Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
A laugh burst out of me, taking me out of my chair and walking over to plant a kiss on her cheek.
“Yes, you did,” I agreed. “Now, about that food…”
“I’ll whip something up,” my father said, draining his coffee, then getting up.
“But you’re not sitting at my table all covered in grass and sweat,” my mother warned. “Go shower. Steal some of your father’s clothes.”
I did just that.
I was overcome with how good it felt to go home sometimes, to get that hit of comfort and nostalgia that only your parents could provide.
“What’s this?” I asked when I was about to leave, and my father came out with a large storage container.
“An excuse to go see your girl,” he said, handing it over with one hand, and clamping me on the shoulder with the other. “Trust yourself, kid. You will know if you are wanted or not. Don’t overcomplicate shit. Life is difficult enough. Thanks for mowing the lawn.”
With that, he went back inside with my mom.
I walked away feeling fifty pounds lighter.
And excited for the first time in days.
“Oh, good,” Ariah greeted me about twenty seconds after her dogs came up to say hi. “Kit was just texting you.”
“What’s up?”
“You need to talk Lolly into coming to stay at the clubhouse with you.”
“What? Why? What happened?” My spine stiffened, worried they’d said or done something to upset her.
“The wiring on her solar panels is screwed up. I have a call out to someone for it, but she can’t stay there without electricity. Without air. And she won’t listen to us about staying with one of us.”
“How long has it been out?”
“Since last night. She didn’t wake us to tell us. Just suffered all night. She put her rechargeable fan on Edith and just sweltered herself. Wouldn’t even turn the truck over to use that air conditioning.”
“Jesus. Okay. Yeah. I’ll get her out of here.”
I marched right over to the motorhome. The door was already open, but it felt like getting smacked in the face with the closed-up heat inside.
Edith was asleep in front of her little fan.
Lolly was sitting on the bed, fanning herself with one of her library books.
“Lolly, what the fuck, babe?”
Her eyes snapped open as I took in her red face, the way her tank and shorts were stuck to her body with sweat. Even her hair looked wet.
“Did they call you? I told them not to call you.”
“They didn’t. But they should have. As soon as they found out.”
“To be fair, I just told them an hour or so ago, and they spent the last hour trying to figure out the solar panels.”
“Loll, you can’t stay in here like this. Why didn’t you at least go sit in Kit or Ria’s houses?”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.” I put down the plate and started toward the bed, dropping down to pull out the plastic containers under the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“Grabbing you a few changes of clothes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re coming to stay with me until the panels are fixed. I’m not having you stay somewhere as hot as this.”
I expected her to argue, since she’d dug in her heels with the girls.
But her gaze slipped to mine. And I hated that I couldn’t read whatever emotion I saw flicker there.
“Okay,” she agreed.
“Okay,” I said, nodding.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lolly
I wasn’t trying to be some sort of martyr.
I just knew that there was nowhere comfortable to sleep at either Kit or Ariah’s homes and that they’d insist I take the bed because I was a guest and because I was pregnant. I didn’t want to put anyone out.
Plus, I figured the girls would figure out the solar panels sooner or later. They seemed capable of fixing anything. They both handled power tools better than any man I’d ever known.
Then in charged Nave. For the first time since the whole woods incident, he wasn’t being weird and hesitant. He walked in all take-charge and no-nonsense.
And, well, my panties damn near melted.
Because Nave’s command didn’t come from wanting to control me, but from wanting to take care of me. There was a huge, monumental difference.
As mixed up as I was in my mind (let alone my body) about that kiss and everything that followed, I was all too happy to have a man like Nave whisk me away like some knight in shining armor.
“What’s this?” I asked when he set a plastic container on my lap after he had Edith attached to her seatbelt in the back.
“My father made lunch. And he gave me extras for you.”
“You talked to your dad about me?”
Maybe it was silly, but my heart felt a thousand times bigger at the idea.
“I did. I hope that’s alright. My parents aren’t people who will tell everyone your business.”
“No, it’s fine. I mean, everyone I’ve met so far knows I’m pregnant now. It’s not a big deal. And everyone is going to see that in the next few weeks. Did you have a good visit?”