Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 394(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“I should leave and let them spend Christmas alone—”
Penni cut him off. “That would be the worst thing you could do. At least Ice and Grace are talking to each other with you there. If you leave, Grace will just spend Christmas wishing you were here.”
Dalton stared down at his plate of food trying to decide what would benefit Grace and Ice the most.
Penni picked up a sweet potato fry, nibbling on it as he debated his next move.
“May I make a suggestion?” she asked hesitantly.
“Go ahead. You can’t do any worse than me.”
Penni laughed. “I don’t know about that, but for what it’s worth, Grace spent a lot of time on the phone with Dax the night you went out with T.A.”
Dalton remembered that neither of his children had called him that night.
“Grace and I were working out, and she spent more timing FaceTiming Dax than working. They were laughing the whole time.”
“What were they laughing about?” Dalton didn’t know whether to be hurt or angry that they had laughed about his date. “That I’m too old for T.A.?”
“Insecure much?” Shaking her head, she reached for another fry. “They couldn’t care less how old T.A. is. They were just happy you went on a date. They kept asking me questions about T.A.”
“What kind of questions?”
Penni’s eyes went vacant as if she was trying to remember. “Like if she’s a good person. Is she nice? If she’s dating. Stuff like that.” She shrugged and took another bite of her wrap.
Dalton picked up his club sandwich. “How well do you know T.A.?”
“I wouldn’t say well, but I’d say good enough to answer most of their questions.”
“What kind of answers did you give them?” Despite himself, Dalton’s interest was piqued.
“That she is a very good person, and that she’s nice, but if you piss her or any of her friends off, run. And I have no idea if she’s dating. I know she was living with Bear before he cut and run after he tried to kill Lucky. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was dating. Like I said, she’s nice. She volunteers a lot, probably more than Lily, and that says a lot.
“When I was in Treepoint before Thanksgiving, Rider was giving Train a hard time for him not selling Killyama’s car instead of giving it to T.A. Rider said he could have bought T.A. a brand-new one with the money.”
His interest was piqued even more. “What did Train say?”
“That T.A. wouldn’t have accepted it. That at least this way, he and Killyama could make sure she’ll be driving around in a car that won’t break down on her. He would be able to give it regular maintenance checks, and it had good tires on so that she wouldn’t run it into the ground like she did all her other ones.”
“How many cars has she gone through?”
“I think four or five, but I’m not sure. You want me to ask Sex Piston?”
“No.” The last thing he wanted was for Sex Piston to know he was curious.
“Okay. Are you going to eat that other sandwich?” Penni’s hand was already hovering over his sandwich.
“Help yourself. I’m not very hungry.”
“Thanks, I’m eating for two now. This one has to be a boy. When I was pregnant with Wylie, I suffered from so much morning sickness when I was two months along, I couldn’t hold food down until the afternoon. With this one, all I want to do is eat, no matter what time of the day it is.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” Penni was people watching as she ate his sandwich. Dalton turned her attention back to T.A.
“Why has she gone through so many cars?”
“I suppose because all the running around she does. She volunteers for the homeless shelters in Jamestown and Treepoint. She also operates her own charity, where she delivers welcoming baskets to low-income new mothers. Once a month, she drives from Jamestown to Lexington, going to all the hospitals and taking different magazines and books, putting them in the waiting rooms.”
Dalton could only stare at Penni speechlessly as she talked about T.A.
“That’s would be hard on anyone’s car.”
“Sex Piston, Crazy Bitch, Killyama, and Fat Louise have tried to rein her in when she started fostering dogs and was almost thrown out of her apartment.”
“I didn’t see any dogs when I had to stay the night because it snowed,” he said. The apartment was small; he would have noticed a dog.
“Because the woman who runs the dog rescue quit using her when T.A. didn’t want to give the dogs up once a new owner was found. Once T.A. loves something, she doesn’t want to let it go.”
Dalton heard the faint edge of a warning in her tone.
“She hasn’t had the best relationships with men, but she hangs in there until they dump her or run off. She doesn’t know how to say no when she cares about something, no matter how they treat her. The only thing I’ve seen or heard her fired up about is if someone hurts someone she cares about. It must come from her parents; both of them volunteer they’re skills to countries in need since T.A. and her sister were little.”