Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 85399 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85399 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
“You’re telling me,” Jack mumbles.
I smack him on the arm.
The front door opens and closes in the distance. The footsteps fall hard and quick—definitely Michael’s.
“Hey, what are you . . . o-kay. What’s going on here?” he asks, taking in the scene before him.
“Daniel dumped me.”
Michael’s gaze snaps to mine.
“She’s going to be okay,” I say gently. “Your sister just isn’t over the shock yet.”
“What did he say to you?” Michael asks, looking every bit as angry as Jack did at first.
“Nothing.” She turns her face toward him. “He broke up with me by text.”
Michael’s brows shoot to the ceiling. “He broke up with you by text? Who does that?”
“That’s what I said,” Jack says.
“You better not ever bring that little creep around again,” Michael says.
“Well, we’re broken up, so that’s apparently not a concern.”
Michael laughs angrily. “Oh, he’ll come back. He’ll go out and see if he likes anyone else any better, and when he realizes that you’re the best, he’ll mope around and try to get you to take him back.”
“Don’t say that.” She sits up. “He’s not trying to find a new girlfriend already.” She turns to me, panicked. “Is he?”
“Michael, let’s leave it alone for a while,” Jack says.
“What? Someone has to tell her the truth.”
I touch Maddie’s cheek. “Michael is just being protective.”
“No, Michael is being honest,” he says of himself. “I’m a guy. Granted, I attempt to be a little more upstanding than that little screwball.”
“Michael,” I say at the same time as Maddie objects.
“But I know how these things work,” he says. “You do, too, Dad.”
Jack sighs. “Easing your way into this would probably have been a better tactic. Maybe note that going forward.”
Michael shakes his head, clearly disgusted by the entire situation. “Well, you guys keep telling her what she wants to hear, and I’ll be at the lake with Ava.” He starts to leave but stops and looks at his sister. “Daniel better watch himself.”
“You’re going to be eighteen soon,” Jack says. “You better watch yourself.”
“Yeah, because I totally don’t know people that will be underage after my birthday.”
“Can we not do this?” I ask, blowing out a breath. “It’s . . .” I glance at the clock. “Eight in the morning. I haven’t had coffee. Can we not start a war until I’ve at least peed?”
Jack gets to his feet. “Speaking of peeing, I probably need to let Snaps out before he pees on the floor.”
Michael comes back into the room. “Give him to me, and I’ll put him out before I go.”
Maddie hands her brother the dog. Michael takes the puppy but doesn’t move.
“I’m not trying to be a dick or make this harder for you,” he tells his sister. “But it pisses me off to think that that kid thinks he can just be mean to you for no reason. You’re nothing but a sweetheart to him.”
Maddie grins softly. “Thank you.”
He backs away. “But I do know people.”
“Get out of here,” Jack says, laughing.
Michael disappears down the hallway.
Maddie scoots up beside me and buries herself under the blankets. “Can I lie in here with you for a while, Mom?”
I look at Jack.
“I’ll start a pot of coffee and then go check on Dad,” he says, slipping on a pair of shorts and a shirt. “Does that work?”
“Make it strong.”
He darts into the bathroom and brushes his teeth before heading out. Once he’s gone, I lie next to Maddie.
The pillow is wet with her tears, but the hysteria of the breakup seems to have eased. Little does she know it, but the crack in my heart from seeing her hurt will remain much longer than hers.
What a way to start the day.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
JACK
Why are you here so damn early?” Dad rocks back and forth in his recliner, a cup of coffee in his hand. “Did you roll out of bed and come straight here?”
I scrub a hand down my face. “Do you have any more coffee?”
“You know where the pot is.”
I make my way into his small kitchen. I find a white mug with orange-and-brown mushrooms on it and fill it with liquid energy.
“You didn’t answer my question,” he says.
“I was woken up this morning by my daughter screaming bloody murder.”
Dad stops rocking. “Maddie? Why?”
“Daniel broke up with her.” I sit on the sofa next to him. “By text.”
“That little prick.”
I grin and take a sip of coffee.
“She okay?” Dad asks.
“She’ll be fine. Eventually. There could be a few more days of dramatics before that happens, though.”
He chuckles as if he expected as much.
We sit together in silence. The only sound is the occasional squeak from the chair. Dad rocks steadily, watching the birds out the window.
I fall back against the cushions, the same ones that have occupied this cabin since I was a boy. Mom used to prop colorful decorative pillows and brightly colored blankets on the sofa. I never understood why, but I didn’t argue either—they were great for making forts.