Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
It was the real world that was Josh’s nightmare.
But he couldn’t find the hilt, realized he wasn’t on a pillow.
“Hey, it’s cool,” a feminine voice said. “You’re in my car. You’re good, kid.”
He sat straight up and blinked, the light of the early morning filtering in through the sunroof of her Range Rover. Tina. Tina McArran. She was some kind of do-gooder who’d found him in a convenience store where he was shoplifting a bottle of water and some protein bars. He’d been about to get caught when she’d told the clerk he was with her and she would pay for everything. The clerk had looked unconvinced, but he’d taken her money and let Josh go anyway.
Then Tina had offered him something he hadn’t expected—a lift out of Ohio. He’d been in Ohio. For years he hadn’t even known how far he’d been from home.
He’d taken it, expecting to give her something in return. It had churned his stomach, and if she’d been a man, he would have turned her down. But he could handle a woman. He could get through that.
She’d merely driven, telling him about how she was moving from New York to LA after her divorce, starting over again. When they’d stopped in Denver, she’d bought him some clothes and gotten him a room for the night, next to hers. She’d sighed as she’d passed him the key.
I hope you don’t run because I think we can help each other out. I need clients and with a face like yours, I think I can build a whole industry. I’ll make a deal with you. You never have to tell me how you got to be a skinny eighteen-year-old without any identification and I’ll make sure everything is legal about the work I can provide for you. I’ll be careful with you. I’ll be your agent. I’ll train you on how to deal with people professionally, teach you how to dress, get you in acting lessons, and you’ll have a place to live for as long as you’re willing to try to work. And, son, I’ll treat you like a son. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you won’t go through it ever again if I have anything to say about it.
He hadn’t told her anything about what had happened at the time, but he’d been there in the morning, waiting by the Rover. His stomach oddly had more to say than his brain. His stomach had wanted badly to trust someone, to be full and warm and unworried about being full and warm the next day.
He blinked again as she pulled up to a house with a For Sale sign. It also had a metal sign that proclaimed it sold. He could smell something. Something lovely and clean. He breathed it in.
“That’s the ocean,” she said with a smile.
He stopped and frowned.
“Have you never been to the ocean?” She got out and he followed.
“No. I saw it on TV once.” He hadn’t seen much of anything, but there had been a TV in most places he’d lived. Not that he’d ever chosen the show or movie that was on. He would sometimes have to hide in order to watch. Sometimes it was turned on as a treat for behaving.
Precisely why he hadn’t watched much.
“Come on. This will heal your soul like nothing else will.” She started toward the door.
Everything was bright, colorful. It was like someone had flipped a switch and his vision had gone from shades of gray to overwhelming color. Flowers wrapped around the perfectly painted fence and vivid green grass was at his feet. Something pounded, the sound close and rhythmic.
He followed her through the door and into the cleanest house he’d ever been in.
“I bought it furnished, so we might have to make some adjustments,” she said as she walked through to what looked like the living room. “There’s a loft on the third floor. I was going to turn it into a library, but who am I kidding? I don’t have time to read. We’re going to hit the ground running. I’ve got a photographer set up for two days from now. Face up only. We’ve gotta get some muscle on you before we take body shots. And I have a friend coming out to help with the whole identification thing. Josh?”
He heard her but couldn’t make himself respond. The entire back of the house was windows. Pure glass that opened the door to something he’d never seen before.
Tina seemed to understand, and she moved to the sliding glass door that led to the balcony. “Go on. I’ll make us some breakfast while you…I would say get used to the view, but I don’t think you ever get used to something that beautiful.”
The sound was magnified now that there was nothing between him and the ocean except a few feet.