Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Of course, his father didn’t acknowledge Mae who stopped at his feet, dancing around there. “Mama left to go to New York. We’re living with daddy now.”
His father laughed out loud as if that were the funniest thing he’d ever heard. Fox slapped Dev on the back, harder than necessary in his humor. “Any day now I’m expectin’ a titty to pop out your chest so they can nurse.” Fox dropped the crass bomb, uncaring how the girls might perceive his words, and started around Mae who lowered her brow. Whether it was being ignored or Dev being ridiculed that bothered her, he wasn’t sure. Maybe both.
“Abigail, you aren’t gonna say hello?” his father asked, taking strides toward his bike.
“No.” Maybe if his old man truly cared about the answer, he would have gone the few feet to her, but he didn’t and kept going for his bike.
“Mama, your kid’s rude,” Fox called out over his shoulder to Dev.
“Where’s Mom?” he asked.
Fox slowed as he got to his bike, as if relishing his next bit of news. “She’s got a day at the spa for the shit you started.”
He took the handlebars and lifted his leg, tossing it over the bike. It was such a fluid move. Dev remembered a time when he was Mae’s age and loved to watch his father mount his bike.
Now it just pissed him off.
“Have an accident,” Dev called out, seconds before his old man started the bike. Dev juggled the load he was carrying into one arm to fish the cell phone out of his pocket as he started toward his shop. He heard Mae following and looked over his shoulder to see Abi gathering the dog and speed walking after him.
He searched the contacts, pulling up his mother’s, and pushed call as he reached for the door leading inside the ink parlor. He tried to manage it open with his foot while holding all the shit he carried.
“Hello,” his mom answered.
“Y’all, go to your room and be super quiet for me,” he instructed the girls. A big burly guy he’d inked several times before sat in the waiting area. He had that same crappy air his father held and didn’t look happy as he raked his eyes over everything Dev had going on.
“Do I hear my girls?” his mom asked.
“Yeah, hang on.” He dropped the girls backpacks and the dog carrier on the reception desk. Mae danced at his feet, ready to swipe the donuts then take off, running after Abi toward the second office space that he’d made into a playroom for times like these.
Millie met Mae coming around the corner in a near collision, but Millie kept Mae on her feet before she bounded off again.
“Hi, Millie,” Mae beamed as she rushed by with Abi hot on her heels. Seconds later, he heard the television turn on and the door slam shut.
“They have a dog now?” Millie asked. The look on her face said what her words didn’t: bad idea.
Dev’s entire concentration landed on the purse underneath her arm. “Where are you goin’?”
“To have an early Thanksgiving dinner with my son in Colorado this weekend, remember?”
Motherfucker. Shit just kept going sideways on him.
More shocking to his brain was that this was the weekend before Thanksgiving. The girls had fall break next week, and from now to the end of the year, he’d be slammed busy doing ink. Easily putting in ten-to-twelve-hour days.
“I’m coming back on Monday,” Millie continued. “I stopped by this morning to get everything set up for you for this weekend. You’re booked solidly today and tomorrow because I had to reschedule appointments to fit Keyes’s all-day ink in on Sunday.”
“Dev, what’s going on?” his mother yelled.
Right, she was on the phone. He lifted it back to his ear and nodded the guy back toward his chair.
“If this is a bad time, I can come back. I don’t want you to do a shitty job.” His client stood, his tone angry and put out.
“Dude, my shitty job is the best you’re ever gonna get,” Dev bit out, past tired of all the attitude hitting him this morning. “Get in my goddamn chair. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Where’s Tena?” his mom asked.
“She took off. Dropped the girls off this mornin’. The nanny quit but I might be able to salvage it. I left her a message already. Are you out all day?”
“I’m in Houston,” she said. His last hope of making the day manageable went up in flames. “My plan was to come home in the morning, but I can come tonight.”
Shit. In his head, he’d just thrown himself on the ground in a complete toddler fit, kicking his arms and feet and screaming in response to the universe fucking up his life.
Dammit. What he actually did was follow the guy to his workspace.