Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“You’re done. Pretty as a picture,” Sally said holding out a compact for her to see.
“I look better than I did before I started crying. No one will recognize me,” Dana joked. She looked at us. “Thank you. For the makeup, and… well, thank you for everything.”
“We told you,” Sally said, linking her arm in Dana’s as we hopped off the rock. I did the same as we headed back to the barbecue along the path. We looked like we were in the Wizard of Oz, heading down the yellow brick road. “You’re one of us now. Even if you decide Drake is too much of a muttonhead to give a second chance to. But I hope you do,” she added loyalty.
“Look on the bright side. We’ve finally named this place,” I offered with a smile, looking back over my shoulder.
“We did?”
I nodded to Sally’s question.
“Crying rock, for the win.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Callaway
“Goddamn,” I swore, grabbing my nose. “That fucking hurt.”
Whiskey and I were trying to break up the fight. So far we were getting nowhere. Somehow I’d gotten an elbow to the nose. I didn’t hear a crunch so hopefully it wasn’t broken.
My wife liked my face the way it was, damnit!
“I give up,” I grumbled, letting the two buffoons make a mess of themselves. I ran my forearm under my nose and it came away bloody. “Not my problem.”
Whiskey shrugged and backed away as well.
I climbed back onto the porch as my gorgeous wife appeared out of the house. She’d seen it all, apparently. But she didn’t look mad.
“Here, I brought you some ice,” she said, with a sweetly worried look on her face. “That looked like it hurt.”
“It did,” I said, giving her a quick kiss after wiping the fresh blood away. “Are you impressed?” I joked as she handed me a bag of ice with a dish rag wrapped around it.
“Yes, very impressed,” she said, not sounding at all impressed. I kissed her again anyway.
“Thank you, babe.”
I sat on the porch with everyone else to watch the antics from a safe distance. The fight kept going. I knew the two of them had tension.It went back years. They loved each other like brothers, but they were almost too much alike, and that was on a good day.
And today was anything but a good day, for Drake anyway.
To say Drake was pent up and frustrated since meeting Dana… He was waiting patiently for her. He’d given up his usual smorgasbord of sweetbutts at the club without a backwards glance or word of complaint… and Drake always had something to complain about. Or he used to. He’d changed so much in the past month that I barely recognized him.
Hell, he hadn’t even looked at another woman since the moment he met Dana, and that was a long time for the horny bastard to go without. To call him a reformed man whore was a bit of an understatement. So yeah, our man Drake was already a powder keg of sexual frustration ready to blow.
Now this business with someone messing with her would be enough to put anyone over the edge, let alone a hot head like Drake who was clearly head over heels.
“Drake?”
Drake’s head snapped up to look at the object of his affection… just in time to get cold cocked by Lucky. We all winced at the sound of Lucky’s fist making impact with Drake’s face. That had to hurt.
Dana, Janet, and Sally were standing by the edge of the driveway. Dana looked appalled as Drake took a couple more hits without any resistance. He just stared at her like a lost little puppy dog. Janet looked amused. Sally was looking away, anywhere but at the fight. She didn’t really have the stomach for violence, something these two buffoons should have been more mindful about.
“Enough,” Donahue said, making a bee line for his woman. He knew better than most that she was easily triggered. And he would do anything to protect his wife, kids, mom, and sister, not to mention the rest of us.
Hell, he’d die for any of our fam. The same could be said for all of us, myself included
Something in Donnie’s tone must have gotten through to Lucky. His softly spoken word trickled through. Lucky finally realized that Drake had stopped fighting back. He stared at Drake, whose shirt he had twisted in one fist so he could conveniently pummel him. Lucky looked around dazed. He smiled stupidly when he saw Christine, his teeth stained with blood. Christine threw up her hands and rolled her eyes.
But Drake hadn’t moved a muscle. He looked like a goddamn buffalo caught in headlights. He was still staring at Dana, with a worried, stupefied look on his face.
That was all it took, apparently.
“Your new name is peacekeeper,” Kaylie teased Dana, who started blushing furiously.