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)
I shook my head. “No.”
“This says that the hearing is set for next Monday. That’s four days, Holly.”
I made a face, which caused Denver to sigh. “I’ll contact the club’s lawyer. Get him everything.”
“I’ll do that.” Sorcha snatched the papers. “That bitch. I hated her from the moment I first met her.”
And, like we’d conjured the wicked witch herself, dust started to travel along the length of the road heading past Denver’s driveway and straight to my old one.
I watched from at least half a mile away as a sporty-looking SUV turned into our old driveway and came to a stop where the house once stood.
“Who do you think that is?” Sorcha asked.
But somehow, I just knew.
“It’s my mom.”
Denver looked over to me. “How can you tell?”
“I mean, other than driving ninety miles an hour down a road that only two families have ever driven on for going on thirty years? That’s how my mom used to come home every single night after her friend dates in town. Always ninety miles an hour, taking the turn into the drive on two wheels, and always driving a black high-end SUV. Sometimes, I felt like she chose black just so she could complain about the dust on it.”
Sorcha snorted. “I remember once when we did a car wash at the school for Denver and his football team. She’d brought that sporty SUV which cost over three hundred thousand dollars, then complained the entire time when the boys missed spots. I had to point out to her that she was asking teenage boys to wash her car. Not men that did this for a living.”
“I remember that,” Denver said. “She complained that we scratched her car. Then that we missed several spots. I remember writing PENIS in the dirt covering her back glass before I washed it. Then she complained to our coach that someone had done it.”
I giggled. “That’s fantastic.”
His eyes settled on the SUV. “What do you think she’s doing here?”
“Best guess?” I asked. “She knows that she is going to lose the suit she brought against me and wants to ask me to split it beforehand so that we ‘don’t have to go to court.’”
He jerked his head toward the barn. “Let’s saddle up and head over there to talk. Sorcha, please call Jedidiah and get him working on that.”
Sorcha rolled the papers up into a tube and bopped him on the shoulder. “Yes, little brother.”
Denver and I were saddled up and heading over to my old property ten minutes later.
My mother was standing in front of her car, wearing a black dress and her Louboutins.
I nearly rolled my eyes right out of my head when I saw those red bottoms.
She would come out here wearing that.
She saw us coming and stiffened, hanging up her phone.
“Where’s the house?” she demanded.
“Buried,” Denver answered. “Why are you on my property?”
“This isn’t your property, it’s mine. I bought it.”
“Actually, it is. Go check the county records. It’s been mine for months,” Denver countered. “What are you doing here?”
My mother’s face didn’t change expression at all.
Most likely because the Botox wouldn’t allow it to.
Her eyes, so much like my own, settled on me.
Her white hair, again like my own, lifted with the wind.
Mine did, too.
But unlike hers, mine was up in a ponytail and easily restrained.
I just tucked the tail of my pony into my shirt and stared, not saying a word.
“Aren’t you going to say hi to your mother?” my mother asked.
“Hello.” Denver rolled his eyes. “Last time. Why are you here? The next time I won’t ask, I’ll just toss you off my property.”
My mother peeled her gaze away from me and raked her gaze along Denver’s big body.
She obviously found him lacking.
Clearly, she was delusional.
Because he was wearing a white t-shirt that hugged him in all the right places, tight Wranglers that fit him like a glove, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat that made me want to steal it and wear it forever.
Literally, a woman’s wet dream.
If my mother couldn’t see how attractive that was, she was blind.
“You could try,” my mother decided on. “In the meantime, while you find someone to toss me out, I’ll talk to my daughter.”
“Not your daughter anymore.” Denver snorted. “She goes by Holly now. You want to know why?”
My mother stiffened. “You changed your name?”
I didn’t bother telling her that I didn’t.
Though the thought sounded like a good one.
“I gave you a strong name that has a hell of a backing to it, and you changed it?” She gasped, affronted.
I wish I’d gone to court to change it legally. I would’ve loved to see her face as she learned that.
“You stupid little girl.”
I sighed.
I’d heard that so many times before.
But for the first time, it didn’t shred my soul to be called stupid by my mother.