Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74467 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Emmett pointed to his temple. “I’ve stored it all up here and we’ll be sure to knock on your door if I’ve forgotten anything.”
Pamela smiled and rested her hand on Ginny’s shoulder.
Kiel liked the idea of renting a moped. He had always wanted one, especially when he was away at school. He had a car, but once you had a coveted parking spot, you never wanted to leave it. A moped, an e-bike, or one of those motorized Razors would’ve been nice. A lot of his classmates had those, and they made getting around a breeze. Except pedestrians didn’t like them all that much.
Emmett excused himself from the conversation and motioned for Kiel to help him with the luggage. The men made three trips into the house while the women continued to chat with Pamela. By the time Leona made it into the house, she seemed exhausted and sat down on the couch with an overly exasperated sigh.
“You just came in from chatting,” he pointed out. “It’s not like you ran a marathon.”
Leona glared at her son. “Bite me,” she told him. “That woman can chat. Did you know, four houses down, a scandalous affair took place?”
“How on earth would I know that, Mother?”
She shrugged. “Well, your sisters and I know. Pamela said it was the mayor of Seaport and a tourist he met early last summer. Apparently, his wife was out of town, and he partied a bit too much.”
“Doesn’t seem apparent if Pamela told you about it.”
She cocked her eyebrow at her son. “Always the smart ass.”
Kiel chuckled and went outside to make sure everything was out of the car. He glanced down the road, counting the houses as he looked. The fourth house had an art-deco feel to it and didn’t fit the classic New England beach style home. Kiel walked to the edge of the driveway and glanced down the road. The scandalous house was cream colored, with pillars in the front, and easily screamed beach house.
Kiel continued his perusal of the neighborhood and wondered what else happened on this street. Was Seaport a sleepy little town with a lot of hidden secrets? Cars drove slowly down the road, avoiding people who walked along the side of it. Some had armfuls of bags, while others pulled wagons and buggies behind them.
Across the street, a man washed his car, which Kiel thought odd since they were so close to the ocean. He figured there would be some sort of law against it. As if he jinxed the man, a police officer drove by, and kept going. Kiel watched him until he got to the end of the road and turned.
“Guess not,” he mumbled to himself.
“Are you talking to yourself?” Ginny, the tutu wearing party host asked him.
He glanced at her, standing there on the property line with her hands on her hips. “I was.”
“Anything important?”
She was just like Skyla at that age. A flashback of him and Skyla annoying each other flashed in his mind. For a moment, he saw Skyla instead of Ginny, standing there with her hands on her hips and her tongue sticking out. He had the urge to walk over there and push Ginny, much like he used to when his sister upset him. Kiel laughed at the thought. When had he grown up and stopped pushing Skyla? He honestly couldn’t recall when they had stopped physically picking on each other and he was surprised he didn’t have any battle scars as proof of their childhood torments.
“Nope, just observing the neighborhood,” he told her.
“Where ya from?”
“New York.”
“My dad hates New York,” she told him. “Whenever we’re in the car he always says f-ing New Yorkers.”
“Are you allowed to say bad words?”
Ginny shrugged. “F-ing isn’t bad.”
“Oh,” he said. He was unwilling to argue with her because technically she was right.
“Are you going to the beach?”
He nodded. “You?” Was he really having a conversation with a kid?
“Nah.”
“How come?”
She shrugged again. “My dad asks my mom the same thing. He says, ‘Pamela why the f do we live at the beach if you don’t go every day?’”
“Seems like a valid question.”
“He’s a pissant,” she said so nonchalantly, Kiel did a double take.
“Virginia Stein, get your tail in this house!”
Kiel swore Ginny rolled her eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” Pamela said from the porch. “She’s a handful.”
Kiel waved, unsure of what he should say. Ginny was definitely a handful, but maybe her parents needed to watch what they said around her, especially since she had a penchant for repeating everything.
He grabbed the rest of the things from the car and made it back inside just in time for the tour and to pick bedrooms.
“About time,” Skyla said with a dramatic sigh.
“You could’ve picked without me,” he told her even though his parents wouldn’t have let her.
“Riiight.” Skyla rolled her eyes.