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)
“You’re joking, right?” she asked.
“Unfortunately not,” he grumbled as he pulled into the Mexican restaurant. “We’ll linger outside for a few moments to see if they’ll approach. That way they don’t make a scene while we’re trying to enjoy our queso.”
I shook my head and got out, my eyes on the black SUV that parked a few rows down from ours.
Gunner didn’t seem surprised in the least to find a man looking all official like getting out of the SUV and heading our way.
He also didn’t seem surprised to find an older couple following the man, their faces smug as fuck.
God, what assholes!
“Lottie coming into my life was amazing. Lottie’s maternal grandparents coming with her, not so much,” he murmured as they got closer.
The older woman behind must’ve heard his words, because her face soured.
“Mr. Penn,” the older man beside the smug-faced woman said. “We have an emergency hearing in the morning to discuss your inability to parent Lottie sufficiently. The judge, as well as us, feel like you are gone too much to provide the kind of care that your daughter needs. He agrees with our worry that you leave Lottie at daycare too long—sometimes twelve hours a day is completely ridiculous—and he thinks that she will have a better life with two very fit grandparents who are able and willing to give her a stable home where she can be taken care of at home instead of being raised by daycare workers.
“You’ve been served, Mr. Penn.”
Gunner didn’t reach to take it.
Also, I didn’t move, because if I did, I would explode and punch that smug look off that bitch’s old face.
“She’s there for two days a week, and only once was she there for twelve hours. That was the day that I was stuck in a wreck on the interstate,” Gunner snarled. “She’s in my arms every day by four in the afternoon, and I take her to work with me.”
“That’s another concerning factor, yes. It’s unsafe to have her with you,” the bitch of a “grandmother” said. “We’re also worried that she has no female influence, and she gets bounced around through your disgusting, criminal club too much. We’re bringing all of our grievances to the judge, and we will be discussing this in detail tomorrow. But let’s just say that Lottie will thrive more with two solid people living with her, where she doesn’t have to wonder where she’s staying that day. She can be at home, with us, twenty-four-seven. You can’t offer her that, but we can. Do the right thing, Mr. Penn.”
The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“Oh, well, that’s false information then,” I purred. “We’re getting married as soon as we figure out a date and Lottie is already expecting a younger brother or sister, so she won’t be alone at all. She’ll have a sibling to love on in the very near future.
“Oh, well, that’s weird.” I turned so I could bat my eyes at Gunner. “They don’t count you having a fiancée that lives with you as a positive female influence?”
Gunner’s eyes met mine, and luckily he was able to hide his confusion.
“Apparently not,” he drawled. “I guess having a part-time working stepmom living with you who is a medalist in the Olympics isn’t all that positive.”
I tapped my lips. “You’re right. But we can also talk about how we’re expecting a little brother or sister for Lottie soon, and how their grandparents want to take her away so she can’t spend time with him or her.”
Gunner stiffened slightly, but I’d gone too far to back down now.
“Thank you for serving these in enough time that we could bring this up with our lawyer,” I said as I took the papers from the uncomfortable-looking, official-looking man. “We are sorry that you had to be pulled into the middle of this farce.”
The man backed away once he no longer had the papers.
I turned to pat Gunner on the chest. “Let’s call our lawyer, honey. We don’t want to wait on this. She needs time to prepare.”
“You’re joking, right?”
I turned to survey the older couple.
I wasn’t sure of their names.
All I knew was that the man I was currently hanging on had suffered enough.
An intense wave of anger overwhelmed me, and I squared my shoulders and narrowed my eyes at them.
“No, we’re not kidding,” I snapped. “Who should be kidding is you. What kind of vicious attack dogs are y’all? What you should be thinking about right now is that Lottie just found Gunner. She’s spent her entire small life up in the air, because her mother died before she was born. Her father, or who she thought was her father, wasn’t her father. And Audric struggled greatly with finding his actual father, Gunner. Gunner then had to find out that he had a daughter, after he’d always thought that he would never be a father again.” I moved closer, my finger raised in the air between us. “Do you think that it’s not going to come out in court that this man behind me is a great father? That he busted his hump from a very young age to provide his son with everything that one could need or want? A son who then died in a tragic school shooting at the age of five. This man behind me has spent years trying to make up for the loss of his son’s life. He’s gone from school to school to school all over the continental United States. He’s sacrificed. He’s struggled. He’s spent his own millions on making schools a safer place. So parents like you don’t ever have to know what it feels like to lose their child to a school shooting. Shame on you for trying to take his newly found daughter away from him. I’m sure you have no clue.” I moved even closer and felt a finger loop through the belt loop of my jeans, holding me so that I couldn’t get any closer to the assholes in front of me, “what it feels like to lose a child.” I narrowed my eyes. “Because you would have to have a heart to feel something like that. But you’re trying to make this man suffer through it for a second time? What kind of monsters does that make you?”