Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“It can be both, you know,” I said carefully.
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“I told Julia they had to wait for you to approach,” I said.
“Thanks, baby,” he whispered.
I caught him by the back of the neck to bring him closer before I shared, “So maybe there’s some evidence he’s a nice guy. Maybe he didn’t have any good choices and still made the wrong ones. You were not conflicted by how you felt about him before. This doesn’t have to change anything.”
“What if now, I don’t have any good choices and still make the wrong ones?”
Oh, my guy.
“Don’t let them get under your skin, sweetheart,” I advised. “You don’t have to look out for your mom anymore. You don’t have to look out for anyone, but yourself. Do what gives you peace of mind.”
“And you.”
“In this, I don’t factor. It’s all about you.”
“No, I mean, now I got you to look after.”
Oh boy.
As sweet as that was, I wasn’t sure about it.
I was a grown woman. I paid my bills. I could look after myself and had been doing so for some time.
“No, Lolita.” Javi yet again read my mind. “Like you had my back today. We look after each other.”
Oh.
Well, that I could do.
I smiled at him.
He shook his head even while dipping in to kiss me.
When he pulled away, he said, “Gotta admit, in the beginning, after meeting you, then losing Jamal and Joaquim, I kept clear because I was holding a lot of guilt and grief about how they went out, and I didn’t want to lay that on you.”
I went back to smoothing his thick, soft hair, but I used both hands this time. “I hope you’ve learned you can lay anything on me.”
“Yeah,” he said softly, and that might have been the prettiest syllable I’d ever heard uttered.
“And what happened to your soldiers isn’t your fault,” I stressed.
“I know that logically. But that isn’t always how your mind works.”
I got that, so I nodded.
“Your dad was an arrogant ass,” Javi announced.
I stared.
“He wasn’t a fan of his daughter’s boyfriend demanding to see him.”
Well, there was that.
Javi kept going.
“He was all about bluster, and that bluster hid his guilt. He knows his wife and son treat you like dirt. He just doesn’t have big enough balls to put a stop to it.”
I had suspected this for quite some time.
“If that’s true, it kinda makes it worse,” I said forlornly, because Javi saying what I suspected made it seem real. And the realness of it hurt. “It wasn’t, you know, just neglect. It was deliberate neglect.”
“Agreed,” Javi grunted.
“Is he gonna stay away?” I asked.
“Is he still calling?”
“I haven’t had a call in a while.” Definitely not yesterday or today.
“Then…maybe.”
Or, maybe not.
One thing I knew, if he did, I had Javi, I had my girls, I had the Hottie Squad, Tito and Tex.
I’d be okay.
“If he shows, and you need me, no matter what I’m doing, call me. I’ll find my way to you,” Javi declared.
I’ll find my way to you.
Should I tell him I was falling in love with him?
“Baby,” he whispered, his face the picture of warmth, his glamorous golden eyes soft and doting.
He read my mind again.
And I was right.
He was falling too.
“You’re the best boyfriend ever, Javier Montoya,” I stated.
He smiled and rolled us so I was on top again, then he sat up so I was straddling him.
“And you give as good as you get, Harlow O’Neill,” he replied.
I dazzled him with a smile.
And then Javi kissed me, and he dazzled me with something altogether different.
TWENTY-FIVE
“WE ARE FAMILY”
(SISTER SLEDGE)
Learn this from me.
When it rains, it pours.
No, really, it’s not just a saying. It’s the God’s honest truth.
I learned this the next day, after the Javi’s Dad Drama when we all decided to go to The Surf Club to make sure Dream would continue to be employed after the weekend. Reports were, her first day under Tex’s critical stare and Tito’s quiet support was a little rocky.
Truth told, I didn’t go for that reason. I didn’t think any of us did. Only Luna did, because she was a good sister even if that was far from reciprocated.
And Raye, Cap, Jessie, Eric, Shanti, Willow, Brady, Roam, Indy, Ally, Annette, Roxie, Mace, Stella and Javi didn’t go for that reason either.
The dudes, my guess: it was for the food (Lucia’s weekend replacement was given strict written instructions from Lucia so the food always maintained Lucia’s level of quality).
The chicks, no need to guess: it was for Luna.
We’d amassed a bunch of tables and were sitting in the middle of SC. Every once in a while, one of us would get up to show Dream the ropes about something, but it seemed she was getting the hang of it pretty fast.
Well, the work part of it.
The customer service part…uh, not so much.