Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
“I think I was going through a phase too,” Marina said thoughtfully. “The more he went on about…I don’t know, plant taxonomy and whatever—I just felt like I was dating my dad. Like, bad enough I had to listen to you talk about the revolution of a tiny flippin’ flower and its root system’s impact on the Everglades—now I had to hear it from my boyfriend too?”
I snorted softly and pinched my bottom lip.
This was the young woman who was on her path to becoming a marine biologist. But I did remember she’d rebelled briefly in high school. Everything I’d loved was suddenly lame and boring.
“Now that I think about it, I’m surprised you don’t remember him,” she said. “It’s actually your fault he got worse.”
What?
“How is anythin’ about your high-school boyfriend my fault?” I asked. “Please enlighten me.”
“I brought him home to meet you,” she replied. “You were cleanin’ out Tank’s terrarium, and you got him completely hooked on lizards. Oh! That was when we had Scales and Flip too. After that, all he wanted to talk about were reptiles.”
Ah, bless. Beautiful snakes, particularly Scales, my old sunbeam snake with her stunning iridescent scales.
I blew out a breath and finally reached my exit. So I’d made an impression on Lane back in the day, huh? Macklin had mentioned I’d caught him off guard twice.
I couldn’t begin to describe what Marina’s trip down memory lane was doing to my internal chaos. Actually, it wasn’t so chaotic at the moment. I was just listening and letting it all pile up.
Maybe I’d reached my limit.
“He was still dreamy, though,” my daughter sighed. “Very sweet. Did I mention hot?”
“Once or twice,” I muttered.
She hummed. “I wonder why I can never go for the sweet guys.”
“Doll—fuckin’ figure it out and make some changes,” I told her. “At this rate, the best boyfriend you ever brought home is one I have no memories of.”
Which—fuck. I winced as I remembered bitching to Lane about my daughter’s loser exes. I’d gone on an almost Macklin-worthy rant when Lane and I had been on our way to remove the Nile monitor from Willie’s property.
“Anyway…” Marina drawled. “Are you gonna tell me how you know him?”
“I already did! We run in the same circles.”
“You don’t have circles, Dad,” she deadpanned. “You have Colt and Fischer, whom you work with.”
Rude.
We actually had a few employees too.
“Lane came to Mallow Vista, didn’t he?” she pressed. “He’s part of Colt and Lucas’s group of friends.”
“What’s with the third degree?” I shot back. “Don’t have me call my lawyer.”
I had to tread real carefully here, because Marina knew Colt and Luke quite well. She’d met Kit too, and she was aware of their “alternative lifestyle.” It would be all too easy for Marina to guess her old man was into some of that shit too—actually, I was sure she’d come to that conclusion already—and after that, it was a mere skip and a hop to position the last puzzle pieces. I mean, I’d had no reason not to let her know I was inviting some buddies down to stay with me.
She knew I’d had people at the house over New Year’s.
“Which means…” She ignored me completely. “I’ll be damned. So Lane is kinky, huh?”
Skip, hop, hop, skip. Jump!
I suppressed a sigh and made a turn. Then I exited GPS mode because I could see Lane’s building from here.
“Don’t worry, Dad, I know you would never engage in such scandalous activities.”
Girl was mocking me again.
“Anyway, I’m heading out to dinner—”
“Thank God,” I said. “We should talk less.”
She laughed. “You’d miss me!”
Unfortunately. As I pulled into the parking zone outside Lane’s high-rise, I pumped the brakes on humor and got serious. “Do you have everythin’ you need, doll? You need more money? You’re still at the hotel, right?” I wasn’t having my grandchild at some local backpacker hostel with more roaches than guests. But that was the only thing she’d let me transfer money for, a proper hotel.
“Everything is great,” she promised. “I have money. The hotel is super nice, and the breakfast buffet has turned me into a pineapple junkie. I’ll text you tomorrow—and you saw my message about my tickets, right?”
“Yeah, I saw it,” I confirmed. She’d changed her travel plans to go see Ma in Naples for a few days before coming home. “If you wanna kick Nana in the shin for me, that’s okay.”
She spluttered. “Wh-what—why?”
Because my ma had fucking burned me. “When I dropped Jet off the other day, she was throwin’ away some crafts project she’d screwed up, and I told her to learn from her mistakes. Know what she said? ‘Ain’t nothin’ you can teach me, sugar.’”
“Oh my God.” Marina cracked up too hard. “Go Nana! Oh crap, I think I just peed a little. It’s way too early for that.”