Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110694 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“I can take the credit for that,” I told him, walking over to pull out the stool beside her and sit down.
Jayda placed a glass of water with some powder she’d mixed in it and two pills in front of Branwen.
“Really?” Jayda asked, sounding surprised.
I nodded. “Yep. I was a big Fleetwood Mac fan in the ’90s, and since Branwen worshipped me, she liked whatever I liked. Except beer. She tried mine once and spit it all over me.”
Branwen’s gaze snapped up to me. “I did not worship you, and you should have never let me taste that beer. I was ten years old.”
“Yeah, you did,” Luther chimed in, and I smirked.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Stay out of this. I don’t even remember you. You couldn’t have been around much.”
I threw my head back and laughed.
“And I thought we were friends,” he said.
She shrugged, and her eyes seemed to sparkle with the morning sunshine filtering in through the windows as she looked at me.
Yeah, we could do this. Be friends. I could let it go. Learn to move on from it. I had Stevie now. I wouldn’t miss any more of her life.
“I let you taste the beer because you were very hard to tell no.”
“I was ten.”
“You were adorable, all puppy-dog-eyed and begging for one taste. I figured you’d either like it and become a teenage alcoholic, or hate it and you wouldn’t touch it again. I was so damn relieved when it spewed out of your mouth.”
I watched her face soften, and a smile spread across it as the tension faded. It was that easy with her. If only I had this gift with all females.
Jayda was silently watching us when I reached to pick up my cup. She smirked at me, getting the wrong idea.
“Waffles are ready, Stevie,” Jayda called out while looking at me.
Stevie left Maui behind and jumped up onto the stool to my left. “You know what we did?” she asked me.
“What?”
“We went to the museum, and the zoo, and the othah museum with the scuba divahs.” She listed them off as she held up a finger for each one.
“Sounds like you were busy.”
She nodded her head at me, then reached for her fork and stabbed a piece of waffle with it. “We was vewy busy,” she agreed, then shoved the waffle into her mouth. Her cheeks looked like a chipmunk as she caught me watching her and grinned at me.
Breakfast had never been something I looked forward to or thought much about. Rarely did Luther and I eat at the same time. But with these two here, the kitchen was an entirely different experience. The room even seemed brighter. Laughter, puppy growls, dimpled smiles, and ringlets had managed to turn it into one of my favorite parts of the day.
Forty-Two
Branwen
After breakfast, Linc told us he had a surprise, something to show us.
I was trying to process his treatment of me and gauge what he’d meant when he said it.
He had to repeat himself for me, saying, “for y’all,” not just Stevie.
He had a surprise for us.
Stammering, I told him we would go get dressed. He then told us to wait a minute and left the room for only a minute or two, then returned, carrying a large shopping bag that said Ariat on the front.
When he walked over to me, he held it out for me to take. “You will both need these.”
The “these” were cowboy boots. Mine were a Western style with pretty aqua-blue thread woven into the brown leather. The soles were the same blue as the thread. I was smiling so hard as I studied them that my cheeks actually hurt. I’d not had a pair of actual riding boots since I had been a kid. Since…my dad.
Stevie pulled out her box and opened them up before I could help her. She held up a brown-and-teal-blue leather boot and grinned. “I got boots too, Mommy!”
I knew he hadn’t gotten them because of me. There was no way that he’d ever remember it, but I’d once begged my dad for a pair of teal cowboy boots, like the ones Kimberly Brown had worn to school. He’d told me no. That work boots weren’t meant to be pretty and cowgirls didn’t care about silly things such as that.
Stevie stopped to show off her boots to both Jayda and Luther on our way out the front door with Linc. Once we reached his truck, he paused with his hand on the door handle.
“We aren’t leaving this property,” he told me. “It’s a dirt road, and I will be the only vehicle on it. Is it okay if she goes without her car seat?”
I had no idea how much property he and Luther had behind the tall privacy fence that enclosed the backyard. From the balcony in my bedroom, I could see the fields and trees beyond what I thought was the end of their property, but a row of what looked like pecan trees cut off my view from seeing any farther.