Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I looked out the window to try to gauge what time it was and saw the darkness glaring back at me.
“Shit,” I said as I scrambled off my butt. “I gotta go let Brawny out.”
“Brawny will be okay if you want to…” I shook my head, knowing he was going to say “leave him alone.”
I stood up and stretched my arms up high over my head. “I can’t. Mable entrusted me with his care.”
Mable and her fiancé, Romeo, were out of town for the weekend visiting Oregon. There was a weekend event that was for cottage bakers—people who sold food out of their homes—and she really wanted to go to it.
I’d promised them that I’d watch Brawny, and I’d been doing a damn fine job of it until right that moment.
I was surprised when Mable had asked me and not Cody, my half sister.
Cody’s mom was married to my dad, and from a young age, my mom had done everything in her power to alienate me from my father after my father had dumped her.
And, to my complete stupidity, I’d believed my mother’s lies about my dad for the longest of times. But my mother wasn’t just feeding me lies about my dad. My mother was also feeding Cody, Mable, and my father lies, too.
Lies that centered around me being a conceited, self-serving bitch.
A name that I’d lived up to because I’d thought that they were all awful people—including my mother.
For the longest time, I’d been completely alone in the world, constantly waiting for one more person to pile on the hate.
Now, after learning all that my mother had done to make the people’s lives that she was supposed to love as miserable as possible, I was slowly trying to force myself to extend an olive branch to my family.
It’d come easy with Mable and Cody, seeing as we’d trauma bonded over my mother’s murder.
My father and Grace, Cody’s mom and my stepmother, however?
That was harder than I’d thought it would be.
My dad harbored a lot of guilt with how little he’d tried over the years to bridge the gap that I’d put between the two of us. He was constantly trying too hard.
And me, being fiercely independent and unable to let people in? Well, let’s just say that it was harder than it probably should be, considering.
“Well, you owe me a make-up day then,” Shade said as he stood up and walked with me to the door. “And don’t think I’ve forgotten that you didn’t ever make dinner. You owe me that, too.”
I smiled as I grabbed my coat and threw it on.
My gaze went out over the quickly darkening sky. “Bye, Shade. Don’t get in trouble this week.”
Shade was a magnet for trouble.
He was also always making the worst decisions possible.
He’d actually been responsible for causing an allergic reaction in Mable when he’d purposefully lined her drink with lime, knowing damn well and good she was allergic.
Luckily, all that happened was Mable got swollen lips and a swollen tongue.
Shade had lost his job because of his stupid decision—even if he’d done it because he hated Mable because she hated me—and was now working at the hospital as a night shift custodian.
“Be careful.” Shade ignored my parting words. “Text me when you get home.”
I gave him a thumbs-up and headed to my moped.
It wasn’t the most ideal vehicle around, seeing as we were in Sawtooth, Montana, where it snowed until freakin’ May—and sometimes June—but it got me from point A to point B.
Since I lived in town, and the roads were kept well groomed of snow, I usually didn’t run into any trouble.
My dad, Cody, and Dad’s wife Grace ran a snow-plowing business together. Cody and my dad were really good about keeping the roads clear for the city and residents that paid to have their roads plowed.
I didn’t ask them to do mine, though they made sure to do it anyway.
Used to, it’d piss me off to see my road done.
Now, I was all warm and fuzzy.
I liked that they always made sure to do mine—most of the time first—to ensure that I got where I was going safely.
Though, my dad freakin’ hated that I was driving a moped around in the middle of winter.
It was temporary, though.
Hopefully next spring, I’d be able to afford a new car.
But for now…
“Bye!” I called out.
Shade shook his head, and I could practically feel his disapproval follow me until I was out of his sight.
I shivered slightly when the wind hit me, cutting through my many layers as I rode through the streets of Sawtooth.
I passed one of the bars we had in town, as well as the four restaurants. I waved at the gas attendant who was filling up a patron’s vehicle—the one and only gas station refused to allow anyone to pump their own gas, even though it was legal to do it yourself in Montana.