Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Garrison nodded. “I can check on her for you. Let you know if anything else happens to her. I can also talk to the whore for you.”
Garrison didn’t like my mother.
He was just as annoyed as I was that she’d given me up.
Mostly because he didn’t like to see his friends hurt or upset.
He was protective.
He’d taken the role of ‘protector’ when we’d been in foster care, and hated that he couldn’t protect us from all the shit that was thrown at us.
“I can’t even think about her right now. I’ll explore that when I get home. But you need to keep your nose out of her shit. I better not come back here and find out she knows I’m still here in town,” I told the two of them.
Cormac grinned. Garrison scowled.
“We’ll see,” Garrison finally agreed. “But you won’t be going it alone when you do get back. We’ll all go together.”
“How about we change the subject? Preferably to something that doesn’t make me want to puke,” I told them.
Cormac smiled.
Garrison snorted.
“We could talk about the fact that Cormac is going to try out for the Spark’s at the end of this month,” Garrison supplied.
I froze, ready to throw the ball to Cormac, and asked, “What?”
Cormac glared at Garrison.
“I asked you not to blab about it,” Cormac growled.
I blinked. “Why wouldn’t you want me to know?”
“I didn’t even want this fucker to know,” he pointed to Garrison. “I didn’t want you to go watch me tryout. Something I know for a fucking fact you’ll do now.”
I didn’t deny it.
We’d gone to every one of Cormac’s games that we could, and would continue to do so.
Why?
Because he was our brother.
And I wanted him to be happy.
And baseball made him happy.
“You should try out, too,” Cormac offered.
I shot him a look.
“I haven’t played in a real game since I was in high school,” I told him. “Why would I embarrass myself by going to try out for a professional baseball team?”
“You play games all the time,” Cormac defended.
I shook my head. “No I don’t. I play recreationally. There’s no competition in it. And I have a job. I don’t need another one.”
Cormac grinned. “You’re saying that woman of yours wasn’t competition?”
I held my tongue.
Because I knew whatever I said right then would somehow get back to Ruthie.
So I chose my words carefully. “Ruthie’s good, don’t get me wrong. But she can’t throw a hundred mile an hour pitch. Or hit so hard that it’ll go out of the park.”
“You’re just making up excuses for why you’re a pussy,” Cormac chirped.
I threw the ball at his face, and he caught it easily, firing it right back at me.
I caught it, picked up the bat off the grass, threw it up in the air, and hit it as hard as I could.
Garrison and Cormac both started to run, but they missed it.
It fell just over the top of their heads, having both men cursing.
Dropped balls meant laps had to be run, and I grinned.
“That’s right, bitches. Get to running!”
Chapter 11
Just got the new DVD: Hot Co-ed’s Try Anal 3. Do you think I need to watch the first two to know what’s going on?
-Cormac to Sterling
Ruthie
“What’s that?” I asked Sterling, pointing to this little stuffed fish on a keychain that looked like it’d been chewed on by a dog, yet Sterling didn’t have a dog.
“That’s Nemo,” he answered as he slipped his shirt on.
“Why does ‘Nemo’ look like he’s been put through a torture device?” I asked.
He shrugged.
“I got it from one of those Adopt A Soldier boxes when I was on my first deployment,” he answered, like it was something I should’ve known.
I looked at him sharply.
It was two days after what I liked to call the ‘fiasco,’ a.k.a. Sterling going head to head with a police officer.
I still couldn’t explain my reaction to it all.
Even now, two days later, I found it extremely sexually frustrating to watch Sterling fight for me.
I think that must’ve been what I found so arousing about it all.
That he’d actually gone to bat for me, so to speak.
He’d had my back, and he’d been willing to take on a man of the law to make it apparent that he would.
I’d thought he’d been fine about it all when I’d left to go to lunch, and he’d left to go to practice with Cormac.
Something had happened, though.
Something he wasn’t willing to talk about, yet.
I’d given him the space, trying to make sure he realized that I wouldn’t push if he didn’t want me to, but it was getting old.
“So did it come like that, or did it happen after you got it?” I asked, picking the thing up by one barely hanging on fin.
He snatched it out of my hand and shoved the entire thing into his pocket, glaring at me.
“I got it from some kid that said it kept him safe at night when he was younger, and he wanted me to have it since I wasn’t going to be safe. I’ve carried it on every patrol, mission, and flight home since I got it,” he explained impatiently.
He was acting like he didn’t even want to be here.
And I was getting tired of tiptoeing around him, worried I might cause the beast to wake.
So instead of pushing, I didn’t say a word.
I wasn’t a confrontational kind of girl.
“Alright,” I said, nodding. “I’m gonna go for a run.”
I didn’t bother to ask him if he wanted to come.
I knew he had to report to the base today, and would most likely be gone when I got home.
But I was terrible at trying to figure out what was wrong with people.
I had enough of my own shit to deal with than to add other’s shit to my shit.
“Okay, see you later,” he said.
I shook my head and walked to the back door where my shoes were sitting.
I’d changed earlier to running shorts and a tank top, and hadn’t planned on running until after he left.
But it bothered me that I cared that he wasn’t being very nice, and I didn’t want to say anything I’d regret later on.