Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 225(@200wpm)___ 180(@250wpm)___ 150(@300wpm)
Apple looked at Lemon who shook her head. Then Apple looked at the ground and stepped behind Lemon to rub her face on her sister’s shoulder.
I sighed. “She’s being bullied at school.”
“Bastard,” Lemon growled at the same time Danica gasped and turned around to face her sister.
“Bullied? Oh, Apple! Why didn’t you tell me?” Danica moved from me to her sister and took her into her arms, hugging her tightly.
“Bullied.” Deacon moved closer to our group. He placed a gentle hand on Apple’s head. “Is that why you singled me out?”
She looked up at the big prospect, tears in her eyes and shook her head. “It was the excuse I gave myself to follow through with Lemon’s idea for me to get you to be my boyfriend.” Her voice was soft and meek. Tearful. “We kind of played you, but not really. Because I wanted you to be my boyfriend before that.”
“Honey, you knew I couldn’t.” Deacon spoke gently to her, reaching out to brush a lock of hair off her cheek that had stuck because of her tears. “You’re underage and it’s illegal. I could get in big trouble.”
“Not in Indiana.”
“Apple…”
“Is that why you never kissed me?”
Danica let out a strangled squawk and Lemon rolled her eyes. “Please. You’re giving me a fucking migraine, Dani.”
“Language,” Danica admonished but with no real heat.
Apple ducked her head again and Deacon curled a finger under her chin to raise her face back to his. “It is, honey. And why I never encouraged you to hold my hand or even to text me much. I knew something was up. I just didn’t know what.”
“Please don’t hate me.”
Deacon grinned softly at her. “Never, honey. You’re my girl. You’ll always be my girl.”
“No, she won’t,” I snapped. “You’re ten years older than she is!”
Deacon shrugged. “She don’t want me when she turns eighteen, it’ll be my loss. But she’s gonna have that chance if she wants it.”
Apple’s eyes filled with tears again, and she looked like she wanted to run into Deacon’s arms but was using every ounce of restraint she had. Finally, Deacon shook his head, muttering, “Bloody hell,” under his breath and pulled the girl into his arms for a quick, tight hug.
It was only a few seconds, but when he pulled back he gripped her shoulders and leaned down to look into her eyes. “I’m always gonna be watchin’ over you, Apple. You’ve got two years to live your life. After that, there’ll be a reckonin’.”
She nodded and swallowed. “I’m sorry, Deacon. I’ll do whatever I have to, tell anyone who needs to hear everything I did. I’ll even let them see my phone. You were so good to me, and I repaid you --” Tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks again.
“Nope. Not hearin’ that, honey. I’m the adult here. I always knew that. Even if I thought you were older, I knew you weren’t nearly as experienced in life as me.”
“Enough of this,” I snapped. “Let’s get inside and get the girls something to eat. Then I’ll take you to your room.”
“We should really get home.” Danica sighed, looking over the girls one last time. “My car is still in the parking lot at the hobby shop. I’ll need to get it.”
Clutch walked around the Explorer and waved her off. “Already taken care of,” he said, pointing to the garage. “It was overdue for an oil change and a tune-up. Gotta say” -- Clutch scrubbed the back of his neck. --”for an ‘87 Tempo, car’s in pretty good shape.”
“It was my mother’s,” Danica said softly. “For some reason, she loved that car and took really good care of it. I’d planned on selling it after she died, then just never got around to it.”
“No need to fix what ain’t broken.” Clutch grinned at her. “I’m takin’ care of the maintenance on it. Filters and such. Checkin’ the fluids and tires. Probably take me a couple of days ‘cause there’s shit in front of yours, so you might as well make yourself at home.”
“But how am I gonna get to work? And the girls have school. We can’t stay here.”
“You let me worry about the logistics,” I told her, glaring at Clutch. The big man just raised his hands and smirked at me. No way he was gonna be the hero here. “Besides, we need to figure out what happened tonight.”
“I have no idea why Jordan did this,” she muttered. “I’ve been nothing but nice to her.”
“Who cares?” I shrugged off her worry, knowing she had no need because I was taking care of this. “What matters is that she never does this again.”
“It was just a couple little bottles of paint,” Lemon scoffed. “Why the fuck’d everyone make such a big fucking deal outta it?”
Danica sighed. “That’s two f-bombs in one sentence, Lemon.” The girl just smirked.