Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
I’d broken them up, then had taken the guy outside to show him why you should never beat on a woman, when Webber had joined me and helped me teach that lesson.
He’d known who I was, too, and had said he was a fan of mine.
We’d struck up a conversation over a beaten and bloody abuser, and he’d invited me out to a club party later that week.
I’d taken him up on his offer, and the rest was history.
I’d found my home, where I was meant to be.
And Webber had become one of my best friends, though that actual title belonged to Jasper, the scarred man who talked so little that sometimes I wondered if I was forcing my friendship on him.
But Webber? He was my constant as well, and he was definitely getting the lay of the land.
“Chocate?”
Webber snorted. “I didn’t bring any chocolate with me this time, honey. It would’ve melted in my pocket while we watched your daddy race.”
Lottie sighed, supremely disappointed in one of her favorite people not bringing her the chocolate she so desperately wanted, and usually got.
“Thank you for bringing my bag,” Sutton said softly. “I appreciate it. Also, thanks for grabbing my car. I didn’t want to have to walk the five miles back to it.”
“Was it actually five miles?” Webber asked.
“No,” she snorted. “But it was at least a mile, and my legs are pretty noodly. I haven’t had to keep up with him in a run in a long time.”
“You used to run with him?” Webber asked.
Yep, nosy.
“All the time,” she said. “We were in cross country and track together. And our school was fairly small, so we combined practices with the boys and the girls. Since I was faster than all the girls, I usually tried to keep up with the boys. I could never quite keep up with him, though. He was just too fast. I could always see his back, though. So there’s that.”
“What a good back it is,” I joked as I walked into the hallway bathroom and placed her things inside of it. “Shower’s ready when you are.”
She smiled thankfully at me and said, “I’ll be done as fast as I can.”
“No rush,” I murmured as I watched her back as she disappeared into the bathroom.
The door closed, and the shower turned on, and only then did Webber say, “Who is she?”
I knew what he was asking.
“We had nothing together,” I said. “We were just acquaintances in high school. We didn’t really share a best friend like Audric and Creole did. Rocky, my nanny friend, her dad was my dad’s good friend. We were forced to be around each other a lot because of our parents hanging out. Rocky is best friends with Sutton.”
“And y’all weren’t friends by association?” he asked.
“Not really,” I admitted. “We were both hella busy in high school. Her with all her sports and practices, then eventually Olympic training. And me with all of mine. Then Jett.”
Finding out that you were a father in high school was not for the weak, that was for sure.
Especially as a kid that was as busy as I was.
Fuck, it was hard.
Thank God for my Uncle Parker.
Without him, I would’ve never made it.
“Olympics?” he asked in surprise.
“Yeah, she was good. If there was ever a woman who could go, it was her,” I said. “She was fantastic. She used to smoke everyone. Went to state all four years of high school for the mile and the mile and a half. All with mediocre coaching. It was only when she got to college and acquired a really good coach, though, that she truly shone. I watched her win sixth in that 1500-meter run while we were fresh off a win at a bar in Seattle. It was the most goddamn exciting thing I’ve ever witnessed.”
“Is she going to go to the next one?” he asked.
“She says this is her last time, maybe.” He laughed. “Not like we’re getting any younger, though.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” He chuckled. “Milena was talking about how y’all qualified for Boston. Is that something that y’all are going to run?”
I thought about that for a long moment then said, “I might.”
“You should.” His eyes gleamed. “We’ll watch Lottie when you go.”
I chuckled. “That’s over seven months from now. Who knows what kind of shit we’ll have to deal with in that long of a time.”
“Enough time to meet the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with and knock her up.”
I grinned. “Just because you did that with your current wife, doesn’t mean that everyone does.”
“Every last damn member of this club has,” he disagreed. “You’re nothing special.”
“No, but I learned the hard way how to use a condom.” I sighed. “Though, if I had learned before that, I wouldn’t have had one of the best things to ever happen to me. However, now I know better.”