Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 134830 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134830 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Oh. My. God.
Kyle absolutely heard her tell me to go for it and will know that we’ve been talking about him. I can feel the heat rushing to my face, scalding my cheeks, and my heart starts pounding in my chest in a way that has nothing to do with the massive dose of caffeine I just swallowed and everything to do with utter humiliation.
“Shit. Shit. Shit,” I murmur, tossing my cup and Nessa’s into the sink with a clatter. I grab the bags from the living room floor where Nessa dropped my delivery, virtually running them to the kitchen table, where I start unpacking them. Boxes slam, bags crinkle, and I keep muttering, as if I can go back in time and slap my hand over Nessa’s big mouth. But of course, I can’t.
I half expect Kyle to come to my door, gloating and grinning in that annoyingly sexy way of his. But he doesn’t. Instead, I hear him yelling next door.
“I know it sucks!” he hollers before there’s an incomprehensible reply. “And? Do it anyway.”
I peek out the window over the sink and see Zeus and Frogger stomping off angrily while Kyle and Wayne glare at their retreating backs. And standing at her back door is Kathy, a small smirk of victory on her too-thin lips as she watches the drama play out.
What has she done now? I wonder.
I want to avoid Kyle at all costs after he heard Nessa’s comments, and I could easily do that for a few more hours because when I couldn’t sleep last night, tormented again with thoughts of Kyle, I decided to be productive. Hence, my cafecito with Nessa and the farm’s worth of chicken thighs already halfway cooked in my two commercial-grade, ridiculously-oversized slow cookers. They’re currently stationed on my kitchen counter, my rice cooker and beans pot are on the stove, and the pork roast I have in the smoker outside doesn’t need to be checked for hours. So I could stay right here, avoid the embarrassment, and ignore anything that brings Kathy joy.
But I find myself walking out the back door as soon as Kathy disappears into her house.
From my patio, I watch the activity next door. It seems the guys are going back into the rebar-framed hole in the ground, giving everything the once-over.
“Morning,” I call out, loud enough to get Kyle’s attention, but not draw Kathy’s because she might not be visible anymore, but she’s lurking about. She always is.
Kyle jerks his head my way, and though he’s pulled on sunglasses, I can see his frustration in the stony set of his jaw. He sighs heavily but gives a little wave as he heads toward the fence.
“Hey.” His voice is flat, emotionless, and nothing like the teasing, flirting, sexy-talking man from last night. He pulls his glasses off, setting them over the bill of his ball cap, and I can see that his eyes are ice cold and fierce right now.
At one point in my life, I would’ve taken it personally. But I know this look because I’ve seen it in the mirror on my own face. “Kathy effect? What shit is she pulling now?”
He snarls quietly so that it’s just between us, “She claims she saw a raccoon fall into the hole early this morning, and she ‘simply had to rescue the poor creature’, so despite being warned that it’s an active construction site and signing off that she understands it’s not safe for her to be out here, she went in the hole to get the damn thing. Says she ‘doesn’t think she messed anything up’, but it was still dark and she was high-kneeing it over the grid, and she ‘might’ve accidentally kicked a pipe or two’, so we’re rechecking everything.” Every other bit of his story is said in his imitation of Kathy’s voice with air quotes sprinkled here and there for emphasis.
I cut my eyes back to Zeus and Frogger, who are still on the shallow end, eyes scanning every inch of rebar, while Wayne works with them from the pool’s edge.
“Have I told you my special talent?” I say conversationally, seeming to not react to his ridiculous story.
“If it’s making annoying people disappear permanently, I’ve already got a guy for that,” he jokes. Well, I think it’s a joke, though he says it with a straight face.
I shake my head. “No, not a murder for hire type. But if you’re angry, I can make you angrier. Works every time. Wanna try it?”
Kyle looks at me, confusion and interest warring in his gaze, which is melting by degrees in the hot sun as he spends time with me. I can fix that, though.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, so I got up around four and started my day, right there in my kitchen.” I point behind me at the window that looks out over my porch and Kathy’s back yard, so he understands that I can see everything that happens over here. “Kathy never came outside. I would’ve seen her, probably would’ve heard her too if she was stumbling around in the dark. But nothing, nada, zippo… complete silence over here. Besides, do you actually think that woman has it in her cold, dead heart to rescue a wild animal from a dirty hole in the ground? She would probably laugh. That’s how evil she is.”