She’s always been in our lives, and being in her arms has me all in my feelings. I hug her tightly as I murmur, “I have missed these hugs.”
She squeezes me tightly. “Me too, my sweet girl. How are you?”
“I’m good,” I lie. I feel like shit, and I’ve come home with my tail between my legs after a failed marriage. But hey, I got puke out of a cowboy hat. “Doing big things.”
“Always,” she gushes, cupping my cheeks. “You’re stunning, Kenleigh. Always been the prettiest girl in Thistlebrook.”
My face warms from the praise as I wave her off. “Me? Look at you! I’m pretty sure you haven’t aged since I left.”
She taps my nose. “Sweetest girl, I know.”
“Sweet girls don’t go to the Thirsty Pine and get shit-faced without seeing their daddy first.”
I cringe at my dad’s booming voice. I knew he was going to give me a hard time for going to the bar instead of heading to his house for dinner. “I had to hear from my deputy that my daughters were dancing on a bar.”
I slowly turn to face my dad with a grimace on my face. Willie Colburn has always been a big man. He’s built like a rugby player and tall as all hell. His hair is stark white now, as is his long beard that he braids down the front of his chest. He’s been growing that thing since I was a baby. He has five beads in it, one each for Missy and me, then our kids. I meet his pale-blue eyes, and I sigh deeply when he opens his arms to me. I go right into them, wrapping myself around him as he does the same. I haven’t seen him in over a year, so this hug is needed.