Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
I felt my cheeks redden, which caused another eruption of laughter, this time from Anj and Pops. Betty was just as bad as my mother when it came to my love life.
“Thanks. Will do,” I muttered.
On the way to Wildwood, I rolled down the window to my old Honda to enjoy the unusually warm late October air. The scenery in this town was beautiful. I could oftentimes mostly forget what had driven me away from the comforts of a big-city life to the security of the quiet countryside.
When that night tried to replay in my mind or I awoke from a nightmare, I had to remind myself that he never knew who I was. If he’d survived, there would be no way he could ever know how to find me. In an effort to blend in, I traded in my long, blond locks for my natural brown hair color and my manicured nails for calluses from fixing up my cabin. I was no longer the popular president of my sorority—the social butterfly. No, I was a faded version of my original self—a moth. I just wanted to fade into the background. Well, except for my shoes. The line had to be drawn somewhere.
After a few days in my new life, I’d called my mother to tell her about how I’d dropped out of college. She had been shocked and disappointed but supportive of me “finding myself.” As long as she and Rich knew how to get ahold of me while they bounced from city to city, she was happy.
I still hadn’t had the courage to describe to her the terrors of my past. My mother was so caring that she would have dropped her new life with Rich to come take care of me. I might have been a selfish bitch at that school, but my mother was my world and I could never do that to her. Plus, some things are just better left unsaid.
As I pulled into the addition, I stopped at the first home in progress to begin my inspections. I traded my gorgeous, red pumps for my pink Gucci rain boots. There was no way I was going to ruin my newest loves in the muck at these construction sites.
When I stepped out of my car with my camera in hand, I put on my fiercest look, glaring at any workers who dared look my way. They would never know that it was a façade, that I was really just trying to control my shaking hands. I thought secretly, deep down, that Pops knew that I need these types of outings to grow my self-confidence and shake some of my deep-seated fears. I tromped through the mud, ignoring the catcalls from the bored workers, and began my inspections.
Once I finished with the last house, I noticed a red Chevy pickup in the last lot in the addition right next to where I’d been working. Instantly, I became hyperaware of my surroundings. Something about the empty truck in the vacant lot was causing bells to ring loud and clear with warning. Butterflies skittered in my stomach. Quickly, I began to make my way back to my car, mace ready to deliver a deadly concoction to any eyes that dare come near me.
As I reached for the latch to open my car door, a hand grabbed my shoulder, making me spin wildly while viciously spraying my attacker with the mace. The man screamed.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he growled, rubbing at his burning eyes.
“Don’t touch me, you freak,” I hissed back at him while both retreating towards my car and keeping him in my line of vision.
“What’s a girl even doing on a construction site anyway? The mall is that way.” He pointed in no direction at all, really.
My fear subsided as anger took over.
“You deserved that for sneaking up on me!” I retorted scathingly.
As he continued to curse and wheeze, I looked him over. This was one of those “fine specimen of a man” types Anj was always talking about. He stood well over six feet tall and his broad shoulders made me think he was built like a linebacker. His tight, white T-shirt stretched over his extremely muscled chest, which made it difficult look away. The shirt looked every bit too small for him, because every time he raised his arms to ball his fists over his burning eyes, it revealed a sliver of skin just above the waistline of his jeans, which were already low on his hips. He had a sexy-looking tattoo on his right bicep that peeked out under the sleeve of his shirt. I had the urge to reach over and lift it up to see what hid underneath.
Might it be wings of a bird?
The fitted jeans were free of holes or dirt, looking quite expensive for this neck of the woods. The clean work boots didn’t seem to quite fit the look of a typical worker out in this area either. My eyes cursed at me when I finally peeled them away from his hard body.