Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“Tex, get my car,” Cap growled.
But I was all about my dad.
“Not cool, treating your wife like your dirty little secret,” I sniped. “Springing her on me like a nasty little surprise.”
“It wasn’t me who brought seven people to a dinner without telling me,” Dad shot back.
I got up on my toes to get in his face. “I didn’t ask them. They showed. Think about that, Dad. Think about why the people who love me are so worried about me having a dinner with my father, they turn up to support me. My father who has not once bothered to come out and visit me, see the life I’ve built, the family I’ve made, the beauty I have. Think about that.”
“You didn’t come home either,” he retorted.
I threw out my arms. “To what? Home,” I scoffed. “Home to me is your anger and shame and guilt, and you forgetting every…fucking…day you may have lost one daughter, but you had the other one, and you didn’t give that first shit.”
His head jerked like I’d slapped him.
“Look after your woman, Julien,” Shirleen ordered.
She was a woman too, so she also knew me.
And I was about to lose it.
That was all she had to say.
It was me who had my hand tucked to Cap’s chest, we walked through the beautiful, fairy light-strewn courtyard of Lon’s down the brick walkway and to Cap’s waiting car.
Cap opened my door.
Tex opened Luna’s.
We got in.
And Cap took me away.
“Shirleen could get used to this.”
We were sitting in the courtyard of the Oasis.
Yes, all of us.
Since Luna had ordered in a bunch of pizzas, and Scott had gone out and got a bunch of craft beer, Linda, Martha, Jacob, Alexis and Sally had also joined us.
Luna ordered more pizza and added some boneless wings.
Shirleen was kicked back in a patio chair, her gold slingbacks on one of the tables, ankles crossed, sipping from a beer.
They’d all followed us to my place, and I’d begged Cap not to send them away, so he didn’t. He definitely didn’t take Luna to drop her off at her place first. He wanted my bestie close to me.
God, yes.
I was totally falling for this guy.
Jacob and Alexis were the only ones in the courtyard when we hit it. They were still frolicking in the pool.
Jacob took one look at me, though, and he hauled them both out, they dried off, got dressed and by the time Cap had opened the gate to the rest of our party, Linda and Martha had joined us, Linda with searching, gentle eyes on me, Martha waiting for someone to tell her who to eviscerate.
Sally just wandered down.
Luna and Alexis were in my space, Jacob standing sentry, like he needed to beat back a horde, and I’d pulled up the drawbridge on my Citadel of Denial and was drowning my sorrows in artisanal hops.
Tex had his jeans rolled up to his knees and his feet in the pool.
I heard Nancy ask him, “You like it here, don’t you?”
“We got loads of grandbabies,” he replied.
“They’re pretty grown, sweetheart, and they’d like spring break by a pool,” she said. “And I’d like a break from snow.”
Though what she didn’t say was that he wasn’t getting any younger, and maybe it was time to set aside the portafilter, load up the cats and kick back for a while.
Scott was crowding Cap, trying to distract him with every conversational gambit in his arsenal. He didn’t have a son. He didn’t know how to do this. But he was a man, and he knew where Cap’s head was at with me, and no one needed Cap driving back to the Hermosa Inn.
Cap was at an overpopulated table with Louise, Shirleen, Martha and Linda, conversing with Scott, but his eyes often strayed to me where I was stretched out on a lounger, sandwiched between the two Luna and Alexis had pulled up tight to mine.
I watched Jacob wander over to Cap, but I didn’t hear what he said, his back was to me. Though, I did see Cap get up and walk away with him, where they formed a huddle.
Maybe Jacob was asking what was going on, why we were all gussied up and gone for less than an hour, and I’d returned looking like I’d been hit by a truck.
Maybe he was sharing the best dispensaries to buy weed.
I was in my Citadel, so I wasn’t thinking too much on it.
I was taking a sip of beer when I heard Ryan call from the gate, “Hey, Raye. You know this guy? He says he’s your dad.”
The pool area went wired.
My dad walked into the courtyard.
I tried to scramble out of my lounger, but had no egress with Luna and Alexis butted up against me.
Luna got out of her chair, took my beer and pulled her lounger away so I could get up.