Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“I don’t need gas money.”
She pulls me back to an arm’s length. “I know. But since neither Cash nor you will take payment for services rendered, we’re going to pretend you do.” She hugs me for the second time before shifting her focus to Cash, milling awkwardly at the side. “You make sure you come visit us anytime you’re in the area.” We were only here for four days, but that was long enough to make Cash part of the family.
“I will, ma’am. Thank you for housing and feeding me.”
My mother brushes off his praise as if she didn’t go out of her way to make her famous recipes every night for supper. “It was the least I could do.” After balancing on her tippytoes, she hugs him goodbye before walking us to our car. “I’m sorry your father couldn’t see you off. He had that last field to harvest.” That’s her way of saying he’s hungover. We worked from the river system back, so all the land we harvested is now under water, and the remaining one is far from danger.
Although I know she’s fibbing, I act as if it is my only lifeline. “I can stay if you need help. Cash could take my car, and Roddy can drive me back to school.”
My words appear to hurt Cash as much as they do me. He sulks to the passenger side door of my car, his feet barely lifting from the ground.
My mother must read his disappointment in the same manner as I do. “I think you’re needed elsewhere, sweetheart.”
Grateful to miss the birds and bees talk she usually gives me every time I leave for school, I slip onto the driver’s seat then promise, “I’ll call you once we get back to campus.”
She dips her chin in thanks before shutting my door and waving us off.
The first thirty miles of our trip is completed in awkward silence.
Not even the radio is playing.
It is an excruciatingly painful time that grows lighter when musical tones float from the back half of my car.
“Is that my cell phone?”
A smile stretches across my face when Cash digs his hand into the picnic basket my mother packed to pull out his cell phone.
“Benji must have fixed it.” I almost skype about his brilliant mind, but I hold back when I recall how much of a sour point smarts is for Cash. “Who is it?” I ask when Cash’s face whitens after peering down at the screen.
“It’s my brother,” he responds before lifting his eyes to mine. “Do you mind?”
A second after I shake my head, he slides his finger across the screen of his phone then presses it to his ear. I only hear one side of his conversation, but it is obvious Cash doesn’t want to do what his brother is asking.
He tells him multiple times that he can’t, he’s not near campus right now, and that it isn’t his responsibility to fix ‘him’ all the time.
“I’m not coming home this time,” he eventually shouts, startling me. “So fucking deal with it.”
More heated words are exchanged before Cash ends their conversation by tossing his cell phone onto the freeway. It is shattered by the tires of an oversized truck not even a nanosecond later.
“I don’t think Benji can save it this time.”
I curse my inability not to speak my thoughts out loud until Cash’s unexpected response trickles into my ear. He isn’t angry or mumbling moody thoughts under his breath. He is laughing.
He laughs and laughs and laughs until the past sixteen hours seem unimportant, and the usual banter I love is returned stronger than ever.
Thank God. I was considering a detour to a basketball stadium to smack some sense into him.
After settling his laughter enough he can speak clearly, Cash asks, “How is it that you can be so smart yet still so funny?”
I shrug like his compliment didn’t send my head into a spin. “Easy. I got my smarts from my father and my wit from my mother.”
Cash slants his head and arches a brow. “You mean your smarts from your mother and your wit from your father, right?”
I shake my head. “No. My mother is a saint, and she isn’t daft by any means, but don’t ever ask her to be your partner at a quiz night. Not if you like winning.”
Cash just stares and stares and stares, leaving me to fill in the silence.
“My father, on the other hand, don’t pick any team he isn’t on. He’s won the state quiz championship four years in a row. And he homeschooled Roddy, Benji, and me. He is a bonified genius. He just outlets his smarts in other ways.”
“Farming?”
Smiling, I jerk up my chin. “And ballroom dancing, karate, and occasionally, he calls bingo at the local hall.” When Cash’s headshake can’t hide his grin, I ask, “Not what you expected?”