Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 76934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76934 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
But Alara was young. Too young for me. And she was the baby sister of my cousin’s wife. That was just all sorts of off-limits. Whether I liked that or not.
She probably felt rejected and was trying to avoid me because of it. If only she knew that there wasn’t an ounce (or inch) of me that had rejected her.
It just couldn’t happen.
That said, it’d been impossible to put her behind me. First, because she’d been starring in every goddamn fantasy, no matter how hard I tried to focus on someone else.
Second, because the kids couldn’t seem to let a day go by without bringing her name up.
Charlotte wondered endlessly if Alara had finished the book, if she had continued on in the series, and if she enjoyed them.
Even Liam brought her up.
One night, he came home with a grocery bag full of supplies to make us “that sandwich Alara said would change our lives.”
She hadn’t been wrong.
I’d been craving the damn things ever since.
“It’s Alara?” Charlotte asked, turning over the back of the couch to look at me, wide-eyed and hopeful.
But any excitement I felt died right off when I realized why she was calling.
“You didn’t ask her about the books,” Charlotte said, pouting.
“You can ask her yourself. I don’t want to leave you here alone, so grab your shoes and let’s hit it.”
I’d never seen her move so fast in her life.
I worried as I watched her bounce around on her heels on the subway that she was craving something I couldn’t give her.
A female presence.
A mother figure, for the one she’d lost.
I’d been working so hard to make sure all their practical needs were being met that I hadn’t really stopped to consider what other things they might have been missing, seeking, wanting but were unable to express to me.
I thought maybe that kind of thing would have come up in therapy, and then the shrink would relay anything important to me.
I was sure that would be the case with Charlotte.
But maybe Liam wasn’t talking to his shrink much either. It was still new. He was a hard nut to crack.
I wasn’t prepared for the way seeing Alara again would feel like a punch to the gut.
But the second she opened that door, it was like all the wind got knocked out of me.
She looked a little frazzled and confused, maybe even a little annoyed—likely at me—but she brightened the second she saw Charlotte. And I had to be grateful to her for that.
I made my way out of the shop as they were already deep in a conversation about the book Charlotte got Alara to read.
I made my way outside, glancing up and down the street, wondering what kind of trouble Liam could have gotten himself into.
From what I understood from the studying I’d been trying to do in my limited free time, this neighborhood was in a bit of a transition period, crime-wise. There’d been a street gang who used to have it on lock for years, but the boss got locked up, his guys were too weak to hold onto power, and it had been a power vacuum ever since.
There were any number of small-time crime crews around here. All of whom would be happy to have a young, hungry teenager to work as a scout or to deal their drugs, so their own hands were never dirty.
If that kid got himself involved with drugs, I swear to God…
I did a lap down one side of the street, just checking out everyone standing around, trying to see if he was hanging out with any of the other kids or doing any deals.
I crossed the street and headed down the next one, pausing when I came across an unhoused man with a veteran’s hat on.
“Hey, man,” I said, reaching for a fifty in my pocket. “You been here a bit?”
“All day.”
I handed him the fifty, then pulled up an image of Liam on my phone. “Any chance you’ve seen my nephew? He was around here about half an hour ago.”
“Don’t wanna get him in trouble. But yeah, I’ve seen him every day this week.”
Every day? That definitely didn’t bode well for him being in the area for some innocent reason.
“Was he hanging out with the local crews around here? Getting his ass into trouble?”
“Not that I’ve seen, no.” He paused, looking down the street, then nodded his chin toward a storefront. “He goes in there.”
“The toy store?”
“Coffee shop. Brings me coffee or those mixed drink things sometimes. Pastry once.”
He was hanging out in a coffee shop?
I suddenly felt like an overprotective parent. Maybe he’d found some friends. Or a girl. And he wanted some privacy.
“Well, get yourself whatever you want on me,” I said, handing him another fifty.
With that, I made my way toward the coffee place, deciding to just peek in and make sure he wasn’t doing anything he shouldn’t. If all seemed like it was on the up-and-up, I’d just head back to pick up Charlotte and act like nothing happened. Let him have his little excursions, even if he was technically outside the zone I asked him to stay within.