Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I needed a shower. I needed a cold beer. And I needed to fucking destress after the shit day that I’d had.
What I didn’t need was their bullshit.
“Suit yourself,” I said as I walked into the house.
When my mother and sister hurried to follow, I slammed the door in their faces and threw the deadbolt home.
When I turned around, it was to find Oakley standing there with a cold beer and a chagrined expression on her face.
“I put it in the freezer, so it’s extra frosty,” she said as she held it out.
Instead of taking the beer, I stalked toward her and pulled her into my arms.
When she was where I wanted her, I slammed my mouth onto hers.
She curled her arms around my shoulders and rested the beer bottle against my back shoulder. I could feel the frostiness through my shirt.
I didn’t stop kissing my woman, though. Not until we were both panting and she was pressing against me with need.
I pulled back and rested my forehead against hers.
“I’m sorry,” I said simply.
She patted my shoulders and then leaned back so that she could hand me my beer.
“Seriously, it’s exactly like you like it,” she said as she shook the bottle lightly in my face. “It even has slushy ice particles in it. It was in there for the perfect amount of time.”
Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, I took the bottle from her and took a swig.
She was right. It was exactly how I liked it.
“I was going to make dinner,” she said. “But I was thinking we could stay at my place one more time…and hope that they left.”
I was nodding before she’d finished.
“I was going to call the cops,” I said.
“I’m up for whichever,” she replied. “You tell me.”
I sighed and leaned my forehead down until it was resting against her temple.
“My mother and sister look like they’re in for the long haul,” I admitted. “Even if they get hauled off by the cops, they’ll just be back tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day.”
She squeezed my hand lightly. “Then we deal with it as it comes. But, just sayin’, I wanted to punch your mother in the throat. She said ‘you owe it to her for giving you life’ and I wanted to beat the shit out of her. You don’t owe her shit.”
I pressed a kiss to her hair. “My mother is different. She lives a gypsy lifestyle. Hell, I barely finished school. When I went into the military, boot camp was the longest that I’d ever stayed in one place. It was a really weird feeling.”
She smoothed her hand down the length of my arm and was about to say something when the knocking started.
“We’re not going away!” I heard my sister yell. “We’ll do this all night!”
“Better call those cops,” Oakley teased.
I didn’t hesitate.
I called into dispatch and did just that.
***
And, of course, none other than Sergeant Jackson pulled up in his squad car and got out ten minutes later.
Just. Fucking. Perfect.
“Oh, fuck.”
Oakley’s words mirrored my thoughts.
“Well hello, Officer,” Bella drawled in her sexiest voice.
I wanted to gag.
“Hello,” Jackson smiled. “Who might you be?”
I opened the door and stepped out onto the front porch, closing it firmly behind me.
I could hear Oakley on the phone, and I hoped that she was talking to her brother. Or hell, even dispatch again.
This was not going to go well.
I knew it just as well as I knew that Jackson hated my guts.
“I’m Rana Vineyard, and this is my daughter, Bella Vineyard,” my mother introduced them. “And who might you be?”
“I’m Sergeant Jackson,” Jackson grinned at me. “What’s going on?”
“Well, we’re here to visit my big brother, but he’s asking us to leave,” Bella pouted. “We came over five hundred miles.”
I barely kept the eye roll in check.
Last I’d heard, they were way farther than just five hundred miles.
They were in Rhode Island, which was clear across the country.
“Geez, Vineyard.” Jackson frowned. “Why would you want to kick your family to the curb after they traveled all this way?”
I did not want to explain my whole life story to Jackson.
I didn’t have to have a reason to kick them to the curb. Needless to say, if I wanted them off my property, they should be off my property. There didn’t need to be an explanation.
“I want them gone,” I said. “Now.”
Sergeant Jackson crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against my porch railing.
“Maybe we can discuss an alternative,” he suggested. “Get y’all back to being friends.”
I gritted my teeth.
“There will be no making friends,” I said. “I. Want. Them. Gone.”
My mother huffed. “Jesus, baby boy. All I want to do is visit you. What have I ever done to you that was so bad?”
I whirled on them, then. Out of patience.
“What about when I was fourteen and you suggested that I try to fuck that store owner and then rob her blind?” I said. “Or what about when I was thirteen and you left me and Bella alone for six months while you ‘tried to find yourself a sugar daddy?’”