Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 87573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“When I was his age, my mom was dead, and my dad was a raging alcoholic. I was raising my five younger siblings and holding the entire family together by the skin of my teeth. I had Colton too young and took over the company too young.” Jensen shook his head. “He has no fucking clue how good he has it.”
I nodded and clapped him on the back. “The consequence of trying to give your kid better than you had it.”
Jensen chuckled. “I suppose so.”
“My dad is a dick, too,” I told him. “If it makes you feel any better.”
Jensen clenched his jaw. “Well aware that Owen is a singular brand of asshole. I don’t know how he raised so many respectable children.”
“Breaking the cycle,” I told him. “Also…it probably helps that he didn’t raise any of us. We can thank our moms for that.”
Jensen sighed. “Is that where I went wrong? I left Colton with Vanessa.”
“Maybe,” I said honestly.
He nodded, accepting his fate. “Well, that won’t be the case any longer.”
“Keeping him here?”
“At least for the school year.”
I nodded. “How’d he take it?”
Jensen’s laugh cut like a razor. “Go ask him.”
“I’ll do that.” I clapped him on the shoulder again. “You’re doing the best you can.”
“Thanks.”
I left Jensen to mourn the decision he’d had to make with his son. I was sure it wasn’t going to be easy to have a sulky teenager in the house with his two young kids. But I had a feeling it was going to be the best thing that ever happened to Colton. Whether or not either of them knew it yet.
I headed inside to find that the living room and kitchen had been cleaned of trash. It still needed a thorough scrubbing, sweep, and mop, but it was a start.
“Hey,” I said, finding Colton on his phone at the open window that led to the back deck.
He stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “Hey, boss. I wasn’t on my phone.”
“I didn’t see anything.”
He breathed out. “Bet.”
“Heard you’re going to be here this year.”
Colton’s face went dark with rage. “Sure am.”
“Look on the bright side.”
“What fucking bright side?” he snarled.
“You get to keep playing on the Tacos.”
Colton shrugged. “I guess.”
“And you can continue to be my intern. I bet we can even pay you.”
He huffed and said nothing.
“Well, either way, you have two options. I can either help you put some of this away or make fun of you while I watch you do it.”
“Dick,” he muttered under his breath. But a ghost of a smile came to his lips.
“Make fun of you it is,” I said, pulling myself up onto the kitchen island and gesturing to some food on the floor. “You missed a spot.”
Colton shook his head at me. “Come on, boss. Help a bro out.”
So, I slid back off of the island and helped him. With the two of us working together, we made much faster headway on the disaster that was the gorgeous lake house. Halfway through the day, Jensen brought us pizza, and a window company came out to look at what needed to be done. We ate pizza on the deck and watched them work.
“Not much left,” I said, finishing off a third slice.
Colton had seemingly devoured an entire pizza in a matter of seconds. Lord help Jensen with the bottomless stomach of a teenage boy. “Just upstairs.”
“That’s all you. I’m not touching whatever is growing in that toilet.”
Colton wrinkled his nose. “Yeah. Fuck people.”
I laughed. “You threw the party.”
He rolled his eyes and returned to work. I stood to follow him but stopped when my phone started ringing.
My eyes nearly bugged out of my skull when I saw Eve’s number pop up. “Eve, hey.”
“Hey,” she said.
“Did you find Bailey? Is she okay?”
“Yes. I found her. She’s here with me now.”
“Thank God,” I breathed. Relief flooded my chest. “I was worried.”
“Sorry that I didn’t call before. It’s been…a wild twenty-four hours.”
“It’s fine. You said you needed to deal with it. I wanted you to do that.”
“Thanks. You said you wanted to help before I left. Do you still want to do that?”
I tilted my head in surprise. “Of course I do.”
“Any chance you have access to a truck?”
I thought about Jensen’s pickup sitting out front. “Probably.”
“Could you bring it to Midland?”
“When?” I asked.
She sighed. “Right now?”
As if I’d deny her anything.
“I’ll be there in two hours.”
She laughed at our old argument about the drive time. “It only takes an hour and a half to get here.”
“Ah, but I’m in Ransom Canyon.”
“What are you doing there?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you when I get there.”
“All right.” She was silent for a moment before saying, “Thank you, Whitt.”
“Anything for you.”
34
Eve
“It’s not much stuff,” Bailey said.
We stood over the boxes that contained the entire contents of Bailey’s life. She was right. It really wasn’t much. But considering I’d figured out how to move everything in my place in two large suitcases, a few garbage bags of clothes, and a mattress strapped to the top of my 4Runner, this felt almost luxurious.