Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
I lifted my head and looked at him.
It appeared he was carrying a bag full of cookies.
God, this guy.
A tear fell from my eye and slid down my face.
Immediately, Hugger reached in and pulled my phone out of my hand.
“Who’s this?” he barked into it after he put it to his ear. There was a pause, then, “It don’t matter who I am. I asked, who the fuck are you?” Another pause and, “Props, motherfucker, she’s crying.”
“Hugger,” I whispered.
“What?” he bit into the phone. And then, “Fuck no, I’m not handing the phone back to her. Don’t contact her again unless she contacts you. Got me?”
With that, he pulled the phone from his ear, dropped the cookies on the table, and jabbed the screen with his finger.
It vibrated in his hand.
He declined what I knew was Dad’s call.
I took a deep breath to corral the emotion and shared, “It wasn’t what you think it is.”
He moved into the space between tables, dragging his chair with him, and he sat in it, so he’d be so close, our knees would brush (and they did).
God, this guy.
Once in position to be right there for me, he asked, “What was it?
“He’s withdrawn as counsel for Babić.” I swallowed and finished, “Because I asked him to.”
“Fucking hell,” he whispered.
“There’s more. A lot more. I can’t…I don’t—”
I was losing it again.
“Not here. At your work. No one is there. Let’s go.”
And with that, he got up, pushed his chair away, grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my seat.
I had just enough time to nab my cookie and shove it into my mouth (couldn’t leave that behind). He snatched up the bag and handed it to me, and then he pulled me out of Sack’s.
I stowed the cookies in my tote, swung it on my shoulder, and after he got astride his bike, I jumped on behind him like I’d done it a thousand times and not only two.
There was a lot going through my head. Janie. A plea to have dinner with Dad. Babić. Suzette. The FBI.
It was too much.
So much, I didn’t even think as I wrapped my arms around Hugger and rested my cheek to his shoulder as he pulled out of Sack’s parking lot.
It hadn’t even been a day.
Dad and I had our first conversation in years, and it hadn’t been a day when he did what I asked, even things I didn’t ask him to do (Janie) and…and…
And he withdrew as representation of a mob boss.
I stiffened and took my cheek from Hugger’s shoulder.
“Almost there,” he said.
Almost there.
He got cookies.
I rested my forehead against the base of his neck.
Not long later, Hugger pulled into the small and empty parking lot outside the workshop.
I swung off. He swung off. But when he grabbed my hand to pull me inside, I tugged him to a stop.
“Dad withdrew as representation of a mob boss,” I said.
“Yeah, you told me. Let’s get inside.”
“No, Hugger, I mean…this guy.” I shook my head. “He’s not right. Is this going to piss him off? Is my dad in danger?”
Hugger had put on his sunglasses (mirrored aviators—yes, they looked insanely good on him) and a lot of his face was covered in whiskers.
I still saw the tightness enter it.
Oh my God.
I put a hand to his chest and pushed close. “He had another firm he worked with. Babić. They dropped him after he was arrested for what he did to Suzette. I’m not a rabid news hound, but I haven’t heard of a local attorney meeting an untimely death. So maybe he won’t call a hit out on my dad, or whatever guys like him do.”
“Can we go inside, baby?” he asked.
We could.
We could do anything he asked if he ended it in that sweet “baby.”
I tugged his hand again and led him to the door.
He took the keys from me, unlocked it and pulled us inside.
He locked the door behind us and guided me to the room that held my personal work studio, one of only two, since it was only me and Annie who worked there.
He sat me down at my stool in front of the painting I was working on. He then dragged the chair he’d been sitting in over to my stool. He folded into it, bent forward so his elbows were to his knees, the entire time his eyes were on me.
Once in position, he ordered, “Tell me.”
“We…like I mentioned, we had a falling out. It was bad. I froze him out. When he learned Suzette was with me, he asked to talk to me. I kinda sprung myself on him by showing at his office when he wasn’t expecting me. It went…well, it went someplace I would never have guessed it’d go. In his way, he made it obvious he missed me. That my freezing him out was rough on him. That he…he wanted to talk. It seemed like he wanted to mend fences.”