Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56238 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
With every passing day I am away from Brett, I see more clearly. I can do this. I can raise my son, keeping his dad’s memory alive, and teaching him all the things on my own. If I find love, it’s going to have to fall in my lap. I want to take care of Justice and myself without having a man involved. Living with Brett, no matter how many times he told me this is what Jonah would want, or he is the next best thing to Jonah for Justice, I have learned, he is wrong. There is no way to replace Jonah, and I don’t want to. I never did. Jonah is Justice’s father; I will make sure he knows that. His dad died a hero and there is no reason to brush that under the rug or act as if he didn’t exist. He lived life to the fullest and Jonah forever lives on in Justice.
“What do you think, Jonah? Do I stay here? My job is good. Really good. I love working at the AG department. How will transferring work?
Of all the places for me to move, I end up next door to the Hellion. Sure, Sara tells me it’s the safest place for me to be. She loves Country Boy and has embraced life with a biker. I don’t know that I understand it or find comfort in a biker being next door, but it’s my reality. Not that I realized he was my neighbor until the day I moved in when Sara told me. Sara swears its good karma to land me right here. I don’t know if I believe that. What I do know is this house is on the opposite side of town from my old house, it is in a neighborhood that seems safe, and I can afford it. My options were limited after Brett made the scene at the last rental. I knew I needed to get out and fast. This place fit my needs and budget. Raff as my neighbor, well, time will tell me if that is any added benefit. Somehow, she thinks Raff will be around to scare off Brett.
Except there is a problem with her theory. Raff isn’t around very often it seems.
Even right now. His house has been closed up without a change to a single light for a week. Not that I should be paying attention to his house. What he does or doesn’t do isn’t any of my business. I didn’t ask where he was because it’s not my business. Sara brought it up, so I didn’t have to feel ridiculous for asking about the stranger next door, though. I wasn’t going to tell her to shut up. According to her, he’s on a club run. I don’t know what a run is, but she didn’t make it sound like it was a 5k or a charity fun run. In fact, it didn’t sound like he would be doing any actual running.
Do bikers even own sneakers?
Random question to live in my mind for no reason because I certainly won’t be asking any of them. I have learned my lesson about men. The only man who gets my attention these days is Justice and I’m going to keep it that way. It’s obvious my choices in picking men aren’t the best after Jonah.
My phone ringing draws me out of my wallowing. “Hello,” I answer seeing it’s my cousin Danae calling.
“Tell me something good,” she instantly remarks. “I need to get my mind off shit here.”
I laugh, “if only I had all the good news. I got a whole bunch of the same. Justice is cute. That’s all I got.”
“Come on, I’m drowning in my own pity party. Give me something to be happy about,” she half whines.
I sigh laying back on the bed with the phone to my ear. “I have a good job, a good kid, and a house that I’m not feeling a crazy urge to check the windows and doors eight times before attempting sleep. That’s what I got, girl.”
Danae is my cousin and best friend. We are only three months apart in age and have been inseparable our whole lives. Even when I moved to North Carolina with Jonah, Danae never let more than a week pass without checking in by phone. When I lived in Arkansas there wasn’t a day I didn’t see her. If one of us got sick, the other brought schoolwork, snacks, or soup to fill each other in. It helped we lived on the same street just a few houses apart, but even if we couldn’t walk to see each other, I knew we would have found a way.
Jackie is my older sister. She’s great, but when I was younger, we fought more days than we got along. I think our seven-year age difference for her meant I was forever uncool until we became adults.