Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
She pulled her chin away from me gently, flicked her eyes back toward Naomi, who was at my back, and promptly turned away from me to study her book once again.
She wasn’t really reading, though.
I could tell when she was involved in reading.
Her finger would automatically go to her hair, and she’d twirl a lock of it around her finger as her eyes ate up the pages. When she turned the page, she would move that lock to her lips, holding it in place with them as she turned the page, and then immediately go back to twirling it between with her fingers again.
But, she wasn’t doing that now, so I knew she was using the book as a shield to hide from me.
So I gave her that out, and I turned and walked out the door without another word.
I felt Naomi close at my back, but needing some time to myself, I walked over to Tai who was standing next to the truck.
“Will you take the ambulance from me for a while?” I asked him.
Tai knew without me having to tell him what I needed, and he nodded.
“Sure,” he agreed.
I got into his seat in the truck and buckled my seatbelt, staring forward as the rest of the guys piled in around me.
Booth, the newest member on A shift, got into the seat beside me but didn’t say a word.
Booth was the quiet type. He rarely ever got into anyone’s business unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.
Thankfully, he didn’t think this was absolutely necessary because he kept quiet the entire way back to the station.
Bowe, however, didn’t.
“Fucking A, man,” Bowe said. “You’re fucking nuts.”
I narrowed my eyes at the shithead, and turned my head to gaze out the window.
“Leave it,” Drew, the oldest and most experienced of the firefighters on our shift, said.
I gave Drew a grateful nod, which he returned, and I pulled my phone out to go through the emails that I’d been ignoring all day.
Once we arrived back at the station, I headed to the weight room and immediately loaded up the bench press with my max weight where I proceeded to work my arms, as well as my mind to exhaustion in the hopes that it would tire me out enough to chase away any thoughts of those hauntingly, beautiful blue eyes.
I should’ve known it wouldn’t fucking work. It never did.
Chapter 3
Not to brag, but I don’t even need to wear camo to go unnoticed.
-Text from July to Des
July
This was a fucking nightmare.
Without a doubt, the worst possible thing that could happen, happened.
What were the freakin’ odds that Bowe, Able and Dean would find a home directly next to mine to flip? Then start working on it at the same time that I was working on mine?
Seriously?
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully, hoping what Des was telling me wasn’t true.
“I mean,” she said with a worried look on her face, “that you and Able bought houses right next to each other. In fact, you actually bought the one he had his eye on, but when he found out it was you buying it, he didn’t overbid you.”
I blinked, staring at her.
“And why didn’t you tell me this before now?” I asked carefully. “We’ve had lunch twice!”
She was shaking her head before she finished.
“I didn’t know until last night when I was talking to Able about what happened at the diner,” she explained softly, taking a seat on a five-gallon bucket of paint, staring at me like she was concerned for my mental health.
“Please, please, please tell me that it’s only Able working on this house,” I pleaded, the scraper in my hand dropping to my side as I stared at my best friend imploringly.
She shook her head.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But you damn well know that the three of them do it together.”
I did.
Oh, God, did I.
I’d spent almost six entire months with the three men after I’d moved here from Uncertain a year and a half ago.
I damn well knew that it was highly unlikely that Dean wouldn’t be working with them.
They did everything together.
I’d moved from Uncertain to Kilgore, Texas because I’d found a job that allowed me to work from home, and it also got me away from my brother.
My overprotective, loving but incredibly smothering big brother, that I loved with all my heart.
Speaking of, I heard the sound of motorcycle pipes arrive outside, and I breathed through my nose.
“Are they outside right now?” I asked Des carefully.
Her eyes widened.
Then she was up off the paint bucket so fast that I would’ve laughed had this situation been even the least bit funny.
It wasn’t.
Especially when I walked outside moments later and found my brother sitting on his motorcycle staring at Dean, who was staring back at him.
“Jesus Christ,” I hissed.
Walking down the steps, I called to him loudly to get his attention.