Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Verity blinked, then opened her mouth to say something.
However, nothing came out.
Instead she just shook her head and gestured to the bikes.
“What’s up with the biker brigade?” she continued to ask questions.
“They’re my club,” I answered. “They’re here for moral support.”
Her mouth lifted up into a smile.
“Well, they’re doing a damn fine job keeping everyone away from you.”
I looked out the same window that Verity was, my mouth twitching when I saw the crowd heading our way.
However, Big Papa and Aaron were holding them off with a scowl covering their faces.
“You’re lucky they’re here, big brother.” Marnie whispered.
I was.
I was also lucky Verity was here.
I wouldn’t have been able to get through the last hour and a half without her soothing touch calming me down.
Making me see reason.
That was until Kenneth shoved his way between Big Papa and Aaron, making his way to the car.
Aaron gave the stupid man an annoyed look, but let him by when I waved him away.
“Here we go,” Trent mumbled.
Verity turned her face into my arm, and I became irrationally annoyed at the fact that that man had the nerve to say a goddamned word to me, or even approach the same vehicle that I was in.
“What do you want?” I asked, rolling the window down just far enough to hear him and he could hear me.
“I wanted to make sure that Verity was…”
Verity’s head popped up, and she glared. “I’m fine. Or I would have been had you left me alone. I’m here to offer Truth support on one of the hardest days of his life. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like you to please leave.”
I laughed and rolled the window up. Apparently, she didn’t need me to fight her battles for her.
“I sense a story…” Marnie murmured. “And since we’re stuck here until the cars move, why don’t y’all tell us the story of how you met.”
Verity’s smile wasn’t forced any longer.
“As long as Truth has no problem with me telling it…”
I shifted my fingers back into her hair, leaned my head back, and urged her on with a wave of my hand.
“After you.”
***
Two hours later, my mother, father, sister and her good friend who’d driven down with her, as well as my brother, Verity, and I sat around the table, eating in silence.
Though, the rest of the men and women at the table, including the members of my club and their women, filled the silence around us—making the awkwardness of the past four days all but disappear.
Verity and I were at the end, and she was leaning into me as she listened to something Sean was telling the rest of the table.
My mother and father, finally deciding to join society, were listening to him talk about some patient he had, and I was thankful to finally have their attention off of me.
“What’s going on with your parents?” she asked.
That was something I did not want to answer.
I hadn’t spoken to my parents in over four years, and it wasn’t because of lack of trying on my part.
It was due to the fact that they didn’t like my life choices and had no problem letting me know it.
My brother and sister had been fairly neutral about the way I lived my life, but ultimately, they stayed out of it—which meant that they didn’t choose sides, and saw all of us, just separately.
“My parents are upset that I chose to throw my life away to do a job that they didn’t approve of,” I finally settled on.
When I didn’t expound, she chose not to pursue the topic, likely fearing I’d freak out and leave just like I’d done the last time we were together.
“I quit my job yesterday,” she said into the silence. “I had a bad day, and my boss made a derogatory comment about a photo that’s floating around the Internet of us…and I just snapped.”
My stomach clenched. “I saw the photo,” I murmured. “And I wasn’t very happy about it.”
She sighed.
“It’s life,” she finally settled on. “That’s not to say that I wasn’t extremely upset about it when I saw it.”
I should really tell her that I found the guy who’d started the cruel photo circulating, but I didn’t want to admit that I was the guy who caused the little shit-for-brains to be put into the hospital.
Instead, I blurted out what was on my mind, like usual.
“You wouldn’t be willing to run a business, would you?” I teased her jokingly.
Her eyes widened.
“I would…if you needed me to. I’ve done it for years with my mom, and I’ve been in customer service for eight years now,” she surprised me. “What would you need me to do?”
I thought about it for a second, and finally nodded, thinking it could work out great to have someone there I trusted.
“The pub already has a manager, kind of a service manager,” I answered. “Really, I would just need you to be the person to make business decisions during the day when I can’t be there, and be the boss man that everyone goes to with their petty problems. Like calling in sick, and complaining about customers…you know, stuff like that.”