Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
He was much more adept at cleaning himself than I was because he was done in a matter of moments and tucking himself back inside his briefs.
I sat down on the toilet and threw the paper into the bowl before reaching for some more.
He watched me unrepentantly, causing me to blush.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s weird that you’re watching me do this.” I shrugged.
“I just had my cock inside of you. How could this be any more embarrassing than that?”
He had me there. “I don’t know.”
He chuckled as he leaned against the door.
I rolled my eyes and did my business.
Once I was finished, I finally saw the streaks of dirt on his chest.
“Why are you so dirty?”
He started to laugh.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Actually…I do.”
Turns out, I didn’t.
Especially when he told me he’d recently been covered in shit and had only had the chance to wash off with a water hose.
At least he’d washed his hands thoroughly before he’d touched me.
Gross.
Apparently, it had to do with cow shit, a stuck car, and having to crawl under a car.
Chapter 24
Ex: Why do you always wear black?
Lark: Just in case you die. I want to be prepared.
-Lark to her ex-husband
Lark
It was my second week at the vet clinic, and my first day without having any other jobs to worry about going to when I first saw him.
I was filling out my college application that would hopefully get me into an online veterinary school and talking with Dr. Castleberry about how I would have to actually go somewhere to perform the hands-on testing that was required with the school, when the door jingled, signaling that a client had walked in.
I continued to do what I was doing since I was on my lunchbreak and I cursed my luck when I looked up and saw him standing there. He was acting for all the world like he was meant to be there and that he was happy to see me.
“Rita, honey.”
Two words, four syllables, nine letters.
They were words that made me hurt down to my soul.
“I’m sorry,” Marissa apologized. “We don’t have a Rita here. Is there something I can help you with?”
Marissa fluttered her eyelashes at Sal, and I wanted to snatch her around by her hair and tell her to run.
I didn’t, though.
That would be an acknowledgment.
I didn’t want to acknowledge him.
I did, however, text my man.
He’d made me promise, on more than one occasion, that if I saw Sal, I’d text or call immediately. So that’s what I did.
I didn’t so much as look at him while I continued to fill out my application.
I ignored the conversation.
I didn’t even twitch when Sal said my name again and pointed at me, I suppose explaining to Dr. Castleberry who I was…and who he was to me.
I stayed right where I was, filled out my real—now married—name, and put down my new address—Baylor’s house.
“She’s on her lunch break,” Dr. Castleberry said. “You’ll have to come back after she gets off. That’s around five.”
I nearly snorted.
I didn’t get off at five. I got off at four. Sometimes three if the day went smoothly.
Five, everything in the entire place would be silent except for the dogs and kitties staying the night in our boarding kennel.
A caretaker—not me thanks to Baylor putting his foot down—came in around eleven at night and stayed with the dogs so they wouldn’t be completely alone. That same person also came in earlier if she was needed for a patient that required around the clock care—which didn’t happen all that often.
“I’ll wait.”
I wanted to bang my head on the desk, and maybe shove the pen that was in my shaking fingers through Sal’s throat.
But other than that, I was cool as a cucumber…until Baylor walked in.
Then I was anything but cool.
“Hey, Baylor. You come to see your woman?”
Dr. Castleberry hadn’t left, even though he’d been properly dismissed by Sal—who was waiting by the door in the most uncomfortable chair that we owned.
I looked up at my man, who’d stopped within four feet of my ex, and smiled.
His eyes were all for me, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t aware of the man that he’d come down here to deal with.
I looked at my watch and realized that it was lunchtime for him, too. Which explained how he got here so quickly.
Baylor wasn’t an office kind of guy, so when he wasn’t home or eating, he was out doing something. Normally that meant picking up the slack where he was needed, letting Travis spend more time in the office doing what he needed to be doing and not picking up repos that nobody else wanted—like when they had to repossess a little old lady’s car or go and deal with Harold.
Which was something that nobody wanted to do.
Not anymore.
I had a feeling that Harold was about to be shit out of luck when it came to his repossessions. There wasn’t anyone in six counties that would touch them at this point, thanks to Travis spreading word that we were phasing out Hostel Bank and Trust.