Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70566 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
When the girls and I had gotten to the ranch, he’d helped me unload all the boxes into my new apartment while simultaneously frying fish.
Now, I could hear the music and laughter downstairs as I hesitated to go down there and mingle.
The only good thing was that I knew Nettie would be here.
“Are you sure that…”
DeeDee grabbed my arm and all but tugged me downstairs.
The smell of hay and horse hit me as soon as the door closed behind us.
“I love that smell,” DeeDee sniffed.
“What smell?”
I blinked at Joe that’d arrived with her arms full of Froto.
“Hey, there’s my baby!” Nettie cried as she walked up to Joe who was giving Froto a bottle.
“You can’t have him,” DeeDee declared. “He’s moving in with Holly.”
“Is he now?” Nettie’s eyes sparkled with mirth. “Can we share custody?”
“You have your own baby coming soon,” DeeDee pointed out. “We don’t.”
“What about Joe?” Nettie pointed out.
“Joe doesn’t count,” DeeDee countered.
Nettie snickered. “What about when y’all go on vacations and stuff, can I keep him?”
“That sounds like a fine deal.” DeeDee nodded, but whispered quietly so only I could hear. “We don’t ever go on vacations, so this is going to work out perfectly.”
My lips twitched up at the corners, which was when Denver came around the corner of the apartment’s stairs and asked, “Are any of y’all going to eat? The guys are starving.”
“Y’all can eat without us,” Nettie pointed out.
Denver rolled his eyes. “You know women and children eat first here.”
I looked at all the ladies around me who seemed to know what was going on.
“This is ridiculous.” Nettie caught my arm in hers. “Come on. They seriously won’t eat until we’ve gotten our plates.”
Denver grunted and led the way to the tables that were loaded down with food.
Every single woman and child I saw had their plates and were sitting there eating.
The men were all hanging around drinking beer, but they were eyeing the food like it was their next best friend.
“They started this tradition with Sorcha,” Nettie said as she helped herself to so much potato salad that her plate bent. “Try this. Sorcha makes it. It’s divine.”
I got a healthy amount, loading up my plate with so much food that I knew there was no way that I was going to eat it all.
“Thank Christ,” someone said.
I didn’t know who it was.
He was one of the newer members of the Dixie Wardens MC.
But he was tall, like a Viking, and had what looked to be a permanent scowl on his face based on how the lines between his eyebrows never moved out of their puckered position.
“That’s Odin,” Nettie said as she guided me to a table that had other women already at it. “Ladies, this is my good friend, Holly. She works with Boone.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Mable.”
I knew who she was. I also knew who Birdie was, Mable’s sister.
It was hard not to know them.
They’d caused a lot of drama in the town over the last six months.
“I’m Bernice.” The woman smiled with warm eyes. “I’m Creed’s sister.”
“Nice to meet you, Bernice,” I said.
I turned to the last woman at the table.
“Hey, Sorcha.”
Sorcha, the middle of the Windsor children, smiled. “Hey, darlin’. How’s working with my nephew going?”
If she only knew how little I’d wanted to work with Boone in the beginning.
But, had I gone with my first instinct of staying the hell away from Windsor Animal Hospital, I’d been in a much different situation right now.
“Really well, actually,” I admitted. “I like it a lot more than I thought I would.”
Her smile was soft as she said, “He’s not giving you any trouble?”
“I’m the perfect gentleman, Aunt Sorcha,” Boone said, throwing his hand across his heart as if he was affronted. “I offered her a great salary, impeccable benefits, more PTO than I’ll bet she’ll use, and a great working environment. She couldn’t ask for anything better.”
“Conceited much?” Nettie asked around a mouthful of food.
He stuck his tongue out at her. “I’ll have you know, Antoinette, that I’m the best boss in the world.”
“You kiss your woman with that mouth that all that bullshit is spewing out of?” Denver asked as he sat down at the table between Sorcha and Nettie.
Sorcha yanked lightly on Denver’s hair.
“Hey, that’s my seat!” Major complained.
“Snooze you lose, Ex-Lax,” Denver muttered around a hunk of rib meat. “Who cooked these ribs? They’re fantastic.”
“Me,” Odin called from the table behind Denver.
“But that’s my wife!” Major continued to complain.
“It’s my sister,” Denver pointed out.
“You don’t even like your sister.” Major picked his wife up and sat her down on his lap.
I wondered if the plastic chairs we were sitting in were made to take that much weight.
Probably not.
Sorcha, unaffected by the manhandling, continued to pepper me with questions about work.
She then started talking about her grandbabies, and how cute and precious they were.