Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Taking a deep breath, I tried to shut down my thoughts. Overthinking shit in the middle of the night was never a good idea—I’d learned that. I’d spent too much time doing it already.
Eventually, I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up the next morning to Mack standing across the room.
“Draco,” he called. When I opened my eyes, it took me a minute to find him. He shot me a half-smile. “Didn’t know if you woke up swingin’, so I figured I’d keep my distance.”
“Good call,” I said, sitting up. I glanced at the window.
“It’s early still,” he said. He reached up to scratch his jaw and sighed. “Casper and Farrah’s place—”
“Gone?” I asked, my stomach sinking.
“Mostly,” he replied with a nod. “Got a call this mornin’.”
“Fuck,” I muttered. I reached up to rub my eyes and stopped a centimeter from my face. Not a good idea. One of my eyes was barely open, it was so swollen.
“Should’ve iced it,” Mack said. “Probably a good idea to do it now. I’ll get ya somethin’.”
“Thanks,” I said, following him into the kitchen. Someone was moving around at the other end of the house and I wondered if it was Kara.
“They’re gettin’ dressed so we can head over to Callie’s,” he said, gesturing with his chin toward the bedrooms. He grabbed a frozen bag of corn out of the freezer and tossed it to me. “You want coffee?”
“Yeah, thanks,” I said, putting the corn against my eye. Fuck, that hurt. Everything hurt. I had a feeling that my clothes were covering a shitload of bruises that hadn’t been there yesterday.
Mack had just handed me a mug and I was pouring my coffee when Rose and Kara came down the hallway together.
“I won’t be an asshole about it,” Rose was saying. “But I can feel how I wanna feel.”
“I’m just saying, it would probably be better if you didn’t say good riddance to anyone but me,” Kara replied. “That’s their home.”
“I know,” Rose snapped.
“You don’t have to bite my head off,” Kara grumbled, stomping toward me.
“Everyone’s strung tight,” Mack said, his voice low.
“I can’t be sorry that fucking house is gone,” Rose said, looking at Mack. “I’m sorry, but I can’t. Yes, it’s Aunt Farrah and Uncle Casper’s house. Yeah, the kids grew up there. But I was there when everything went down, okay? None of you were. And if I never have to see that fucking place again, I’m not fucking sorry about it, okay?”
I felt seriously out of place as Rose stood in the middle of the kitchen, her entire body tense as she spoke. I wasn’t a mind reader, and I’d never pretend to know what someone else was thinking, but I had a pretty good feeling that Rose was a lot more upset about my grandparents’ house burning down than she was letting on.
“Nobody’s arguing that,” Kara said, her voice wobbling as she slammed a mug down on the counter. “I just said—”
“Enough,” Mack ordered.
“I just—”
“Kara,” he growled.
I moved closer to Kara. Rose clearly wasn’t the only one upset about the house.
“I’ll get coffee at my parents’ place,” Rose said after a moment. “You ready?”
Mack nodded. “You’ll bring Kara over?” he asked me.
“I can drive myself,” Kara replied.
“I’ll bring her,” I said at the same time.
We were quiet as Mack ushered Rose out of the house.
“You wanna finish your coffee here or bring it with us?” I asked Kara after the front door had closed behind them.
“I can drive myself,” she said, not bothering to turn and face me.
“You got a problem ridin’ with me?” I asked. I reached out and wrapped my fingers around her hip, my stomach churning as she tensed up. Shit.
“No, it’s fine,” she said, setting down her mug. “I’ll just leave the coffee. It tastes like shit anyway.”
She gave me an unconvincing smile as she moved away.
“You gonna kiss me good morning?” I asked, testing the waters.
I couldn’t complain about the quick kiss she gave me. On the surface, it was fine. But something was off and we both knew it.
The drive was quiet and I braced for the moment we were surrounded with people. There’d been so much talk about me and Kara, I knew that even with the worry about my grandparents’ place, all the eyes were going to be on us.
“Poor Charlie,” Kara said as we pulled up outside Callie’s. “Rose is right, we weren’t there. Neither was Charles. It’s just her home.”
“She’ll be alright,” I said, turning the truck off. “It sucks, but they got the important stuff out. Everybody’s okay. It’s just a house.”
I knew it better than anyone after the house fire we’d had when I was a kid. It was overwhelming and seriously fucking sad when it happened, but eventually, just like everything else, it got easier.