Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Literally?” Fran asked as I hurried to the back door.
I nodded, but stopped, turned back, and grabbed Dean’s plate of pancakes.
“I’ll bring this back to you tomorrow,” I indicated the plate as I stopped at the counter to pick up a new set of silverware before pushing out the back door.
Once in the alley besides the Waffle Shop, I cut through the back of the building, skirting around the dumpsters for each business that lined the small alley I was taking.
I passed by a door that was cracked slightly, stopped and turned back to slip inside the small crack in the door.
“What are you doing?” Des asked as I cut through the back of the diner.
I stopped and turned to Des, studied her pretty face, and burst into tears.
No, I wasn’t good at all, and it didn’t look like it’d get better any time soon.
The pancakes were damn good, though, even with my salty tears running all over them.
Chapter 10
I’m hungry. Translation: I started getting hungry an hour ago, you have approximately five minutes to feed me or I’ll turn into the 2007 version of Britney Spears.
-Men’s Guide to Women
Dean
“Have you seen July?” I asked Desiree.
Des looked up, narrowed her eyes and then bared her teeth.
Her hair stuck up in a spiky little up do that was probably supposed to be stylish. However, at this point after the morning rush of breakfast goers, she looked like crap.
“What part of ‘don’t hurt her’ did you not understand?” Des hissed.
I smiled at Des, happy and annoyed all at once.
Annoyed because she knew where July was but had refused to tell me.
Happy because she was fierce and protective over those she considered hers, me included.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I crossed my arms over my chest and looked around the diner that I knew July was hiding in somewhere.
Desiree’s eyes moved quickly to the kitchen door, and I knew my suspicions were correct.
Ignoring Desiree’s upraised hand to keep me from entering the kitchen, I skirted around her, pushed the door to the kitchen open and froze when I saw July on a stool just inside the door, polishing off the rest of my pancakes.
“Those are my pancakes!” I yelled.
July looked up, dismissed me and then proceeded to stuff the last piece of the middle, the part that was saturated with syrup and soaked in melted butter making it the absolute perfect bite, into her mouth without a second thought.
“You’re such a shithead,” I told her, leaning my shoulder into the doorjamb.
My eyes flicked around the kitchen, surprise crossing my features when I found the kitchen completely empty. Must be smoke break time.
She looked up then, lifted her thumb to her mouth, and proceeded to lick her fingers clean of the sticky mess, not caring in the slightest what kind of effect she had on me.
Although it was hard to miss the huge, long column of my cock filling up the front of my jeans, she managed to keep her eyes on mine, even though I could tell she wanted to look.
Hell, I could see the outline of my cock in my jeans in the polished chrome reflection of the food prep area that July had been eating on.
“What are you looking at?” July asked, giving me her eyes, but not letting me read anything behind them.
“You,” I said. “You drive me nuts.”
“I didn’t mean to spill all the drinks!” she insisted, standing, her hands going to her hips as she glared at me like it’d been my fault all those drinks had made their way onto Alexa’s lap.
“I’m sure that’s the case,” I said. “But it’s kind of suspicious that it happens when I’m offering her a bite off my fork.”
She bared her teeth at me.
“You can do whatever you want,” she said. “I just want you to leave me the hell alone. Go out with Alexa already. Move in together. Get married. Have babies.”
“I don’t want that,” I said. “Not with her, at least.”
“Oh yeah, then who with? Because it sure feels like the two of us are interchangeable to me,” she asked. “You know what? Forget it. I can’t handle her and that shit on top of all this other shit. I’m barely hanging on here!”
I rushed forward, pinning her against the counter and leaning over so she had to either deal with my closeness or bow her back, which would be painful with the awkward position I had her in.
I was so confused, and I needed her to explain this to me.
I couldn’t force it out of her now, though, knowing that just on the other side of the door was Desiree, who happened to be the wife of one of my best friends and a woman who was the root of the Kilgore gossip tree.
This encounter would be blasted all over town by five o’clock if I wasn’t careful.