Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
I was going to go with option A because I would more than likely pass out and break my neck if I fell off the bigger ladder.
But I’d still screwed it up.
And fallen off, screeching like a fucking hyena, nearly blacking out, and had something that weighed less than three pounds but felt like fifty, fall on my damn face while I’d gasped to catch my breath.
My back still hurt.
And now I was at work, with more than a little bit of makeup on, and having Clara stare at me in horror.
“There’s been a bat flying around, and I read that a bat house would hopefully attract it so it wouldn’t keep flying into the house,” I explained, going around the counter and hiding my bag in one of the drawers.
When I stood up straight, she touched my chin and lifted it up, brown eyes focused on my cheek. “Want me to tell you the good news or the bad news first?”
“The bad.”
“We’ve had problems with them at Dad’s,” she started to explain, wincing at whatever she saw. “But you have to plug up where they’re coming in from first, then put the house up.”
Son of a bitch.
“Did you put attractant in there?”
“What’s that?”
“You need to put some in there to get them to start using it.”
I frowned, forgetting I couldn’t do that. “I didn’t read that online.”
“You need it. We might still have some. I’ll check.” She paused. “How did you fall off?”
“This hawk swooped me, and I freaked out and fell off right when I was trying to nail the house up.”
She glanced down before I could make a fist, and she saw the bruise on my hand too.
“I’ve never used a hammer before.”
I had one of the nicest friends in the world because she didn’t laugh. “You’re better off using a drill.”
“A drill?”
“Yeah, with wood screws. It’ll hold up longer.”
I sighed. “Shit.”
Even her nod was sympathetic. “I’m sure you tried your best.”
“More like tried my best to bust my ass.”
That got her to laugh. “Want me to come over and help?” she offered. “Why didn’t Rhodes do it for you?”
I snorted and regretted that shit too. “It’s okay. I can do it myself. I should do it myself. And I don’t want to ask him; he already got one bat out for me in the middle of the night. I can handle it.”
“Even though you fell off a ladder?”
I nodded and gestured to my face. “Yeah, I’m not going to let them win. This isn’t going to be in vain.”
Clara nodded solemnly. “I’ll look for that attractant. I bet if you look in the paper, you can find someone to go and find where the bats are coming in from if you change your mind.”
The problem was that it wasn’t my house, but… “I’ll look,” I said, even though I wouldn’t. Not unless I absolutely had to.
* * *
I wanted to think I was a big girl, but when I kept glancing up at the ceiling even though it was only about six o’clock, I wanted to cry.
I hated being paranoid. Scared. But no matter how much I told myself that a bat was just a sweet little sky puppy…
I wasn’t buying it. And it wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go to get out of there. I hadn’t made enough friends yet.
I got along with most people I met, and most folks were really pretty friendly back, especially my customers at the store. Even the grumpiest people, I could usually win over with time. Back when I’d been with Kaden, I’d met a lot of people, but after a while, everyone wanted something from him, and it had made it impossible to know who wanted to be my friend for me and who wanted it for him.
And that was with them not knowing we were together. We had guarded that secretly tightly. Using NDAs—nondisclosure agreements that pretty much guaranteed that if anyone spoke about our relationship, the Joneses would sue the shit out of them. Not being able to be open with people had just become second nature.
And that was why people like Yuki and even Nori didn’t have that many friends either.
Because you never knew what someone really thought about you unless they told you that you had spinach between your teeth and looked dumb.
I picked up my phone and thought about calling my aunt or uncle, and that was when I heard the garage door open, and a moment later, the buzz of an amp come on from downstairs.
Setting my phone back down, I headed toward the top of the staircase and listened as someone, who I could only assume was Amos, strummed a chord and then another. He adjusted the volume and did it all over again.
Planting my butt on the top step, I curled my fingers around my knees and listened as he tuned his guitar and, after a few minutes, started playing a few blues licks.