Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Both,” she laughed.
“It can’t be too bad.”
“You’re gonna eat those words.” She laughed.
Chapter 10
A firefighter lives here with the hottest flame of his life.
-To Kettle from Adeline
Kettle
I didn’t have to eat my words. I did have some adjusting to make, both good and bad. Overall, though, I quite enjoyed having Adeline around all the time. Much more than I’d expected to, anyway.
I hadn’t realized how much of a neat freak I was until I went into my bathroom one morning, a month later, to find Adeline’s bras, in every shape, color, and texture imaginable, hanging off every available surface in the bathroom.
I had to move three out of the shower itself, before I could get in to rinse myself. With cold water, seeing as Adeline had finished her shower about five minutes before, and could spend no less than an hour in the shower and still want more time.
Although, everything paled in comparison to when I woke up last night to Adeline’s snake slithering up the inside of my mother fucking leg.
At first, my sleep-fogged brain had thought it was Adeline’s hand, but then the temperature of whatever was crawling up my crotch and then further to my stomach, finally registered. I promptly freaked the fuck out.
I really wasn’t a fan of her snake.
The next day I’d immediately gone out and purchased a cage with a lock, because there was no way that was ever going to happen again.
Then there were the benefits of having Adeline here.
Like waking up in the middle of the night to Adeline curled around my body with her head tucked into the crease of my arm, or the space where my back met the mattress.
Then there was how my clothes were always washed and folded before I needed them. She made sure that my uniforms were hanging up and ironed as well, which was beyond worth the cost of bras hanging from my shower rod right there.
“Hey,” Adeline said as I stepped out onto the bathmat after my shower.
I looked up as I bent over to dry my legs with the towel, and had to smile at the glazed look that overcame her face.
She didn’t say another word until I stood from drying my back and wrapped the towel around my hips, covering my junk.
“I’m ready to go.” She said finally.
A grin tilted up one corner of my mouth as I started walking towards her.
She stayed where she was, leaning on the doorway, and raised up on her toes to get a kiss before I passed her to get dressed in my uniform.
“Are you ready to let me drive myself?” She asked in exasperation.
She’d gotten her car back from Reed the week after the fire, but it’d been sitting ever since. I’d told her about the threat from the two boys that were involved in the fire, but she didn’t see the big deal. She’d said that she got threats like that from the kids at the high school all day long, and if she took the threats seriously, she wouldn’t be able to live her life.
The high school boys at her school were small potatoes compared to the drug makers who’d gotten out on technicalities less than a week after they’d been jailed.
Although they hadn’t heard from the two boys, or the one that had lived there, since the day of the fire that had burned down both apartments, I had a niggling thought in the back of my head that was warning me not to relax.
“I know, Adeline. I just have this,” I said shrugging into my shirt. “Feeling that I shouldn’t let you drive to work by yourself. Then again, if you really want to, I’ll follow you, but that’s the only way you’re getting out of riding with me.”
The boys left Adeline alone while she was at school, but they always had someone there to follow her home, or to the grocery store if needed. If she wanted to go somewhere, they always had a prospect ready and willing to follow her.
And as much as she hated to have a tail, it made me worry about her less, which, in turn, made Adeline happy.
“How long is this going to go on?”
My fingers moved deftly on the buttons of my shirt, and then I started shoving the shirt down into the pants before buttoning and doing up the belt.
“I don’t know.”
I really didn’t. I was just worried about her, especially after what I’d learned last night from Silas.
I stewed on the call from Silas all the way to Adeline’s school, agonized over what bad shit Silas was going to throw at me next.
Silas had called late last night after she’d gone to bed and told me he’d found out some things that he needed to discuss this morning before I went to work.
So, after I drop Adeline off at work, I was running to the clubhouse before my shift started to speak with Silas and Sebastian.
I knew I wasn’t going to like it.
Then Adeline did something so cute, that it knocked me off my game for a few short moments, allowing me to smile despite the impending doom.
“Oh! Hey, hold on one second.” She said as soon as she got off the bike.
“Adeline, we’re both really late.” I groaned but stayed where I was.
Out of all things I’d expected her to do, dropping down on her haunches, ass to the back of her legs, and putting on eyeliner wasn’t one of them. Using the chrome plated overlay of the bike’s air filter, she deftly used the long stick and rimmed the edges of her eyes with black. Followed shortly by mascara on her lashes.
Then, she stood up, leaned in to give me a kiss, and walked quickly to the school building, smiling widely over her shoulder at me from the doorway before she disappeared inside with a tide of high school kids.
I should’ve known, though, that life was never nice to me, and never had been.
Good things had a way of going bad when it came to me, and I was about to be shown how.