Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Raye had only recently reunited with her dad.
And, as this latest (further) proved, it was going really well.
“I love that they did that for you,” I said.
“No presh, but I’m bummed that means you’ll probably pick some swank venue and not do it in the courtyard,” Shanti put in. “The plans Bill and Zach put together for Alexis and Jacob were pimp.”
“Oh, we’re so totally doing it in the courtyard of the Oasis,” Raye announced.
Three cheers rang out in Tweety, and Raye was smiling again.
“And I see you’re not fighting it with Gabe anymore,” Raye noted, obviously to me, as the cheers died away.
“Nope,” I confirmed. “And it’s not that I couldn’t hold up against a hot guy onslaught. It’s because he’s a super good guy. I could get into how super good he is, but we have business to do, and me listing all his attributes would take all night. Though I’ll hint at it by saying, he rinses his own whiskers from the sink.”
“Good Lord,” Gem breathed from the back seat like I told her I ran into the Holy Grail at a vintage store.
“I know,” I agreed.
“I think we all get what a super good guy he is,” Raye put in, a smile in her tone. “And I’m happy you opened up enough after what Kev did to you to give it a shot.”
I was too.
Absolutely.
“Not a lot of women would have that kind of strength, Will,” she went on, making my heart warm and reminding me (again) how much I loved Raye. “I’m not surprised you do, but I’m glad it didn’t take very long.”
“Thanks, babe,” I said quietly.
“I’m glad too,” Gemma added.
Shanti just reached forward from where she was sitting behind me and gave my biceps a squeeze.
Okay…
Totally the best friend posse evah!
“There hasn’t been a definitive winner announced in the pool,” Raye prompted.
Translation: she wanted to know if we’d done it.
“Gabe wants us to have the time to do it right, and I agree. So far, that time has not arrived,” I told her. Then I asked curiously, “What’s your day?”
“We don’t have days, we have timeslots,” Raye answered. “Tex said that these guys ‘move so fast’ it’d be a waste of a bet if it wasn’t broken up into timeslots.”
“This morning was my morning,” Gemma said. “So I’m out.”
“I have Thursday by eleven,” Raye said. “At first, I refused to buy in, doing it in protest at the beginning, then I saw how much fun everyone was having, and I caved. So I got in on the action late.”
“I have by tomorrow morning. My timeslot is eleven to seven,” Shanti shared, and I twisted to look at her and watched her conclude, “So, since we’re doing what we’re doing, I’m fucked.”
“You bought in?” I demanded.
“There’s, like, twenty-five hundred dollars on the line,” she replied.
Two thousand five hundred dollars!?!
“I thought it was three thousand,” Gemma noted.
Three thousand?!?
“How many people have bet?” I asked.
“Everybody,” Raye said. “Including Lucia and Shirleen, and then Martha, Bill and Zach, Patsy, Rhea and Sally bought in. Cap told me Marjorie threw a humongous shit fit about the whole thing. He said it was so bad, he, Brady, Knox and even Mace cleared out and left Shirleen to deal with it. It sounded hilarious.”
None of this sounded hilarious.
Now even the Oasis Square crew were getting in on it!
I harrumphed to sitting straight in my seat.
“It’s not like it’s not gonna happen,” Raye said. “I get it. What you’re feeling. That’s why I protested. Then I realized, mostly, it’s just an indication that everyone thinks you guys should be together. It’s like a weird, warped, somewhat perverse sign the crew approves of you two being together.”
“It’s good you can look at it that way,” I retorted. “People aren’t betting on when you’re gonna get laid.”
“Will, babe, like I said, I get it,” Raye returned. “It happened to me and Cap. And yeah, when it was happening, I thought it was way weird. In the end, it was just a lot of people lost a little money, someone got lucky, but most importantly, I got luckiest of all.”
Too true.
I’d seen her approach the beast that night.
And I couldn’t stop looking at her ring (which she wasn’t wearing right then, due to our current activities, but when she was wearing it…dang). It was so beautiful. Just a step down from too much, but it made a definite statement.
It was just…her.
And from our kiss and Gabe’s confidence, when the time came, I figured I’d get mega lucky too.
We hit the storage units, did the switch out, this time with Gem driving, Raye in front with her, and Shanti and me in the back.
On the way to Duane’s place, there was silence.
We were getting our game faces on.
Gemma drove around the block, not fast, not slow, like she’d done this a million times before (Arthur totally had the skills when it came to Angels recruits), and we all kept a keen eye out for anyone loitering about or sitting in a car or gazing around some curtains or taking a walk but doing it seething with malice.