Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 79599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79599 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 398(@200wpm)___ 318(@250wpm)___ 265(@300wpm)
Because it was.
I wasn’t able to linger on the phenomenally sexy image of my face pressed against her naked ass for too long because she reached back and swatted at my head with her hat like I was a bee buzzing around her legs. “Bear!” she screeched playfully, jumping back down from the bench and then running around it, holding onto her butt like we were in a locker room and she was protecting it from an impending towel swat.
“Just watching you jump around is exhausting,” I said, reaching into my jeans and pulling out my cigarettes. I lit one and waved the smoke away from my face.
“Mama used to call me her little jumping bean because they could never get me to sit still,” she admitted, finally sitting down on top of the picnic table.
“Fitting,” I said, feeling like I was able to relax now that the jumping bean had stopped jumping.
I took a drag of my cigarette and blew out the smoke. It had taken me forever to figure out where to take Ti. So long now that the sun had just started to set into the horizon. I liked the night. I liked the dark. Smoking in the dark always held more appeal for me than smoking during the day. Maybe it had something to do with being able to see the smoke against the dark background of the night sky. Or maybe it was being able to see the glowing ember from the end of the cigarette or the bright yellow flame when I fired up my lighter. Smoking was familiar to me. It felt good.
It also reminded me of home.
I’d be shit at making one of those anti-smoking public service announcements.
Ti leaned back on the table, closing her eyes like she was soaking up rays that had long disappeared with the setting of the sun.
“I feel like you know so much about me,” she said, although I didn’t think that was true. I don’t think I’d tapped into even half of what made Thia Andrews tick. “But I don’t know that much about you.”
“You know more than anyone else,” I said, and that really was true, but for the exception of King and maybe Grace. In the short time I’d spent with her, she learned more about me than the men back at the club.
Men who were supposed to me my brothers.
Most of whom I’d known since the day I was born.
I leaned back on my elbows, the same way Ti had, soaking in the same imaginary rays. An eerie sense of calm washed over me. I wanted to burn the feeling into my memory, because I knew it wouldn’t last. After the meeting with Bethany tomorrow plans needed to be made.
Decisions needed to be made.
Quickly.
My phone rang. “It’s Bethany,” I told Ti, holding the phone up to my ear. “Yeah,” I answered.
“We have a problem,” Bethany said. I looked over to Ti who thankfully hadn’t heard her. I stood up and walked away casually.
“Go ahead,” I said as calmly as I could muster.
“She’s no longer wanted for questioning,” Bethany snapped.
“That’s great,” I said, looking back over to Ti who smiled.
“No, she’s no longer wanted for questioning because there is a warrant out for her arrest.”
Fuck.
“They finished analyzing the gun and they called in some fancy CSI from Atlanta. There is only three sets of prints in that entire house and only two sets of prints on both guns. The mother’s and Thia’s and since the mom is dead…”
“How do we proceed from here?”
“She turns herself in. I try to call in as many favors as possible and in the meantime I’ll put together a self-defense strategy in case it moves to trial.”
“Is there an alternative?” I asked, wandering around looking at the trees like I was actually interested in the same fucking pine trees that had been growing in that park since before I was born.
“I have another idea,” Bethany said, “But you may not like it. In fact, you’re not going to like it at all.” I didn’t have to like it. Ti was dead if she got locked up. Might as well drive her over to the MC and dump her off at the gate.
Wasn’t going to happen.
“Shoot,” I said.
“How attached are you to this girl?”
“What?” I asked.
“I need to know if this is a fling or a fuck or if you knocked her up or I need to know if this is the real deal, trust me. It’s important.”
I looked over to Thia and didn’t have to search long for the answer. She had picked up a dandelion and was waving it in the wind, spitting them out when the breeze blew the little white petals directly into her mouth.
“Real deal.”
I let Bethany say her piece then hung up the phone and walked back over to Ti. I promised her a normal day and I was going to give it to her no matter what. We still had today.
Not tomorrow.
But we had today.
“What did the lawyer lady say?” Ti asked as I came to sit beside her.
“Just making sure we would be on time tomorrow. She’s kind of a stickler for details,” I said, which was the truth, I just didn’t add the part about the cops that would be there waiting with a warrant.
I thought about running. Taking Ti on the back of my bike and heading out of state as fast as my bike could take us. The alternative Bethany offered wasn’t much of an alternative at all.
The choice I had to make was an easy one.
It would also be an ending to something that hadn’t yet had a chance to begin.
“I guess that’s a good thing for a lawyer to be.”
“Guess so,” I said.
“So as I was saying,” she said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “I don’t even know what your favorite color is—” She stopped mid sentence to look me over, taking in my shirt, boots, and jeans, which were all black. “Okay, never mind, so your favorite color is black, but what is your favorite movie? Favorite holiday? Actually, I don’t even know how old you are.”