Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 138588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138588 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“It’s flat,” Sawyer added.
“I know what he meant by Kansas lite,” Sabrina replied with a long sigh.
Wyatt sent Sawyer a look he hoped conveyed what an ass he was making of himself.
Sawyer sat back, looking strangely bewildered. Damn. Was the guy actually trying? What if Sawyer simply didn’t know how to carry on a conversation with a woman that wasn’t about what they wanted to drink or how they liked it in bed?
He needed to find common ground between Sawyer and Sabrina or he was definitely going to fail on this quest.
“So what made you want to go into teaching?”
Both Wyatt and Sabrina’s heads turned because Sawyer had asked the question, and his tone had been almost polite.
The dude was trying. Holy shit. He really did want Sabrina. He should have known the minute she’d gotten up in his face and shown how not afraid of him she was that Sawyer’s dick would win. He didn’t do soft and sweet. But what if he could have a combination of softness and steel? A woman he could be vulnerable around, who would also put him on his ass when he needed it.
“I always liked kids,” Sabrina said, caution clear in her tone. She buttered her cornbread. “Before my mom left active duty, we spent most of our time on military bases. The opportunities for babysitting were endless once I reached a certain age. We also had some mixed-ages classes. I liked the format. I think it’s oddly more natural than kids only spending time with other kids who are exactly their ages. When I chose to go to college instead of into the military like my mom wanted me to, she basically said she wouldn’t help me unless I was going for a degree where I was practically guaranteed a job. Teaching was on her short list, and lucky for me, it’s what I wanted to do. She still didn’t pay for tuition or anything, but she gave me thirty bucks a week for food and stuff.”
“How did you survive on thirty bucks?” Wyatt asked.
Sawyer grunted, taking a sip of his beer. “You buy ramen noodles and figure out how to make a pound of ground round last for days. Condiments are your friend. Get the cheapest burger you can at a fast-food place and load up on packets of condiments.”
Sabrina smiled Sawyer’s way for the first time. “I ate a lot of tacos. There was a place off campus where you could get ten tacos for ten bucks, and I would split it with a friend and then we had dinner for two or three days. I still had some hot sauce packets hanging around when I moved. It was so ingrained in me I kept doing it even after I had a good job.”
Wyatt was confused. “Why didn’t your mom give you money?”
“Because she didn’t agree with her life choices,” Sawyer said. “Didn’t you listen?”
Asshole. “I did but I don’t understand.”
“I think you should,” Sawyer shot back. “Your father sure as hell didn’t give you the option of going to college. Hell, he pulled you out of high school when he was legally able to and put you to work for the club.”
A flush of shame went through Wyatt. Sabrina was a schoolteacher. She valued education, and he didn’t have much of it. “I got my GED. I had to do it on my own.”
Sawyer shrugged like Wyatt had made his point. “See. That’s what she had to do.”
“She wasn’t the kindest woman,” Sabrina said quietly. “My mother had firm beliefs on how the world worked, and any time I challenged those beliefs I was punished in some way.”
Sawyer pointed Wyatt’s way. “See. Same.” He set his beer down. “Oh, did you think because she seems so nice and sweet her parents must be, too? Or is this one of those I don’t understand how the outside world works and I think it’s all puppies and roses?”
Yep, there was more of the shame. “I know how the world works. I was confused.”
“You don’t, buddy, or you would be more cautious.” Sawyer nodded Sabrina’s way. “We had to get him a social security card when he started working. At twenty-seven.”
He wished Sawyer would stop talking. “My family… Let’s say they believed in staying off the grid as much as possible. I did, in fact, have a social security card and a driver’s license. But they weren’t real. I had to have a lawyer find my birth certificate. I’m glad I had one.”
“Your past doesn’t matter,” Sabrina said with a smile. “Isn’t that kind of what this place is about? From what I can tell, a lot of people came here looking for a second chance. I’m trying to find a truly supportive family. I’m trying to clear my head of my mom’s voice. I have twenty-eight years of listening to her tell me everything will go to hell if I’m satisfied even for a moment. She thought happiness was an affront to fate or God or whatever you want to call the universe. If a person wasn’t humble and miserable, they weren’t doing something right.”