Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
About exactly that.
Core grunted again, but this one was a sound and not words.
Jagger spoke.
“Archie’s dad is Andy, salt of the earth, good human being, and my dad is Hound, who’d take a bullet for me and Dutch. I’m telling you what you know to point out I got no experience dealing with my woman’s father who happens to be an asshole. Also got no experience dealing with a mom who knows that, but wants her kids to have a decent dad, so she keeps herself open to be the conduit to give that asshole chances. What I do know is that you can’t get pissed at Haley for doing what she thinks is right and hoping that one day her girls will have what they deserve. You just gotta be there for Hellen with whatever the fallout is.”
“I looked it up on my phone, that bracelet he gave her cost ten K,” Core said.
“Shit, really?” Jag sounded shook.
“He didn’t pay a dime for her college.”
Now Jag sounded understanding. “So that’s why she looked like she wanted to throw it in the garbage when she opened it.”
“She knows labels, and apparently, Bulgari is a thing. She knew and she didn’t have to look it up.”
“They’re not twelve and ten, Core,” Jag reminded him. “And warning, Haley’s an optimist. This means, her daughters at the ages they are, and she’s still hoping, she’s not gonna give up on that anytime soon.”
In other words, suck it up, don’t get pissed and just take Hellen’s back.
Jag sensed Core made his decision to do that, so he changed the subject.
“What’s your take on Elijah?”
Archie’s brother showed half an hour after Archie and Jagger did. It was the first time Core had met him. What he’d been doing to celebrate his Christmas until the time he showed had not been asked after, nor had the information been offered by Elijah. Though his ploy was not hidden, that for whatever reason, he needed to be sure Archie was there as a buffer before he turned up.
He was a good-looking guy. Clearly sharp. Even though he was still young, he was an accomplished attorney who’d started his own firm with a couple of buds, and according to Andy’s puffed-chest pride in the telling of it, they were killing it.
Elijah wasn’t an asshole. He was polite. He brought gifts for everyone, including Jagger and Core (the dude got him a gift card at Lowe’s, which was cool). He clearly loved his sister, there was also love for his dad, and he showed respect to Haley, Hellen and Liane.
Still.
“Guy’s got a chip on his shoulder.”
“Yup,” Jagger agreed, sounding mildly ticked.
“Hellen says there’s unhappy history.”
“It upsets Archie.”
Core did not repeat what Jagger just told him.
He said, “I got experience losing my mom at a young age, and boys and their moms…”
He said no more, but he felt the intensity of Jagger’s gaze on his profile.
He also felt it when it clicked for Jagger.
Jag and Dutch were tight with their mom. It was lore how close-knit that family was, including Hound’s place in it.
This was because Jag’s dad had been murdered when Jagger was just a baby.
Jag knew loss. He’d lived with it his whole life.
So he got Core’s message to cut Elijah some slack. The man was his wife’s brother, and Jag had to give it space, lend support when necessary and take Archie’s back.
Jagger sighed, and Core knew he accepted his limitations, just as Core had.
They heard the door open behind them, they twisted, and saw Archie had her head stuck out.
“We’re talking board game,” she declared. “And I don’t want to assume, so I’m here confirming that you two are out.”
“Totally,” Jag said.
Over which Core said, “Absolutely.”
Archie smiled her cool chick smile and disappeared behind the door.
“Board games,” Jag muttered, a chuckle in his tone.
Core had never played a board game in his life. He loved the fact Hellen and her family did, but it wasn’t one of the innumerable things in his childhood he felt was missing.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
Then both men stood in the cold watching a dog amuse himself in the snow, and after sharing a moment of solidarity in the new brotherhood they’d formed, they shared another through laughter.
They were in his truck on the way home.
It was late. Haley didn’t skimp on the holiday food. Andy stocked good beer. Li was generous with the pot Core had given her, and he gave no fucks he had to smoke it sitting on a flower-covered pad on a girlie-ass chair in a she shed.
He was full. He was mellow. His woman was happy. And Core was looking forward to getting home, having a quick, solid fuck and passing out.
The music her phone made when she got a text sounded, and the screen illuminated the cab as she looked at it.