Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“You’re a good girl, you know that, and I am so pleased you wanted to be with me.” She kissed the top of the dog’s head. “I love you.”
With that, she got to her feet and headed out to find Violet at the main cutting table. There was a stack of online orders.
“Did we have another sale?” Ava asked.
“No. Trust me, this is good for business. A couple of months ago, we had a slow month but it is picking up again.”
“This is good.”
“Yeah.”
Ava took the first order from the pile, grabbed a cart, and started to make her way around the store, collecting everything she was going to need, ticking it off the order as she did so. Even though it took longer to do an order at a time, she would rather do this than risk mixing up orders. She hated when she received an order in the mail and there was something missing, or something wrong. This was what she tried to avoid.
Returning to the table, she glanced over at Violet. “So, are you and Doc, like, a thing?”
Violet laughed. “Has Pat asked you to ask that?”
“Nope, nope, not at all. I am asking for myself.”
“He’s a nice man. I like him,” Violet said. “I know he’s a lot older than me, but he’s nice. He didn’t treat me like a piece of meat, and he was just ...different. You get it, that’s why you’re with Pat.”
Ava did get it, but with the age difference, she didn’t want her sister to get hurt.
“Don’t, Ava,” Violet said. “Don’t go advising me right now. Nothing is going on with me and Doc, and nothing will. He’s a good man. Can’t a woman just enjoy a man’s company without it having to mean anything?”
And she knew her sister was right, and also in that moment, she realized something she never had for the past eleven years. Her sister was hurting. Ryan, her one and only boyfriend, had cheated on her with her best friend, and since then, Violet had never been with anyone else. Her sister liked to go out dancing, but there was never a guy at the end of the night. She never got too close to anyone. Her sister had loved Ryan, and he had broken her heart.
Ava hated that it had taken her eleven years to realize it.
****
Lidia stepped toward the bedroom, and then stopped herself. This was crazy.
She was not nervous, and there was nothing wrong with checking to see if he was okay. Aria had told her Rusty was fine, that he was okay and was healing. He was grumpy, which Rusty never was.
No one had seen her enter the main clubhouse, and even if they had, they would all assume she was coming back here to see Aria. No one would question her.
She clenched her hands into fists.
“Just come in,” Rusty said.
Lidia froze and she frowned, then decided not to be the coward and opened the door. Only, the door wasn’t exactly closed. He might not have been able to see her, but he’d have heard her.
“Hey,” she said.
Rusty was reading a book. She couldn’t quite see the title, but it surprised her to find him reading. Part of her expected him to have female company. This is why she had no choice but to sneak away the day after Halloween. Rusty was known for sleeping with every single woman available. Halloween had been a mistake. She hadn’t even set out to lose her virginity, and the fact she had slept with Rusty, had sex with him, lost her virginity to him, had been awful.
The whole experience had been a nightmare, and one she tried not to relive. Rusty had been shocked by her virginity, and afterward, he attempted to make it up to her. They had sex twice. Both times memorable for all the wrong reasons.
“Hey,” Rusty said, closing the book and placing it on his bedside table.
Lidia didn’t step foot into the room. “How are you doing?”
“As well as can be expected seeing as I was fucking shot in the stomach.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” Lidia said.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“I know, but, I ... I am still sorry to hear you got shot, and I hope you heal fast and feel better soon.” There. She had said what she needed to say, and now she could leave. She went to turn on her heel and make her escape.
“Why did you sneak out?” Rusty asked.
This is what she was trying to avoid, and why she hadn’t been by the club. No one but Ava. She had done the walk of shame, and Ava didn’t even know who she was sneaking away from. She also hadn’t told Aria what had happened either.
Rusty was that kind of guy who had stories of STDs and STIs. He screwed every piece of pussy that sniffed around the club. He was not the guy a girl wanted to settle down with.