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)
Because her feelings, her will, had somehow become more important than his own.
He was in way too deep. He had a drama playing out on his yard and he wasn’t freaked out about it.
“Why are my dads here?” She asked the question with a vulnerability he’d never heard from her before. Not once.
And yet he knew she cared about them. This wasn’t fear. Not fear that they would hurt her. She was a teenaged girl who got caught with a boy. It was enough to throw him off.
“Why don’t we ask them instead of staring at them in the middle of the road at one thirty in the morning? It’s weird and someone’s going to notice,” he pointed out, but with none of the panic he would have thought he would have. Normally he would want any drama at all in his life hidden away from reporters.
What would they say this time? Joshua Hunt Meets the Parents? He kind of didn’t hate that headline. That headline felt nice and normal and good.
He did want to meet her parents.
The taller of the two men leaned over, putting a hand over his eyes as though trying to see into the car. It was obvious they were arguing over whether or not the sports car stopped in the middle of the road contained their wayward daughter.
The one carrying the poodle used his free hand to pull out his cell phone.
Kay’s phone trilled. She sat as though completely incapable of getting unstuck. She simply stared out the window as though they might go away if she thought about it long enough.
Yeah, he’d had his silent time. It looked like it was Kay’s time to win the quiet game. He grabbed the phone. “Hello?”
Kay turned to him, reaching out. “Hey, that’s mine.”
She’d taken over his blackmail drop. He could take over dealing with her dads.
What was wrong with him? He needed to move. He needed to kick them all out and decide on how to deal with his blackmailer. Why the fuck was he sitting in a car with her, eager to meet a couple of men who shouldn’t matter at all to him?
Why couldn’t he tell her that seeing her tonight had been all he’d wanted? That when he thought he was going to die, all he’d wanted was another couple of minutes with her. A couple of minutes where he stopped fucking pretending she wasn’t everything he wanted—everything he never knew he wanted.
“Young man, I am trying to get in touch with my daughter,” a cultured voice said over the line. “This is her telephone and if you’ve done something terrible to her, you will pay the price.”
There was zero missing that judgmental tone. He pulled the phone away from his ear and hung it up. “It’s definitely your dads.”
“I know that, damn it.” She lowered her head until it touched the steering wheel.
Her tactical reasoning skills were obviously shot. He needed to point out a few truths to her. “Did you realize that if we don’t get them off the lawn soon, Shane or Dec is going to come back? Do they know your dads by sight? Or will they tackle them, suspecting they represent elderly stalkers who love canines?”
“Shit.” She put the car in first and totally stripped the fucking gears.
She was going to owe him a new engine. He winced but at least they were moving again.
He was moving again. How long had he been still? Since that first moment he’d gotten the call? He’d been stuck in some never-ending purgatory of a second act, the one where the hero finds himself in trouble and falling back on all his old ways. After Tina died, he’d closed down. He’d done some destructive shit, but nothing was more destructive than never moving or changing or opening himself up to the possibilities of the world.
Tonight had been a turning point. The question was which way did he turn? Funny that his life always seemed to turn because of a woman. First, Tina had asked him not to run and despite his instincts, he’d stayed with her.
Now he could choose to protect Kay…no. What the fuck was he thinking? He didn’t need to protect Kayla Summers. She was a badass who could take him down in a heartbeat. He wasn’t going to lie to himself. He was the one he was trying to protect. He could protect himself from potential heartache or he could take a chance with her. He could hope and pray that the universe gave him just one more good thing.
Was he actually considering talking to Kayla about the whys of his blackmailer? Was he considering discussing the situation with her? He was pinging back and forth between utter fear and anger and a desperate need to not be alone again. It would be worse this time around.