Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69785 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69785 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I found myself grinning. “Not weird, exactly. Just different.”
She rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”
Her voice was husky. Almost as if she’d smoked for a time before quitting. That, or screamed out about a hundred orgasms that day.
Whatever it was, the woman had an intoxicating voice, and it was drawing me in like a moth to a flame.
“Hi.” Shawn grinned as he looked to the girl that’d caught and held my attention. “My name is Shawn. This is Trick. We’re just off of deployment and really in need of a drink. Do you mind if we take the seat beside you?”
The one directly next to her. Dammit, Shawn.
“Sure,” she said hesitantly, not even taking her eyes off of me to look over at Shawn.
“You come here a lot?” Shawn asked as he took the seat directly next to her, forcing me to take the one that I’d originally been planning on taking, putting him between the two of us.
Asshole.
“You could say that,” the woman drawled, inching further away from him.
“What’s your name?” Shawn asked.
“Swayze,” she answered. “Where were y’all deployed to last?”
“Iraq,” Shawn answered for the both of us.
“Oh, that’s no fun. I’ve heard horror stories about there from my stepfather.” Swayze looked sad for a moment. “He really hated it over there.”
“So did this one.” Shawn slapped me on the shoulder. “That’s why he’s decided to go into the Reserves. He’s no longer active-duty after today.”
Thank fucking God.
But that wasn’t why I was going reserve. I was going reserve because I needed to be home to help with bills and shit so that my little sister actually went to school instead of having to take care of my mother—the laziest piece of shit you’d ever meet.
Not that Shawn needed to know that. The less Shawn knew, the less he could share. Seriously, I loved the guy, but Shawn somehow always seemed to share every single detail about my life when he was talking, yet none of his. Which, I supposed, was by design. Shawn didn’t have a much better home life than I did. The only difference was, Shawn seemed to care a whole lot more than I did at this point.
Swayze’s eyes came to me. “What’s next for you, Trick?”
What’s next? What was next was for me to go home to Vermont, help my mother raise my little sister, and hope that I didn’t get sucked back in like last time.
“Going home,” I said. “To school, most likely. I have a job lined up at a bar.”
Her eyes sparkled at my words. “That sounds like a lot of fun.”
She was teasing me.
She was also leaned so far forward on the bar so that she could see me that it was comical.
Shawn needed to take a hint.
Shawn would stick it out to the bitter end, though.
He didn’t like being told he’d lost.
“Tell us about yourself, Swayze,” Shawn urged, leaning forward slightly.
“I…”
The bartender interrupted us.
He was a stout old man with hard, uncompromising eyes.
Former military.
There was no doubt about that.
“What can I get you two?” the hardass bartender asked, shooting Shawn a disapproving look.
Shawn leaned away from Swayze almost on instinct.
“I’ll take a beer. Dark. Whatever you have on tap,” I rumbled.
The bartender’s eyes flicked to me, then to Shawn. “You?”
“Bud. Tap,” he stammered.
My lips twitched.
“I’ll have another, Papa,” Swayze held up her empty glass. “Have you seen Dad? I was supposed to meet him here, but he’s not in the back room.”
Something shuttered over the bartender’s eyes. “Haven’t seen him, honey girl. Just sit right there and wait for him.”
The man was lying.
I knew that without a shadow of a doubt.
The bartender knew where Swayze’s father was, he just didn’t want her to know where he was.
Or maybe what he was doing.
Whatever the reason, I had a feeling Swayze’s father wasn’t a good guy.
My eyes went back to the woman once the bartender left to get our drinks.
She looked pissed.
“Wow, he was intense,” Shawn declared the moment he was out of earshot.
“Former military. Marines,” Swayze admitted. “He’s a lovable guy. To women. Men don’t find him nearly as lovable.”
“I would think not,” I teased.
She shot me a warm smile and then turned her gaze on the bar top, her fingers absently picking apart a napkin.
Shawn got up and slapped me on the back. “You can have her, man.”
Then he was moving toward the end of the bar, leaving the spot empty between the two of us, and heading in the direction of another blonde at the opposite side of the bar. This one looking a whole lot more attainable for him… and looser.
One with quite a few less morals.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Swayze questioned as she glanced in my direction.
I gritted my teeth, wanting to curse Shawn.
He couldn’t win, so he didn’t want me to win, either.
But, since I was honest to a fault, I told her the answer anyway.