Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
I nodded my head. “I do. It’s the one that’s closest to my heart.”
It was the truth.
She snorted and walked to the coffee maker. “You want something to drink?”
I nodded my head but grunted out a yes as I walked to the bar and daintily took a seat.
“Why are you here so fucking early?” Travis asked as he scratched his stomach.
I grinned. “I wanted your medical professional of a wife to look at my ball and tell me if I should be concerned with the swelling or not.”
Travis just looked at me.
“I’m not a doctor, Baylor,” Hannah said. “If you want my medical opinion, it would be to go see a doctor who knows more about balls than I do.”
I started to chuckle as I pulled my sweatpants away from my belly and looked down at the boys.
“I couldn’t even run this morning,” I said. “I had to walk the two miles over here instead.”
“Did you take some Midol?” Travis cajoled.
I flipped him off.
“That actually might help,” Hannah agreed. “But honestly, you’d get the same results taking ibuprofen.”
I grimaced.
I despised taking medicines, even over-the-counter ones like Tylenol and Motrin.
When I’d been in my accident, I’d become somewhat reliant on pain medication and had proceeded to scare the absolute shit out of myself one too many times.
Ever since, I’d stayed well away from anything that came in pill form.
Which sometimes hindered me more than it helped me.
“I will if I can’t get this under control by tomorrow,” I conceded.
“You’re not going to visit Pongo?” Travis asked, looking concerned.
I grimaced. “Not today, no. I don’t think I can make it that far on foot.”
Well, I could quite possibly make it that far, but I wouldn’t be able to make it back.
Being sneaky wasn’t so easy at times when you couldn’t drive over there.
I’d tried it once, but since the place I was jogging to was normally accessed by going through the woods to avoid being seen by any security cameras, it meant that to access it by car I would be seen.
And I didn’t want to be seen, which also meant that I couldn’t go see Pongo today.
Pongo being a dog that my ex had won in our breakup. My ex being the US Military.
The one bright side of the day was the woman I couldn’t stop thinking about.
My ball hurt, which meant I kept thinking about how it was hurt.
I couldn’t stop thinking about her and her unicorn warrior panties.
Which happened to be why I missed my sister-in-law’s question.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked once my brother kicked my chair to get my attention.
“Did you hear from Dante yesterday like we did?”
I frowned.
“No. What did he have to say?”
Dante was my brother. A brother who was buried so deep in his grief that it took an act of presidential decree to get him to acknowledge that there were other people on this planet besides himself.
Though, I knew his grief was warranted.
But he wasn’t the only one feeling it.
My brother’s family—his two children and his wife—had gone with my sister home from a family event. On the way home, my sister had been in a car accident that had taken the life of my brother’s wife and children.
My sister had been intoxicated. She’d been high on pills, and, it was determined later, that they had been the cause of her overreaction that had caused her to wreck.
My sister had then taken her life weeks later.
Since then, Dante had been absent from our lives.
Until now, apparently.
“Our brother called him,” Travis rumbled.
“Which brother?” I asked.
I had five, after all. There’d been five brothers and two sisters.
Two sisters had died.
One in a home invasion and the other when she took her own life.
Now it was just us boys.
“Fender.”
I snickered at Travis’ use of ‘Fender.’
Fender was actually Tobias. Tobias had joined an MC—a motorcycle club—named the Dixie Wardens.
Though he may be hours away, he was more present in our lives than Dante was, wherever the fuck he happened to be.
“Okay,” I drawled.
“Dante is finally acknowledging that he has a kid.”
“And he was ecstatic?”
Travis shook his head.
“Yep. I could hear his excitement over the airwaves.” He popped his ‘p.’ “You heard me right. Tobias called Dante to tell him that he found confirmation that he had a kid. Dante called to tell me to walk across the street and confirm this ‘confirmation.’ Except the girl that used to live there doesn’t live there anymore. Which I conveyed to him.”
My mouth fell open in shock.
“Dante would never…”
I was about to say have sex with Travis’ neighbor, because, if I was thinking about the right woman, he would’ve never. At least, that was before…now, I didn’t know what he would do.
“Dante did,” Travis said. “He got drunk over here one night. The next thing I know, he’s walking out of her house the next day, looking pissed off at the world.”