Total pages in book: 185
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180510 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 903(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 602(@300wpm)
“You’re not your father. That’s why she trusted you. That’s why she chose you.”
When his gaze meets mine again, he smirks. “You giving me a compliment?”
“I’m …” I hold up my hands and take a step backward. “I’m … leaving. That’s what I’m doing.”
“Got a date tonight?”
I shake my head. “Why? Are you jealous?”
Colten scratches his jaw. “Watts … I’m not sure there will come a day that the idea of you with some other guy doesn’t make me a little jealous. It’s in my DNA.”
I study him, looking for an ounce of sincerity. Then I turn and make my way to the driver’s side of my car. “You hesitate.” I glance up at him as I open my door.
His eyes narrow.
“You’re a single dad because you hesitate. You pause. You always leave the door cracked open. Certainty is sexy. Nobody wants to be anyone’s second thought.”
Me. I was his second thought.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I turned thirteen two weeks before the start of eighth grade. My dad was out of town for a camp. Mom was recovering from an appendectomy. And Chad managed to pull his head out of his ass long enough to help Mom while Mrs. Watts (Savannah) made me a birthday dinner and cake.
“How’s your mom?” Chief Isaac Watts asked as I strode up their driveway. He was working on his 1970 Chevelle SS 454. Blue. White striped hood. His true baby.
“She’s okay. Chad’s with her.”
“Your dad still gone?”
I nodded.
Chief Watts frowned for a second before ducking back under the hood. He didn’t approve of my dad’s extramarital affair or the way he failed to teach me and Chad basic skills like changing a tire, fishing, or how to use a gun.
“Sports aren’t going to help you in the real world,” Chief Watts would casually say when our families got together to grill or play yard darts.
My dad always had the same comeback. “Colten’s going to go pro someday. He’ll pay someone to fix his car. Hire a bodyguard. And eat at fancy restaurants where someone else caught the fish.”
Go pro? In what? I wasn’t sure. Literally any sport. All coaches had big dreams of their kids achieving what they never could. I had no interest in letting my dad live vicariously through me or making him happy at all for that matter.
“Need some help?” I asked Chief Watts.
He glanced back at me and grinned. “Dinner won’t be ready for a bit. Might as well get your hands dirty first.”
I didn’t care to fish or hunt. But I liked his Chevelle and how willing and patient he was to show me everything about it.
Only minutes later, Josie opened the back door. “Oh … you are here.” I bumped my head on the hood because her voice startled me. It did things to me every time I heard it.
“Yeah, I’m helping your dad.”
“You could help too, Jo,” Chief Watts said.
She sighed, taking a seat on the garage step. “I could, but that’s why you have Colten until Benji gets older. Oh … and happy birthday.”
Savannah offering to make me birthday dinner didn’t come at the best time. Josie hadn’t talked to me in three weeks. I called her bluff on an ultimatum. She wanted me to lie to her parents if they asked about her whereabouts the night she said she was supposed to be with a friend but was actually with Roland Tompkins at the funeral home. Of course, she told Roland her parents said she could help him prepare things for a visitation that night.
They did not.
So … when I said I wouldn’t lie for her, she broke up with me. It was something like breakup number ten billion and one. Our relationship changed like a blinking red light.
On.
Off.
On.
Off.
I don’t remember falling in love with Josephine Watts. I just remember the day we met and the day I let her go for good. For me, she wasn’t really my girlfriend. She was my everything. Every other girlfriend was just a game to get her back. Every fight was a prelude to treehouse kisses, “I’M SORRY” signs in the window, and shared cookies and milk.
I lived with my family, but I lived for Josephine Watts.
“Thanks, Josie.” I played it cool like my birthday wasn’t a big deal. Like her mom making me dinner or her dad letting me work with him wasn’t a big deal. Like she wasn’t a big deal. Who was I kidding? If my birthday was the excuse she needed to break her silence, then that was the only birthday present I needed.
“Isaac? I need you to start the grill,” Savannah said before shutting the door.
As he passed Josie perched on the stair, he gave her ponytail a little tug. “Be good.”
With a dramatic eye roll, she mumbled, “Duh.”
I grabbed a rag and wiped my hands while Josie rested her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands.