Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
I was dying of starvation and more than ready for a bathroom break when my work phone rang.
I ignored it twice before I finally answered it on the third try.
“Hello?” I asked impatiently.
“Jesus, what’s going on? You’re not answering any of my calls. You missed our shower talk,” she said.
I cursed under my breath. “I’m at work. There’s a virus affecting nearly fifteen hundred computers right now. I can’t talk.”
“Okay, love you,” she said.
“Love you, too.” I hung up.
Then I remembered another engagement I had today that I’d forgotten about.
Eedie.
I groaned, knowing that since I didn’t have my phone, there was only one option I could take.
I dialed the number of the only phone number besides my sister’s I knew by heart—as long as you didn’t count the pizza place on the corner.
“Dad,” I said reluctantly when he answered. “Could you relay a message to Eedie for me?”
Dad grunted. “What’s that? And why are you talking to her in the first place?”
I chose not to mention that I’d been talking to Webber at all, because that would only piss my dad off worse, and Eedie had to live with my father.
I knew how hard my dad was to deal with at the best of times. Him pissed off? Yeah, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
That was the one good thing that came out of hurting my sister the way he did.
My sister didn’t have to deal with Barry Donahue’s attitude, temper, and bad moods.
If he didn’t like something, he would let everyone know it.
And anyone caught in the crosshairs of his bad mood was going to never hear the end of it.
“Can you ask her to call me at work?” I asked. “Give her this number, I’m extension two.”
“I’m not telling her anything without you telling me why you need her to call you,” he said. “Are you relaying something for her father?”
I prayed for patience before I replied. “No, I was supposed to go to the Jiu Jitsu gym today with her and I’m not going to be able to make it because I went to work.”
“Is that why you’re not answering any of my calls?” he asked.
I winced.
Of course he would try to call.
No wonder he was so argumentative right now.
“I’m at work, yes,” I said, trying to hide my impatience. “And I left my phone at home.”
That’s when I realized my mistake.
He’d never had access to my work before, and now he would have unfettered access to me anytime he wanted.
Shit.
“I’ll tell her if you let me use your car.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “No. You have a suspended license, and that’s the only vehicle that I have.”
“I gave you that vehicle,” he snapped.
“You didn’t,” I said. “You made me pay you back for it, which I did. Two-fold because you charged me interest. It’s mine, fair and square,” I grumbled. “Don’t bother relaying the message, I’ll find a way to do it myself.”
I hung up, angry as hell.
My dad, always the douche bag.
No wonder him and my awful mother hooked up.
Angry now, I tried to think up alternate ways to let Eedie know that I wouldn’t be there, but a cry from Sabin, the head IT guy, had me glancing over.
“What?” I asked.
“This went from bad to DEFCON 1,” he said.
When I looked at my computer, I knew why.
Fifteen
The best version of me you’ll ever know is when I’m three rolls deep at Texas Roadhouse.
—Webber to Doc
WEBBER
“Dad, I need a ride to Jiu Jitsu,” Eedie said through the speaker of my new phone.
My new, fifteen-hundred-dollar phone that was e-fucking-xactly like my old phone that was four generations older.
Jesus, what was the point of a “new” phone if it wasn’t any different from four years ago?
“Why can’t you drive yourself?” I asked, standing in front of an apartment building that I kept expecting a certain black-haired beauty to come out of that never did.
I’d been at Silver’s place for over two hours, and she’d yet to come out.
It also pissed me off because she wasn’t following routine.
I’d done enough lighthearted stalking to know her routine.
“Because I can’t find my keys,” she groaned. “I’ve looked everywhere for them, and they’re nowhere to be found.”
“What about that AirTag we put on them?” I asked.
“It’s saying that I have to get in range of the keys for it to work, but I’ve been all over this house looking for them and I’m not finding them anywhere,” she grumbled.
I rolled my eyes.
Teenagers nowadays…
“I’ll be there as soon as I can but…”
“I don’t want to miss. Silver said she would be there, remember?”
“Ahhh,” I said. “Okay. That makes sense. I’ll be there soon.”
She was already out.
She’d promised she would go to…
The Grand Am pulled into the parking lot, and I nearly did the palm to forehead move.
Stupidly enough, I hadn’t even thought to look for her car.