Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 201(@200wpm)___ 161(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
I take a deep breath, dry my tears, and get over my theatrics. There are other people involved, not just me or Lawson. There’s a child whose innocent in all of this, and I already know with every depth of my being I’m going to love him or her unconditionally. After I throw up for the hundredth time.
SEVEN
LAWSON
“Yeah,” I answer the phone in my office. Juniper never responded to my text yesterday. It didn’t matter. She took the day off, and I was fucking glad. The woman slept most of the day and through the night. Juni didn’t so much as get up to pee. I’d know. While I cleaned up the place, I’d check in on her every half hour or so. She’d make a low humming noise in her sleep, and I swear I’ve heard her make the noise before. I just can’t place when.
“That’s not how you answer the phone, Lawson Dwayne Johnson,” Mom chides. I can already tell this is one of those calls Dad has on speaker phone, except Mom decided to join him.
“Sorry, Mom, didn’t look at the caller ID. I’ve been dealing with the books.” JW came in earlier today saying one of the neighboring farms is up for sale and thought it’d be a good investment. Needless to say, I told him I’d look at the books, check what they were asking, and what all it entails in order to bring it to the table.
“Fine, fine, but don’t make it a habit. I’m off to the store. Case grew out of his clothes, completely surpassed two sizes, and Ryland has zero taste besides all one color when it comes to outfits. Love you.” She’s a busybody, never met a store she didn’t like, and has no problem putting any of us in our place. It doesn’t matter the time or place. Between the two of them, their boys minded their manners while living under their roof. Once we were over the age of eighteen, we did a whole lot of fuckery, drinking, rodeoing, you named it. We lived our lives, got it out of our systems, and some of us settled down. Dean and Lane both have women, Fletch does as well, and I’m going after the woman who has my dick tied in knots soon. I make a mental note to call my buddy to see how he’s doing. We’ve been friends for a while, there for one another when shit goes down. Him more for me than the other way around, except he knows I’d be on the first flight to Georgia anytime, day or night.
“Love you, Ma. Try to save some for the other shoppers,” I reply. I can hear my parents talk quietly before loud smooching noises, then finally, Dad comes on the line.
“Heya, your mom wasn’t going to call and ask you. I figured it was time I step in. She’s got a lot going on. Case growing has her in a tizzy, and I knew she’d forget,” Dad starts. He’s not wrong. Her first grandbaby and my first and only nephew has all of us wrapped around his finger, Mom most of all. When Case needs something, Case gets first priority. As it should be. Ryland is a single dad. There are not enough hours in the day to work and do it all on your own, so Mom picks up where he can’t.
“What’s that?” I drop the pencil I was using to make notes outside of the margins on the spreadsheet. For the most part, everything is done on the computer, but I like to work on it with pencil and paper before inputting it into the system. I’ve made mistakes before, and it’s a bitch to fix.
“Keep your eye on Juni. She went to the doctor this morning and said she’s going to work.”
“What did the doctor have to say?” My office door is currently closed. The only reason I keep it open is for Juniper. I stand up and go straight to my door, unlocking it and using the toe of my booted foot to wedge the door stopper.
“That’s the thing. Juni was tight lipped. Only said she was fine and that it’d pass. Except you and I both know there’s something else. I could hear the difference in her tone of voice.” I look across the hall, not seeing any sign of her, and the door to the clinic isn’t open either. That’s damn weird.
“Yeah, I’ll check on her.” Turn her over my knee and smack her ass, too. This damn woman thinking she needs to be here every waking minute of every day is bullshit.
“Thanks, bud. I better get. Case is moving in the crib,” Dad says.
“Not a problem. Case still got his days and nights mixed up?” When we had breakfast yesterday, he was up, so I assumed he was on the right track.