Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 90795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
“Fine,” he concedes. “We’ll go, but this doesn’t change that I hate you,” he makes sure to tell me, before giving Sadie his attention again, and I watch them together, wondering how different my life might have been if I hadn’t needed to deal with the tornado that was Sandra Valentine on my own, but grateful there’s not one more person in the world who had to call her their mom.
CHAPTER FOUR
Colton
August
“Are you excited for tomorrow?” Hannah asks as we’re each working on a vehicle in side-by-side bays. She owns the auto repair shop and has been my best friend for most of my life. We grew up together, both of us living on the same street in an older neighborhood in Hampton, not far from Peyton.
My mom and her parents still live there, in houses they struggled to afford years ago, but if they hadn’t held on to them, would never be able to move into now. My mom had worked her ass off to make ends meet, to give me and my brother, Dakota, the best life she could, and that little house on Third Street will always be home.
Hannah and I did everything together—played basketball, and snuck out, and we even lost our virginity with each other. She likes to joke that I was so bad, I turned her into a lesbian, because my best friend thinks she’s funny. I’m very, very good with my cock, so we both know she’s lying. It only took us a couple of weeks of dating at sixteen to realize it was weird and that we didn’t belong together—even before Han realized she’s only into women. And, well, even if she hadn’t been, she doesn’t have a submissive bone in her body, and that’s nonnegotiable for me. I don’t know what I would do without her, though. She’s my rock and always will be.
“Excited, nervous. All of the above,” I reply.
“You, Turner Colton Hathaway, have absolutely nothing to be nervous about.”
“I have no idea who you’re talking to,” I tease. She knows I hate it when she uses my full name. Turner is my father, not me.
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I won’t give you shit, but I’m serious. You’re going to be great.”
“I’m a mechanic trying to cosplay as an architect major. No one in my family has ever graduated from college, and I think I’ll be the first?” It’s not like me to be insecure like this. If I want something, I usually get it, but I’ve never wanted something so big before. Well, let me rephrase that: I’ve wanted this for a long time, but it’s only been the last couple of years that I started working toward making it happen. It’s a big step. Hathaways don’t do college, and we don’t do work that’s not blue collar, and who the fuck starts university at twenty-eight?
“Hey.” She wipes her hands on a towel and walks my way. She keeps her dark hair in short, black twists. Han looks like a runway model with high cheekbones and perfect brown skin. She feels just as comfortable in heels as she does bent over the engine of a car. “None of that. There’s absolutely nothing you can’t do.”
“You have a point there,” I tease. “I’m very, very good.”
“You’re very, very stupid.” She swats me with the greasy cloth. “But I love you, and you’re going to kick ass in college, and you’re going to be the best architect in Peyton because my best friend is nothing if not the best.”
“Thanks, Han.” I wrap an arm around her shoulders, pull her close, and kiss her temple.
“Is Mama freaking out?”
“Fuck yes. You know it.” She’s always called my mom mama. It’s just how we are. “She’s called me about eleven hundred times to ask questions she knows the answers to. I think she thinks I’m a kid again and would get me off to school each day if I let her.”
She chuckles.
My phone buzzes on the counter beside us, and Han cocks a brow when she sees the notification from the kink site I use.
“Anything else from your sub from a few months back?”
She’s asking about James. I messaged him once in July to check in and see if he was interested in getting together again, but he never responded. That’s the only sign I needed that he’s not interested, and that’s fair enough. I’m not the kind of guy to go chasing someone who doesn’t want to be caught. Plus, what’s the point when all I want from him is sex? “Nah, which is fine. I just like fucking him, so it’s not a big deal.”
“You said he’s interesting to you too.” She heads back over to the Ford she’s working on.
“Interesting in a what’s-your-story kind of way. Not anything else.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to start thinking you would date someone or anything.”