Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Everyone felt better knowing she was there and she couldn’t get out.
“I was referring more to your decision about football. You and Mason retired at the same time.” His mouth turned up in a crooked grin. And because Monroe was Monroe, I knew he was baiting me. Seeing if he could get some form of reaction from me, just so he could get a feel on how I was really doing. He’d done it in high school when we were enemies and that habit never went away. Channing liked to rile people up in general. Since Billie got in my face, literally, or technically as I got in her face when I’d almost done something stupid that might’ve put me in prison, I took her words to heart. She wanted me to let people in, so I did. Or I worked at it. It was still a struggle because that’s how I had been all my life. But I trusted Billie and she said she wanted me to have friends, so I had friends. If she said it, I did it.
Channing laughed for five straight minutes the first time I called him and explained what Billie wanted, hooting how ‘adorable’ I was, doing what my woman wanted. I tossed shit right back at him because he was wrapped tight around his own woman’s pinkie and he knew it. Since then there was a friendship between us, but we’d always been on the opposite side of things for most of our lives so that push and pull between us wasn’t going to go away. It helped that I’d been paying him to give me updates on my family, which paved the beginning of our friendship long ago.
I grunted at his comment, though I’d been just as surprised as everyone else when Mason Kade’s announcement to retire broke the day after mine.
And we both moved to Fallen Crest.
Will grew quiet, listening to our conversation.
Channing smirked. “It’s kinda funny, though. You and Billie moving to Mason and Logan’s old neighborhood. You’re just down the block from Mama Melinda and Sam’s dad.”
I gave him a look. “Stop fucking needling me, Monroe.”
He laughed, taking a drag from his beer. “Or what? You’ll take back my friendship bracelet?”
“I’ll break your wrist so it’ll heal so you can never wear another friendship bracelet.”
He and Will both started laughing.
I was joking.
Somewhat. Kinda.
I wasn’t really joking, which both knew and that made them laugh harder because in the end, it wouldn’t matter. After the initial phone call when I told him Billie wanted me to have friends, something switched in Monroe. He wouldn’t have let me not be friends with him after that, and me breaking his wrist, he’d still show up the next day. He’d demand an apology as he’d also be unloading things to help me build a treehouse, which he would tell me that I needed to do for my nieces and nephews, because he’d done it for his own kids.
“Where did they end up moving to? Are they back in this neighborhood?”
Channing was loving this conversation. There was a look of amusement but also a twisted grin on his face. “They moved to a different neighborhood, but their dad’s old house is in this neighborhood too. I can’t get over how everything is just coming full circle.”
He was referencing old shit from when we’d been in high school. It was in the past and had no bearing on the now. None of it mattered.
I was getting tired of the direction this conversation was going. Channing got a kick out of it all, but I didn’t. We’d only be here half the year anyway. Six months here for my family, especially since Stevie had taken to Billie in such a strong way.
Stevie was almost obsessed with Billie.
It worried Harmony a little, who was more tentative in her own relationship with Billie, but that’s because of Harmony’s family. Her parents considered themselves in the ‘old money’ society of Fallen Crest. They adored their new grandchildren, but Billie’s past with the Midwest Butcher and how it came out about her brother made them decide they were in some place where they could approve of Billie or not. A lot of people were hesitant to form friendships with Billie. The part where they decided they were in a place to have an opinion was something I’d be clearing up to them, and shortly. They were in no place to approve of Billie or disapprove, and I was looking forward to the day I made that abundantly clear to them. I’d already started making moves to help me when I’d solidify that fact to them. The sooner the better.
However, the funny part of all that was that Billie didn’t care. She truly didn’t, and said it took off the pressure of her having to be friendly with them. She was good with the circle she had, with me, Lo, and now Stevie.