Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
He grimaced. “Baby, there’s no more time.”
“Oh, I wasn’t complaining. I just thought the day wasn’t going to be fun. Now I know differently.” She walked by him, picking up the keys to his truck. “Come on, Bud. We’re going for a ride.”
“We can’t take the dog.”
“Sure we can. After all, we can’t leave him behind. Remember the heart attack you nearly had when you saw how much the floors cost?”
He groaned as Kenzie head butted him and immediately started wailing. That got her sister to sympathy cry and both the twins’ laments made Bud howl, his head thrown back as he made a sound like a dying water buffalo.
If he survived the day, it would be a miracle.
* * * *
He watched as Charlie made her way up to the small house on the outskirts of Dallas. They were only a few miles from her preferred hospital, but somehow Remy Guidry had managed to find the one house that looked like it belonged in the middle of a gator-infested swamp. Guidry’s big truck was parked alongside one of those tiny toy cars some women liked to drive these days.
“I’ve changed my mind. I’ll just carry the girls.” And check to make sure that big Cajun bodyguard he’d hired wasn’t making meth on the side.
Charlie waved him off as she walked toward the ramshackle house. “He’s fine. He can certainly be trusted with driving the girls to the office, and he’ll take care of Bud. There’s no room for him in Case and Mia’s apartment. Besides, this is going to be so much fun. Stay back a little. This works best if it’s just me.”
What the hell was she doing? “Baby, I didn’t call him because I didn’t want to give him a chance to run.”
“Oh, he won’t be the one running.” Charlie marched to the door and banged her fist against it. “Remy! Remy Guidry, you son of a bitch, get the hell out here.”
There was a long pause. The girls went still in his arms, as though they knew their momma was about to put on a show.
The door opened and Remy stepped out wearing nothing but a pair of what looked like hastily put on jeans. The top button wasn’t even done. “Such a manwhore move. Don’t ever fall for that, girls. That’s man cleavage right there. Dude walks out in low-riding jeans and he’s basically tempting you to look down below. Don’t you do it. It means he’s a douchebag. Tell him to put on some damn clothes.”
Remy smiled broadly when he realized it was Charlie on his doorstep. “Hey, pretty momma. How are you doing today?”
That was when he saw her. A blonde with sex hair and what looked like a shirt that didn’t belong to her pulled back the drapes to spy on her partner for the night.
“Your mother is the single meanest woman on the face of the planet.” He was getting a little teary. And so hot. Damn, but that was a woman. She was having contractions and she still thought of a way to mess with a man. “Goddamn I love her.”
“Do you have another woman here?” Charlie asked.
The Cajun’s eyes went wide. “I do. Her name is Sharla. Or Darla. Why? Is something wrong at the office? Look, Charlotte, I picked her up at a bar last night. I didn’t talk about business at all. I know Big Tag can be paranoid…”
“I’m not paranoid.” Bud sank down beside him, showing no interest in leaving the girls to explore the world around him.
Damn that dog was somewhat like Ian. He knew a good thing when he saw it, and he wasn’t about to let it get away.
Kala patted his face. “Para…dada…paranod.”
“It’s only paranoia if the world isn’t out to get you, baby girl.” He had evidence that it was.
“How dare you have a woman here when I’m about to give birth to our child!” Charlie put a hand to her belly and pointed at the window. “Damn straight, I’m talking to you. Yes, you, woman. Did he get you pregnant, too?”
The face in the window disappeared but not before it had turned a bright shade of perfectly indignant red.
Remy’s eyes had gone wide. “Charlotte, have you lost your damn mind? Sharla, baby, she’s joking. She’s my boss’s wife. She’s got a sick sense of humor.”
“You keep right on lying, Remy. You know this baby is the product of our love.” Charlie grimaced, but she soldiered on. “How dare you deny it?”
Sharla, Darla stomped out, her walk of shame turning into a march of female anger. “You bastard.”
“Now, Sharla,” Remy began.
The blonde reared back and slapped him full-on across the face. “I’m Megan. Sharla is my sister, you asshole.”
Remy nodded, as though finally remembering. “Oh, yeah. You tell her hi for me now.”