Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
To that, she let out a small laugh. “Let’s say the apple didn’t fall far from this tree,” she said, waving down at herself. “I was seventeen when I got pregnant with her. With a guy who had no business showing an underage me attention.”
That would make her, what? Thirty-two or three? She could still practically pass for an older sister to her daughter instead of her mom, though.
“Is that… blood?” she asked, looking down at my hands, making me automatically flex my fingers.
“Yep,” I said, nodding. “Let’s say the assholes didn’t want to be interrupted.”
“Jesus,” she said, sighing. “Seriously, thank you…”
“Callow,” I said.
“Callow, thank you. I don’t want to think about what might have happened to her if you weren’t here.”
Her body jerked hard as her daughter had the audacity to honk the fucking car horn.
“Is she too young to send to the military?” she asked, sighing.
“Day she turns seventeen,” I shot back, not realizing my hand instinctively went to my leg until her gaze followed.
“Oh. Shit. Sorry, was that insensitive?” she asked, looking horrified that she might have offended me.
“Not at all. Trust me, my parents wanted me to join as soon as I could too.”
“Did it make you less crazy?” she asked. “Because while young motherhood definitely forced me to calm down, I don’t really think I want to recommend that to my kid.”
“It made me a different kind of crazy, I guess,” I admitted.
“Fineee,” she said, feigning disappointment. “I guess I have to rein her in myself then. Oh, I’m gonna kill her,” she said as the horn beeped again, longer. “Really, Callow, thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s everything,” she said, hazel eyes full of emotion before she turned and walked back to her car.
By the time she reversed and started to pull out, Daphne was slumped down in her seat as her mom chewed her out.
Mission for the night complete, I decided against going back into the bar and just took the walk back to the clubhouse.
Where I shut myself in my room.
And couldn’t get a frazzled mom’s gorgeous fucking face out of my mind. All the while knowing I’d never see her again.
CHAPTER THREE
Sabrina
She laid the attitude on thick on the drive back from the bar, but I could tell by the haunted look in her eye when I glanced over that something had definitely scared the shit out of her.
Whether that was possibly being taken somewhere mostly against her will or witnessing the guys she’d been with get the tar beat out of them was anyone’s guess.
During the ride, and the very long conversation at home afterward as well, I learned that she and Allie had some sort of falling out a few weeks before. And that all the times she was supposedly hanging out with her, she was now hanging out with this Tammy girl who was eighteen, going on nineteen, who by all accounts was wilding out.
And coming from a former very wild child, that was saying something.
I’d never been the kind of mom who believed in grounding. I’d known lots of kids growing up who had parents always grounding them. It never changed the behavior. It just made them sneakier.
That said, there was a two-and-a-half to three hour period of the day when I wasn’t around to keep an eye on her. So for those hours, she was to stay in the apartment. Alone.
I could at least make sure she did the first part, thanks to making her share her location with me on her phone.
I hated doing it. I believed in trusting your kids. That said, the kid had to earn that trust. Since she’d broken it by lying and going out when and where she shouldn’t, this was just going to have to be how it was for the time being.
I couldn’t make sure she was alone in said apartment for those hours. But as far as I could tell, there was no sign of any boys in her life. And, believe me, we’d had many many talks about safe sex. So I wasn’t as worried about that part.
And that was our life for the next two weeks.
Sure, Daphne bemoaned being ‘in prison’ but it was a pretty half-hearted fight, all said and done.
I hoped she’d seen just how close she’d come to something happening that couldn’t be taken back, that would potentially stick with her for the rest of her life.
If it weren’t for Callow stepping in to put a stop to it.
Even just the thought of his name sent little sparks of interest shooting across my skin.
I hadn’t exactly been a nun since becoming a mom. There’d even been a couple of men I’d had short-term physical affairs with over the years.
But it had been a really long time since I’d experienced anything even akin to desire.