Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Shock registered on her face. “You talked to Caven’s woman?” As she turned fully to face me, her seat belt pulled tight across her chest, dividing her breasts into split screens of seduction.
Fuck me. In the confines of that car, I was barely focusing as it was. I did not need the seat belts plotting against me too.
I cleared my throat and forced my eyes to lock onto hers. “It’s more like she talks to me, but yeah. I know her.”
Her mouth fell open. “Do you talk to Caven too?”
“Fuck no. I’d rather not talk to Red, either. But the woman is relentless. I lied to her a while back and told her I go to the diner on Saturdays so she can’t ambush me anymore. Best decision I ever made. Now, can you please just promise me you won’t go back to the restaurant until I’ve had a chance to get some guys in there?”
“Sure,” she replied, chipper and cheery. “But first, let me say one thing.” She angled her upper body over the center console, bringing her face within inches of mine, and slowly enunciated the word, “No.”
God bless America. Two fucking inches closer and she would have breathed that into my mouth. “No. What?” I asked when my ability to comprehend the English language failed me.
She—thankfully for my brain and unfortunately for my desire to strip her naked and bury my face between her thighs—leaned away. “Truett, be real here. I can’t just stop going to the restaurant. That’s my job, and money is tight as it is. If I don’t open soon, things will go belly-up before I even get my feet on the ground. I appreciate the concern. Really, I do, but I have bigger fish to fry than a producer-turned-paparazzo.”
“Which is why I said I’ll handle it. It won’t cost you a penny.”
“Yeahhhhh, that’s not happening, either. No offense, but I’m not accepting investors at the moment.”
“What are you talking about? This isn’t Shark Tank. It’s free money.”
She rolled her eyes. “What is it with men thinking the answer to every woman’s problem is for them to strut in with a fist full of dollar bills and save the day?”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
“No? Then why didn’t you ask me about blinds and a security system before magnanimously announcing that you were going to handle it?”
“Because currently you have neither.”
“I also don’t have bathroom stalls or a cash register, but I don’t see you worried about those.”
“Those aren’t safety concerns. Right now, anybody can walk by and see you inside alone, shaking your ass in those tiny black shorts and the pink tank top that gapes open every time you bend over.”
She arched a knowing eyebrow. “Are we discussing the men walking by or the man sitting in at the booth inside?”
Busted! Though I’d caught her doing a little creeping of her own that night, so at least I wasn’t the only one. “All I’m saying is—”
“I don’t need you to say anything,” she snapped. “I’ll handle it. I always do.”
I clamped my mouth shut so fast I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t think she’d intended for those words to be a TKO punch. But that was exactly how they landed.
Gwen was easily the strongest woman I had ever met. With me traveling for military training or stationed halfway across the world, she’d had to figure out an entire life on her own. And then again, when I’d forced her to start over after she’d lost her brother, she’d grabbed life by the horns with such strength and grace that I truly believed I’d done the right thing by letting her go.
I sighed, guilt filling my veins. “I just want to help.”
“And I get that. Which is why I kept the booth and made you a sandwich tonight. But maybe find a way that isn’t throwing money at a problem when I have no idea if and when I would be able to pay it back.”
I ground my teeth, fighting the desire to argue. Or more likely, say fuck it and hire a full crew to show up at her restaurant first thing in the morning. She’d get pissed. That was nothing new, but then what? We wouldn’t go home together, bickering about who was right. We wouldn’t make love long into the night where I could show her just how determined I was to make sure nothing, and no one, ever touched her because that was what a man did to protect his woman.
She wasn’t mine anymore, no matter how deep that cut me.
Resigned, I sank deeper into my seat and dropped my head against the headrest. The leather was cold and unyielding against my skin. “You’re right.”
She smiled. “I know.”
“I just worry about you,” I confessed.
“I know that too.”
“But I’ll cool it with the money thing. Though that’s not to say, I’m not going to spend a shit-ton of cash. Because, heads up, I’m about to drop a small fortune in attorney’s fees to rain legal hell over that bastard. But I’ll try to keep my worries from overflowing onto you so I don’t cross eighty-four thousand boundaries in the process.”