Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“A little bit sad.”
“You don’t know shit about me,” I grumbled, unease building up within me.
Willow stayed calm. “You don’t need to know someone to know sad eyes.”
“What the hell were you doing out there naked and alone, huh?” I snapped, annoyed that she thought she could see me. Annoyed that it felt as if she could see me. “Do you know how dangerous it is for a woman to be out at those hours alone? Anything could’ve happened to you.”
“Yeah, but I couldn’t miss the opportunity.”
“What opportunity?”
“To bathe under the full moon and soak in its energy before howling up toward it.”
Oh hell.
I was stitching up a bizarre woman.
I went quiet again because my anxiety from the whole situation grew. She asked more questions, but I ignored her. I didn’t want to talk to her, or any human, at almost three in the damn morning. I wanted to be on my boat fishing or reading in my bedroom. That was it; that was all.
Yet now, instead, I was stitching up a woman who howled at the moon.
“That’s fucking stupid and dangerous,” I growled. For some reason, her pixie personality pissed me off. She was acting as if she couldn’t have ended her life right there on the lake. “You could’ve died out there.”
She shrugged. “But I didn’t.”
“That’s because I found you,” I grumbled.
“Yes. You found me.” She said it so matter-of-factly as if there was no question that I would’ve found her.
“But if I hadn’t,” I urged.
“But you did,” she responded.
I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess. You’re one of those glass-half-full types of people.”
She wiggled her shoulders. “I’m an overflowing glass, Theodore.”
“Theo,” I corrected. “Just Theo.”
“Just Theo,” she echoed. “Are you a glass-half-empty kind of guy?”
“I believe all glassware is shit and shatters in the end.”
“Oh… I see. You’re a pessimist.”
“A realist.”
“Just because I’m not a Negative Nancy doesn’t mean I’m not a realist.”
“You’re right, but thinking it was a smart idea to dive off a cliff at two in the morning naked to howl at the moon says you’re not much of an intelligent person, either.”
She pulled back slightly. “Did you just call me dumb?”
“No. I just stated that you aren’t smart.”
“Ohh, I see,” she sang, clapping her hands together. “You have trauma.”
“Excuse me?”
“Whatever, or whoever, it was that made you like”—she waved her hands widely in my direction—“like this must’ve traumatized you.”
“You don’t know shit about me.”
“Then why are you so grumpy?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because a random nude woman almost died in front of me and is now trying to read me while I stitch up her forehead. For the love of God, stop moving,” I ordered, stilling her shoulders in place.
Willow grew quiet.
That didn’t last long, though. This woman didn’t know how to stop talking. “And to think, I thought we could’ve been friends.”
I narrowed my eyes and stared into hers. “Why the hell would I want to be friends with someone like you?”
Her eyes flashed with hurt, and a tug happened in my gut from seeing it. Shit. Maybe I took it too far. I grumbled to myself, knowing I should apologize, but shit…what could I say? I was traumatized.
I tightened the last stitch and cleared my throat. “All done.”
“Lovely,” she said, hopping up from the chair. “I’ll be out of your hair.”
I sighed. “I’ll drive you to your ride.”
“No. It’s fine. It’s clear that this unrealistic, unintelligent woman ruined your night, so I won’t take any more time from your clearly joy-filled life.” She headed for the front door and opened it. “But first, fast question…are there…bears out here at night?”
“Get in my truck. I’ll drive you around to your damn bird.”
She did as I said, and the moment I hopped into my driver’s seat, she was already tinkering with the stereo.
“What the hell are you doing?” I spat out.
“Trying to find music. I don’t like silence,” she said.
I shut off the radio. “I figured that out by how much you never shut up.”
She turned on the radio. “You know what? You really put a little extra grump into your grumpiness at three in the morning.”
I shut off the radio. “And you dash a bit extra annoying in your annoyingness at three in the morning.” I put the truck into park after turning down the road toward the cliff where she’d jumped. And there in front of us was a school bus. “Big Bird, I assume?” I remarked sarcastically. What a joke this woman was.
“That’s her.”
I grumbled.
She narrowed her eyes. “Your energy… It seems tainted. Do you want me to burn sage around you?”
“That’s the last thing I want you to do.”
“But your energy feels heavy. I don’t like it for you.”
“Oh no, a strange woman who howls naked at the moon doesn’t like my energy. How will I ever survive?” I mocked.