Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Immy: We found her Marshall. We fucking found her.
Marshall: Fuck me… you’re kidding right?
Immy: Nope. She lives in Austin as far as we can tell and she’s good at building shit just like her daddy. The updates we read on her are vague… it’s too complicated to put into text. Now we’ve just got to wait for Webber to make his move. My heart is fucking breaking here.
Marshall: Why? This is great news!
Immy: Because I’m about to lose her all over again and we all know it.
Marshall: No you ain’t. Have hope. You got this far. Fate wouldn’t be this cruel to you now.
Immy: Wouldn’t it?
Marshall: Do you need me to call or do you need your space right now?
Immy: Space.
Marshall: I’ll call in an hour.
“Immy,” Kane calls after me. “Immy, stop. I ain’t chasin’ you. Fuckin’ tired of chasin’ you. Spent too much of my life chasin’ you.”
“Then stop!”
“Naw, cause the past eight years have proven you ain’t gonna chase me back!” He grabs my arm and spins me to face him. “Eight years and you still haven’t grown for shit. You need to be strong now. You need to get your shit together.”
“I’m trying!”
People look our way and it reminds me all too much of my teen years. Maybe he’s right.
“Try fuckin’ harder because I need you right now too.” His angry, sad, pleading eyes come to mine. “I ain’t got it in me to be strong enough for the both of us. Not right now. Need you to meet me half way.”
My heart shatters as I look into the eyes of a desperate father looking for all the same answers as me. He’s right. I’m being a brat.
I wrap my arms around his waist. “I don’t want to have to make the choice, Kane. I don’t want to have to give her up on purpose.”
“Maybe we won’t have to.” His blue eyes shine with emotion that he only ever shows me. “Keep it together, okay? We just gotta wait. That’s all. We just gotta be patient.”
“Yeah,” I agree and he holds me so tight around the waist my feet dangle above ground. “Ain’t nobody loved a boy as much as I love you, Kane Jessop.”
“Damn straight.” He crushes his lips to mine and follows it with his tongue.
I hum against him, letting my tears soak his cheeks, letting his strength hold me together as mine does the same for him.
“I got savings, I got a house, you got a business and money from your mee-maw. We can get hitched, we can make this work and make them see we are fit to be her parents. It doesn’t have to go the way you said. She’s young, she’ll adapt. I moved in with my daddy age eight after a lifetime of shit from my mom, I adapted, ended up happier.” He kisses me again, this time it’s brief. “We don’t know her circumstances so don’t you dare be a pussy and throw in the towel.”
I growl with frustration. “I fucking hate it when you’re right.”
He laughs and I smile at the sound.
“I don’t know why you still want me, Kane Jessop. I’m a mess.”
“Naw, you’re just a little crispy around the edges is all. We’ll shed that layer and get to the tender parts. You’ll see. Shit, the way you’ve been this past week I’d say we’re halfway there.”
This time it’s me who laughs. I’ve never been compared to fried chicken before. “You reckon?”
“I reckon.” He tips my head back and smiles at my lips. “Come on, I want to show you somethin’.”
“Will it make me feel less sick?”
“I hope so.”
West and Felicia appear in my peripheral.
“Y’all ready to talk now?” Felicia asks gently. “We need the full story.”
West hums his agreement while standing there with his arms folded and his eyes guarded.
“Later guys, give us an hour or two. The truth ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Kane replies, tucking me under his arm.
“How about I cook us all a dinner, you join us at five and we eat together and talk then?” Felicia suggests and I have to admit it’s a good idea.
“I’ll pick up a crate of beer.”
“I’ll bring gin,” I add as Kane steers me away.
“See you at five,” the father of my almost found child calls and leads me to the car. He kisses my temple, a sweet gesture, and takes my keys so he can drive.
He kept my bike. After all these years, Kane Jessop kept my bike in his garage. Not only did he keep it, but he also fixed it and kept it tuned and ran it around every month or so.
Mounting it now brings back so many amazing memories. This bike gave me the kind of freedom I never got to taste as a child. It was the ultimate rebellion. Well, that is until I got pregnant.