Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Our luggage was stowed by Titus, and then Slone was dropping into the seat beside me to answer my earlier question.
“It’s one we rent,” he replied. “Gervin is our usual pilot.”
“Nice,” I said.
Then we were taking off and Gervin was informing us that we had a four-hour flight ahead of us.
Did I spend my flight catching up on my missed sleep? No.
Did I spend the entire flight talking to the man at my side while his kids and Titus did other things on the plane? Yes, yes I did.
CHAPTER 7
I’m blunt because God rolled me that way.
-Ari to Slone
SLONE
“Do you work out?” I asked.
She snorted. “Does this body look like it works out?”
She actually looked like she was blessed with the genetic lottery, and likely never had to lift a finger in her life.
She was cute.
I liked her a lot.
She was delightfully grumpy, but also one of those girls that was still rather interesting to be around.
“I’m not commenting on that,” I chuckled. “With Briley growing up and turning into someone that’s resembling a little woman these days, I’ve learned to be very careful with my words.”
She snickered as she said, “I don’t work out. No. I guess you could call being on your feet all day every day for five days straight as a workout, though. If you count that, then yes, I do work out. If you don’t, then no.”
I repositioned my ass in the seat.
That was one problem with being as big as I was.
I didn’t fit in a normal airlines seat.
Even these bigger ones in our private jet were still rather snug.
Poor Ari was having to lean slightly away from me to avoid touching me. Though she’d stopped doing that about thirty minutes ago. Now our arms were touching, and I liked the touch.
A little too much.
“Dad!”
I turned to find Briley in her seat, turned slightly toward me.
“What?” I asked.
“My tutor wants me to write about a few things,” she said.
I raised a brow at her. “What are those things?”
“Well, I was hoping you’d read the text out to me, then I’d write the answer down,” she said.
I pulled up the text thread between Briley, her private teacher, and myself.
In the thread was a list of writing prompts.
I read the first one aloud to her.
“You’re supposed to write about five things that you like. What about—what’s your favorite animal?” I asked.
She scrunched up her nose and then blurted, “For eating?”
I closed my eyes as a bubble of laughter started to form in my stomach.
This kid.
“No, you serial killer.” Titus snorted. “Animals that you like. Admire. Etc.”
“Oh,” she frowned. “I watched a documentary yesterday on cats. Sometimes they eat their young because they’re messed up.” She tilted her head all cute like, despite the words that were coming out of her mouth. “I think I’d go with a cat, then.”
Titus snorted.
“What do you love?” I moved on to the next suggestion.
“I don’t love anything,” Briley said.
“What about your family?” Ari suggested helpfully. “Your dad? You like him, don’t you?”
Briley paused as she considered Ari’s suggestion.
“I’ll go with tacos.” Briley looked down.
Ari covered her face with her hands as she lost her shit beside me.
Briley was my genius child that literally had no idea how to be nice. Other people’s feelings were irrelevant to her.
“I do like my gummy probiotics, though.” Briley nodded. “Okay, I think I got this.”
She turned away from me, and I caught Titus’s gaze as he widened his eyes at me and mouthed, “Serial killer.”
I flipped him off just as Ari finally composed herself.
“That was worth the muscle weakness,” she breathed as she tilted her head back. “Wow.”
I rolled my eyes. “She sure knows how to stroke my ego.”
“She’s a cute kid,” Ari murmured. “You did very well with her.”
I smiled as I watched Briley twirl a piece of her hair on one finger, and her pencil in the other.
“My mom had a big hand in that,” I said. “I might’ve raised her, done all the stuff like getting up with her at night when she was a baby, caring for her when she was sick, stuff like that. But my mom was a powerhouse. She watched Briley for me during the day, then went and worked nights. And supported me financially until I could take that task over when I was first drafted.”
“How did your mom take you becoming a teen dad?” she asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest as I closed my eyes and imagined that conversation.
“The day that I found out, I told my mom almost the moment I walked in the door. The thing you’ll need to know about my mom and me, we’re close. Mostly because we had to be. It was just my mom, my sister and me when I was growing up. My dad had died in Afghanistan when I was twelve, and from then on we had each other’s backs. That day, my mom was pissed as hell. We barely had enough money to keep food on the table for me, yet I was adding another mouth to feed to the mix.”