Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
But cars were different… Cars were porn. Cars were life.
I let out a breath and unlocked the door, missing the open roads like hell. Autobahn in Germany—sweet fuck. Or any abandoned road that wasn’t too close to a city, where you could floor it without worrying about cops.
A noise from the kitchen caught my attention, and I left the entryway to see Shan fighting with my coffee machine.
“Good morning, sunshine,” I said.
I thought only teenagers were up all night and slept all day.
He grunted something and adjusted the tie around his robe. He must’ve just climbed out of bed. Most days, he went downstairs to his own place to shower and get dressed.
When he made a move to get violent with the machine, I hurried over. “Hey, hey, hey—let’s not kill Carmen, okay? She’s innocent.” I nudged him away and took over. He’d just inserted the capsule the wrong way. Christ.
“You named the coffeemaker?” he muttered.
“Any being or object that makes coffee this good should have a name,” I replied. “Speaking of hot objects, don’t I deserve a new car?”
Shannon leaned his hip against the counter and cocked his head at me. “Is the hot object in question you or the car?”
I chuckled. That would’ve been a great line for flirtin’ if that’d been his thing. “An R8.”
He let out a low whistle. “That’s one hell of a car. It does zero to sixty in under four seconds, doesn’t it?”
“Three point two.” I smirked.
He smiled faintly and glanced at the coffee dripping down into his cup. “Considering you’ve had to put up with me all fall, I want to say yes, you deserve a new car.”
Fuckin’ A. “That settles it. I’ll call a dealership tomorrow.”
Maybe I could take a weekend off work after the holidays and drive somewhere.
“You could let me buy it for you,” Shan murmured.
I laughed a little and removed his cup from the machine. “That’s funny.”
“I’m serious, Kellan. It would make me happy to give you that car. Especially after everything you’ve done for me this year.”
He had to be joking.
“And it’s your birthday.” The way he said it—combined with his expression—was like he’d just remembered it. “Now I insist on buying it. I cannot believe I didn’t wish you a happy birthday this morning before I went to bed.”
I shrugged. He had enough on his plate.
He shook his head and grabbed his coffee. “I’ll go make some calls. I’m sorry, son. I will make this right.”
I looked at him as he walked away, and I wasn’t sure what to think. He and Grace had always been generous with birthday presents, but there was generous and there was fucking insane.
“I’m heading out to grab a pint with Finn,” I called after him. “If you join us, I’m sure your son can talk you out of this ridiculous idea.”
“I’m good, thanks,” he called back from the living room. “I prefer to drink alone in the middle of the night where only you get exposed to my misery.”
I cringed. Way too soon for his dark humor. Although, it was nice to hear he still had it.
“Oh man, I needed this tonight.” Finn loosened his tie as one of the servers brought over new beers.
“Amen, brother.” I drummed my fingers against the table to the tempo of the band playing on the other side of the bar. Mick had started hosting more live music nights lately, and I was all for it. It attracted the right crowd too. Mainly, plenty of Sons affiliates.
My personal phone buzzed on the table, and I checked the preview of a message that made me suck my teeth and shake my head.
That fucking girl.
“What’s that face for?” Finn asked, lighting up a smoke.
“Nessa,” I replied. “A while back, I let her ask three questions about the Sons, and she could only come up with two that I had answers I was willing to give her. But now she’s evidently thought of a third. She asked me why I have a cabinet in the back of my closet with ‘weird costumes and makeup.’”
Finn let out a laugh. “Tell her you’re a drag queen.”
I grinned and reached for my own smokes. “My issue is that I’ve never fuckin’ shown her that closet. She must’ve been snooping.”
“Get the fuck out, a li’l broad in our family being a sneak? I can’t believe it!”
I snorted.
He wasn’t wrong.
I could work with this, though. If I dragged out answering, she’d think it was much cooler than it actually was, and it would steer her away from asking something else.
“Man, they’re eager to grow up,” Finn said. “Alec’s breathing down my neck too.”
I chuckled and took a drag from my smoke. “Weren’t we the same?”
“Aye, and a fuckload of good that did us. Your flat’s the new geriatric ward for my pop, and I got the authorities watching my every move. Fun times.”