Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Ariel looked down.
“In the past month that I’ve known Bowe, he’s become one of the best men I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. He’s a better father than our father ever was. He is everything I could’ve hoped for Elise, and more. What he’s doing is above and beyond the call of duty for him, but he has that instinct.” I hesitated, “Our father doesn’t. Our father is the type of man who is led around by his dick. She says jump and he says how high. And that’s not fair to us. We should be able to trust him. Trust that he’d be there for us if we ever need him, and we can’t.”
Ariel’s lip trembled.
“I have to see her every day and I hate it,” Ariel admitted. “It’s so hard, Ang, going to that school every day. Seeing him bring her lunch, bring her presents and not even acknowledging me. He sees me sitting across the room and doesn’t even come over to say hi. It’s like I’m nobody to him.”
I pulled my sister into a hug.
“Honey, you’re not nobody. Not to me. Not to Mom. Not to Alec.” I gently cupped her cheeks in my hands. “And I love you enough that you don’t need him. I’ll be the best father you could ever ask for.”
She snorted.
“Thanks,” she said. “But you can’t walk me down the aisle.”
“Are you saying I’m not man enough to do that?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“No,” she stated.
I chuckled and pulled her into another hug.
“I resent that,” I said.
“I heard through the grapevine that dad’s moving out of the city,” she said, startling me.
“Really?” I asked. “Maybe his wife is going with him.”
“They are.” She smiled then. “She got a job about forty minutes away at the high school in Grand Saline.”
Relief poured through me knowing that my sister wouldn’t have to deal with that vile woman or our father any more.
Or those goody two-shoes kids of theirs.
Thank fuck.
“So this clothing…is it just your terrible attempt to get attention?” I asked hopefully.
Surely, she didn’t think this outfit was cute.
Well, it would be. If it were on a Barbie Doll or something.
On her it looked about ready to burst at the seams.
“I…”
The motors that’d just been idling in the background started to roar, and I turned my head to watch.
“Hurry,” I pulled her to the fence. “Bowe’s racing.”
We both pushed through the crowd just in time to see the girl with the red flag bring it straight down, and then the two cars were off.
The next few seconds were nothing less than nerve wracking.
I felt freakin’ sick to my stomach watching the cars speed down the length of the track. Luckily, I missed nearly half of it due to the patrons standing along the fence, cutting off nearly all of my line of sight.
My heart only started working right again when the checkered flag came down, indicating the end of the race.
“Who won?” I asked.
I hadn’t been able to see the winner because it’d been too far away, but the moment I saw Bowe crawl out of his car, his hands in the air, I knew he’d won.
“Jesus Christ,” I breathed. “This is terrifying.”
“Good race,” Jack said from behind me, making me jump. “Close one.”
I looked at him over my shoulder.
“How do you know it was or wasn’t?” I asked. “I couldn’t see anything.”
Jack looked at me, and it took me a moment to realize why.
He was about a foot taller than everyone in the crowd.
“Gotcha,” I smiled. “Is it okay if I jump this gate and go congratulate him?”
In answer, Jack hefted me up by my waist, as if I didn’t weigh a damn thing, and placed me on the other side of the fence.
I looked at him, then at his wife.
“I weigh about a hundred and I’m-not-telling-you pounds,” I told her. “Your husband just lifted me up like I was a child.”
She grinned.
“You should see what else he can do with those hands.”
I burst out laughing, then turned and made my way to the cars that were still idling at the end of the track.
Other than a few weird looks from who I was sure were track employees, I made it all the way to the back of Bowe’s car before I was stopped.
By a woman.
“Sorry, honey,” the woman stopped me with a hand on my chest. “The winner’s mine.”
I laughed in her face.
“Yeah,” I agreed, slapping her hand away from my chest. “I’ll be sure to tell my man that you thought so.”
Her eyes narrowed and her hand lifted.
That was when I saw she still had the flag in her hand.
“Don’t,” I told her. “It’s really not worth it. My brother taught me to fight and I really don’t want to hurt you.”
That was partially true.
He did teach me to fight. Defensively.