Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Promise?”
I looked over to see the fear written all over Scout’s face.
“I can’t promise anything. Life is life. Sometimes it doesn’t work out like you want it to. However, based on what I know, it’s fairly routine. He’ll probably be released within the hour barring any problems with his lab work.”
Scout took a deep breath and then leaned into me. “Thank you, Rafe.”
I grinned and looped my arm around her shoulder. Janie’s other sister, Rebel leaned into my other side, and Janie gave me a beaming smile.
I’d passed the sister test. Sweet.
“I don’t have my wallet,” Janie suddenly said, turning to go back.
I caught her by the wrist, letting go of Scout. “I have a wallet.”
She frowned.
“You don’t have…” She started to say.
I squeezed her wrist a little tighter.
“I’m going to,” I declared, leaving no room for argument.
She harrumphed, then fell into step again.
I turned back around myself and caught Scout’s eye when I did.
Her happy, knowing smirk had me raising my brow.
She didn’t look like Janie. She was a much slimmer girl than Janie would ever be and probably had ever been. My guess was that she was always going to be small. Tall and lanky would be a better description. But she was adorable nonetheless.
I pulled open the door to the cafeteria once we’d arrived and held it open for all three.
Janie went first, Scout second, and Rebel trailed in last.
Since Rebel lagged behind, I tugged her close like I’d done Scout moments before.
Seemed as if three out of four Allen women were not handling this very well. It was hard to see their patriarch go down when they were used to him being formidable.
Janie looked over her shoulder at me and grinned.
Seemed as if she was loving this forced family time, and secretly, I was, too.
I wanted to get to know them.
I hadn’t under these circumstances, of course, but I wouldn’t complain. Not when I’d wanted this for what felt like a lifetime.
I wanted Janie in my life, and Janie came with her family.
Therefore, I’d take everything that I could get.
We got up to the counter where the food was, and each girl ordered dessert first.
“I’ll have two chocolate chip cookies,” Scout said.
“I want a slice of that cheesecake right there,” Rebel pointed at it.
“And I’d like a piece of that fudge cake you have,” Janie pointed as well.
I burst out laughing, and all three of them looked at me with confusion.
“What?” Janie asked, confusion written all over her face.
My lip twitched as another laugh threatened to break free.
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “Y’all are just a lot alike. It surprised me, that’s all.”
Janie pursed her lips but didn’t comment.
“Are y’all only having dessert or are you actually eating a meal?” I questioned.
Each of them ordered a burger and fries, then all three saturated the burgers they received with so much ketchup I wasn’t sure they could even taste the meat.
The fries came next where each squirted not just ketchup, but mustard, all over the tops.
I wanted to vomit.
“That’s just wrong,” I said upon seeing their blasphemous ways. “I don’t even know if I can ever kiss you again.”
Janie started to laugh, then she scooped a fry covered in that disgusting concoction into her mouth.
I vowed that I wouldn’t give her another kiss at least until she brushed her teeth, and then broke that vow moments later when she offered me her lips.
I, of course, didn’t hesitate to take them.
***
Janie
Later that night, I relayed my father’s and my conversation prior to him arriving that morning, to Rafe who was in the bathroom.
“He’s right, you know,” Raphael’s smooth, deep voice said from behind me, startling me with his sudden presence. “I’m terrible for you.”
I spun around and stared at the man that I loved with all my heart but wouldn’t give me the time of day.
At least, at one point in time.
Today, he’d proven to me that I wasn’t just a passing fling.
I was something to him.
I wasn’t too young or naïve any longer. I was Janie Allen, the woman who was slowly worming her way into his heart.
“I think you have no clue what I want, otherwise you’d stop trying to persuade me into thinking otherwise,” I said in all seriousness.
He shook his head and walked to the kitchen table. Once there, he pulled a chair out, spun it around, and then straddled it backward.
His longish hair was wild around his head.
Since he’d come home from his ‘deployment’ he’d been growing it out. It was now down around his ears.
Normally I only ever saw it when it was tamed and perfectly in place.
Tonight, though, it flowed free.
Crazy locks of hair flew wildly around his face, and the scar by his eye as well as the tattoo that crawled up the side of his neck almost seemed more sinister than they already were.