Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
It was Diana that was the most vocal, though.
“What?” Diana screeched. “What just happened?”
Bain caught her by the waist and tugged her back into his arms.
“Sounds like they’re gonna race us to the altar, babe,” Bain teased.
“Yep,” Kobe drawled, getting in on the teasing now. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they made it a week.”
“Try tomorrow,” Mattie countered. “I know a judge.”
She was calling my bluff.
“What time?” I responded, my own eyes being just as daring. “I’ll ask my new assistant to block us off a couple of hours for our nuptials and subsequent celebratory lunch after.”
“Noon good for you?” she asked.
“Noon’s great…” I started to say. But it was the angry, “Noon isn’t good for me at all. Or do you even care that I’m there?”
I looked over Mattie’s head to see her father standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I don’t know, Dad.” Matilda didn’t miss a beat. “I guess you can drop by to watch me get married, then run on over to the jail to check on your real children. They’re in the same building after all.”
Mattie’s dad’s eyes went from angry to really angry.
I stood, moving Mattie momentarily closer before pushing her behind me.
Mattie wasn’t done yet, though.
In fact, she was far from done.
“And while you’re there, go ahead and look up the damages they caused. And think about all the money insurance is going to have to shell out for tearing freakin’ walls down and replacing them.” She paused. “Not to mention the time it’s going to take. Etienne will have to hire a brand-new crew to do all of this. Which sucks because now he’s back behind on a job he was almost finished on. Which will then, in turn, cause all his other clients to have their starting points to be pushed back.”
She had a point. A great one.
“I’ll have a crew come in and finish it for free,” Dad offered.
“The time for help would’ve been decades ago when you were raising pieces of shit,” Mattie countered.
She had a point there, too.
Wow, she was really letting him have it.
“I’m sorry, sir. But for insurance purposes, it means that I have to vet my own crews,” I said. “They have to be employed and on my payroll to cover the damages.”
I was bullshitting.
I didn’t know shit.
What I did know was that I didn’t want to be beholden to the man when I could do the work myself, know it was done right, and still get paid to do it. Insurance would be making that a reality.
“Is that how you really feel?” her dad asked. “That I would stand for this to happen to you and not deal with it?”
“Dad.” Matilda sighed as she came up closer to my back, curled her body around my arm, and said, “This is the last straw. I’ve done everything right. The only thing I’ve done wrong is be born from a mistake that you made. Yet, I’ve paid for it my entire life. I’ve done everything in my power to make it to where I’m not thrown in her face. Yet, each freakin’ time that I step away, y’all just pull me right back into the web. And I don’t want to be there anymore. I don’t want any part of my brothers’ lives. I don’t want to be anywhere near Judy. I also don’t really know how much I like you since you’re the one that let this happen. You turned them into this and allowed it to keep happening. I just think it’s time that I put myself first for a change.”
I tended to agree.
Wholeheartedly.
“Okay,” he said. “Then I won’t push.”
“Good.” She slipped her hand into mine, then pressed her head against my bicep.
Ladd took it in, glancing from me to Matilda and back, then nodded before leaving.
“Your family’s lots of fun,” I heard Aodhan say.
“Tend to agree,” KD replied. “But it was more fun when the stepmom was here, spewing her bullshit.”
Matilda, being Matilda, took their teasing in stride.
But she was distracted when the bar door slammed, causing her to look over at what she thought was her father’s departing back.
It wasn’t her father that had used the door, though.
“Hey!” Matilda pointed.
I looked over to find Alice walking in the door, looking haggard.
I’d had a video conference today with her about the job that I needed filled, and she’d assured me that she could do it.
We planned to start her soon, hopefully as soon as I could get her paperwork inputted into the system, to give her a trial run.
I got up out of my seat and walked toward her, offering her my hand once I got close.
She blinked, staring at me in confusion until she realized who I was.
“Oh, sorry.” She blushed. “I was just expecting someone else.”
My brows rose. “Someone else?”