Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70444 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
June hadn’t been that lucky then, and she definitely wasn’t all that lucky now.
***
I could tell she was pissed as I waited for her to pay her fine at the privacy window that separated the general public from the receptionists.
“Two hundred dollars and…”
“Is a check okay?” June interrupted her.
“Yes,” the woman said curtly. “But if it bounces, it’s a fifty-dollar returned check fee.”
The woman, Alberta, sneered at June. It was almost as if she was expecting there to be a returned check fee.
“It won’t bounce. I have money in there,” June explained stiffly.
“That’s what your parents always said, too.” She paused, looking at June with a scrutinizing eye. “In fact, your old man got a ticket the same week as you did. By the same officer. How funny is that?”
I’d given her father a ticket? Really?
Shit.
I didn’t remember that.
As I scanned back through my memories of who I’d written a ticket to in the short time here, I finally settled on two individuals that it could possibly be when June passed right by me without saying a word.
“June, wait up.” I caught up to her easily.
She didn’t slow her stride. What she did do was glare at me over her shoulder.
“I can’t believe you would humiliate me, and then expect me to actually talk to you.” She shook her head. “Then I find out my father is out of jail. This is the worst day ever.”
I grunted. “I honestly thought Judge Beener would let you off. That’s why I suggested to Amanda at Tiny’s to pitch the idea to you. Never in a million years would I have thought that he’d decline you. He accepts every pretty lady’s testimony and almost always drops it for them. If I had any idea at all that he was going to do that to you, I would’ve never suggested it.”
She snorted. “Pretty words don’t matter when they come out of a rotten mouth.”
I frowned. “I don’t have a rotten mouth.”
Whatever the fuck that meant.
“Maybe, maybe not. What I do know is that you could’ve at least given me something up there, but you didn’t. Instead, you told the judge about my sticker—which incidentally isn’t on my truck any longer—thank you very much—told him I’d been speeding and told him that I was combative. Which I wasn’t.”
“I said you were argumentative, not combative.”
“Whatever. Same thing.” She shook her head and sped up.
“It’s not the same thing,” I disagreed. “And I can’t lie under oath. It’s the law, June.”
“It’s the law, June,” she mimicked. “Well, let me tell you something, me and the law in this town don’t get along. Never have, never will.”
I tried to reach out to touch her, but she flinched away from me the way she had the very first time I tried to touch her.
I would not admit how much that hurt. I would not.
“Just…leave me alone,” she muttered, walking to her truck.
She’d gotten her truck back yesterday, and I had to admit, hitting a body had been good for it. The windshield was clear and shiny, as was the paint that used to be dingy and dull.
Honestly, she lucked out.
The department had paid for the truck to be fixed up, thanks to insurance the department carried for such instances.
“Did Tyler Cree call you and update you on those Slim boys?” I asked, knowing that was the one thing that would make her stop and talk to me.
She did stop, turning in the half-open door, her foot on the running board.
“Yes,” she said. “He said that they still haven’t found the fifth suspect. Three were now out of county on a million bond. The fourth one is still in the hospital, but he is expected to make a full recovery. That what you were going to say?”
I nodded. “But…you need to be careful. They’re being watched, obviously, but that doesn’t mean you need to be walking around town tempting them.”
She shivered. “Noted.”
With that, she got into her truck and slammed the door, never once looking back at me as she drove out of the parking lot.
I wouldn’t admit that it hurt.
Nope. Not me.
Chapter 13
We all know at least one person who can’t speak a full sentence without swearing at least once.
-June’s secret thoughts
June
“It’s a date,” she hedged. “How bad can it be?”
Amanda’s words had my stomach heaving as I thought about all of the bad possibilities.
“I don’t go on dates,” I told her.
“You just told me a few weeks ago that you wanted to get on with your life. You literally can’t do that if you stay at home and do nothing from the moment you get off of work on Friday until Monday when you have to go back in.” She glared.
“But what the fuck is speed dating, anyway?” I asked. “I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as speed dating.”