Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I frowned. “What?”
“Ask,” she sighed. “I’ll tell you a story. Then we’ll go inside and forget I told you about them.”
My lips curled up. “Now I feel like my curiosity about how many brothers you have, and how many of them will kick my ass at a time, is only a small touch of what I’m about to be told.”
She groaned and turned, using her hold on my finger to drag me toward the dock where she’d been sitting.
I followed behind, holding tight to her single finger, and waited until she was seated in the one she wanted before pulling the other Adirondack chair over to hers, then took a seat. All the while keeping her finger hooked to mine.
It felt delicate with my big one around it, but she didn’t pull away.
And I wanted the connection, so I held on.
“My brothers—all five of them—are a bit outrageous,” she admitted. “They’re all older than me and are part of the reason I decided to move down here as well. They control this town.”
My mind already went spinning, and before she could even tell me who her brothers were, I realized I’d made a big, big mistake.
“Shit,” I groaned, finally letting go of her finger to press both of my palms deep into my face. “Please, please, please tell them that I have two nieces that I need to help raise, and if they kill me, I won’t be able to help my parents do that.”
Cannel’s musical giggle would’ve normally set me at ease.
Honestly, it would have.
But this time, it only compounded my frustration. Women would be the death of me. I could see it now.
CHAPTER 8
Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.
-Cannel to Will
CANNEL
I woke up with a smile on my face.
I went about my workday with a smile on my face, too.
Which was funny and reason to be wary for the coworkers, because I didn’t often have much to smile about.
But today, I did.
Today, I was going out with Will after work.
He was actually picking me up from the hospital so we could leave straight after my shift ended. Then we were going for ice cream shortly afterward.
Which meant, at six fifteen, after my shift ended, I rushed to the room the nurses used to store their stuff, eat and use the bathroom to change my clothes.
I came out dressed in dark-washed skinny jeans, black leather motorcycle boots that climbed almost three-quarters of the way up my calf, a black skintight baby doll tee that gave a flash of skin if I moved just right, and a brown leather jacket my brother, Shine, had given me for Christmas last year.
“Wow,” Jenna, one of my coworkers, cried. “You look amazing!”
I looked down at myself.
I hadn’t put on skinny jeans in almost two years.
I forgot how much I loved them.
But when I was with him, I wasn’t allowed to wear anything that would draw attention to myself, and apparently anything that was tight to my skin was one of those things. I.e., skinny jeans were a no go.
And, after I was rescued, I hadn’t had the courage to wear them.
Nor, on that hand, would I have worn the t-shirt.
Pretty much, anything that helped hide my body was a friend to me over the last two years, and this particular outfit would’ve never freakin’ happened if Will wasn’t outside waiting on me.
I’d gotten that particular text about five minutes ago alerting me that he was there and waiting.
Which was why I smiled at Jenna but didn’t stop to talk with her.
She took the elevator, while, like always, I took the stairs.
I didn’t do elevators anymore. They were too confining.
I liked to be able to move, and that meant stairs, even if I had to climb five flights of them to get to work and descend five flights to get home.
Arriving outside in less time than it normally took me, I rushed toward the door that would lead to the ER entrance of the hospital.
At first, I didn’t notice that Will wasn’t alone, my eyes only for him.
He was wearing the male version of what I was wearing—which made sense seeing as he told me to wear something sturdy for a ride on his bike through the backwoods to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that was, supposedly, to die for.
But then I saw the way Will’s shoulders were stiff, and he had his arms crossed across his chest as if he was about to strangle someone and needed the hands under control so he didn’t throw punches.
That’s when I realized that Will wasn’t alone.
He was surrounded by five very large, very intimidating, very buttheaded men.
“You are not ruining my first date with this man!” I cried out, stomping my foot down hard on the pavement right behind Will. “And, swear to God, Haggard. I asked you nicely while I was at the gym to not tell them.”