Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69327 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69327 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 277(@250wpm)___ 231(@300wpm)
Then there was the fact that I could see him, but he really couldn’t see me.
The way the lights above the booth he was in were positioned meant he couldn’t really look up without them shining him directly in the face.
I’d just turned and taken a huge gulp of my Coke when I glanced instinctively at the booth I’d been staring at and found it empty.
My heart plummeted.
Not that I was going to go over there and talk to him or anything, but I’d definitely been enjoying the show.
He really was that attractive.
I glanced at the door, hoping to see his blue flannel, but no luck.
I sucked in air and realized that my drink was now empty.
Well, now was as good of a time to leave as any.
I’d really only stopped in this bar because I was thirsty as hell.
I’d gone for a run in downtown Dallas—don’t judge me, a woman had to run, and I was now the proud owner of a twenty-two pistol that I liked to carry in my fancy fanny pack—and I’d been so dang thirsty that I was desperate for anything to drink.
But when I’d gotten inside, my newfound love for Dr. Pepper—yes, I still called it a Coke, sue me—had reared its ugly head, and I’d had to have it.
With the lovely taste of the sweet nectar of the Texas gods on my lips, I headed back outside.
I didn’t put on my Shokz headphones, though. The headphones were bone conducting, which meant I wasn’t completely oblivious to the outside world and would at least hear someone trying to kidnap me.
Instead, I looped them around my neck and walked carefully in direction of the apartment I’d rented.
We’d all rented them in the same building, actually.
A building that Slone and Tony had recommended because Slone’s best friend, Titus, owned it.
Titus and Slone were pro football players. They had an obscene amount of money, zero desire to spend it rationally—at least on Titus’s end—and had thought that owning an apartment complex in downtown Dallas would eventually be a good investment.
Except, he hadn’t had anyone in it in a year because he didn’t like any of the people that were trying to rent apartments from him.
Which led to us all moving into it—‘us all’ being my sisters and brother who remained working for Singh circus. There was Keene, Valhalla—better known as Val—me, Kissimmee and her husband, Coffey, Zip, Caristonia—Tony—had even picked out one with her husband, Slone, and their daughter, Briley.
The only sister not currently living in the apartment was Hades.
Hades had taken a leave of absence from the circus right around the time Slone and Tony had hooked up. There’d been a falling out between the two, and later on we’d found out that Hades wasn’t actually my father’s child, but biologically from another worker who worked in the circus in that time period.
We hadn’t treated her any different once we’d known, but she’d had some healing to do, and we’d allowed her to do that. That didn’t mean that we didn’t miss the hell out of her, though.
In fact, I still called and texted her multiple times a day just to hear her voice.
Though she didn’t answer some of the time because she was working—she’d taken on a new self-employment gig that had her traveling all over the country. There was a high demand for her photography and business promotions, designing websites and promotional materials.
She was doing freakin’ awesome, and it was just a reminder that all of us were being held back by staying where we were in this sinking ship of a circus.
All of us, every last one of us, had come home to the circus when our father had died.
It’d been a stipulation in his will that we follow all rules he’d set forth. Some of those rules included that we had to stay working for the circus—all of us—for a full five years before we could get our inheritance and sell it off.
We’d been doing that for a time now, and it was quite clear to all of us that this wasn’t going to be something we did forever.
Val wanted to go back and finish everything up so she could become a doctor—she’d already finished the four years of medical school, but had to do her resident requirements as a doctor to get finished up.
Then there was Zip. Zip had been in school for business administration, and had grand plans to start her own company, but that had been derailed with my father’s plans, too.
Keene, our big brother, had thought to stay in the military until he retired, and I had a distinct feeling that he would definitely be going back once his obligations here were over.
Then there was me.
I didn’t have any plans in life.
I’d gone to school and gotten my degree in art. I didn’t even like art.