Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed. “You have the same color eyes as Viddy!”
I reached across Kettle, pressing myself flush against him, and ripped the glasses off of Viddy’s face, allowing her eyes to become visible to all those that were in front of us.
“Viddy!” I said. “His eyes are the exact same as yours. One blue and one green!”
Trance had sat forward when I ripped the glasses off her face, and was smiling now. “Sweet. Never seen another person with two different colored eyes like my own. They’re gorgeous.”
Viddy blinked a few times, processing that fact, and then smiled. “Awesome.”
“Take a seat, ladies.” Silas ordered.
We sat.
It was just a simple fact. The man ordered it and we did it.
We’d just sat down when the woman Kettle had had his arms wrapped around earlier came up and sat down drinks for everyone.
She was really pretty with blonde perky hair, big, bouncy boobs, and a small, trim waist; exactly what I’d picture any man with. She was what every woman secretly strived to be.
“Shannon,” Kettle stood wrapping his hand around my waist. “I’d like you to meet my neighbor, Adeline and her sister, Viddy. Ladies, this is my sister, Shannon.”
I didn’t really know what to think of the fact that I was relieved. I wasn’t ready for a relationship with a man like Kettle.
I was tired of being understanding. I wanted a man that put me first for once, not someone that would always put his club before me, or his job.
The last man I’d been in a relationship with had done that to me, and I hadn’t realized it until he’d proposed to me.
Jaxton was a great man. He was honest, caring, and committed.
To his job.
He was an OB/GYN in Henderson, TX where I used to live with him.
He was a great doctor but a lousy boyfriend, and I realized that now, and knew that I had to have someone that would be willing to put me and our relationship first.
Which was why it was scary that I actually felt relieved that the beauty was his sister, and not his woman.
“Jesus, Shannon.” Silas spat. “I said a beer, not a Bud Light.”
Whatever internal battle I was struggling with dissipated at that comment, and conversation began to flow.
“What brings y’all to The Tug and Chug, Adeline?” Kettle asked me after telling Shannon their drink orders.
Viddy, who’d been busy speaking quietly with Trance at the end of the table perked up at Kettle’s question, and just had to tell everyone about my awful day.
“Addy got punched in the face by one of her students. He was a football player.” Viddy crowed. “So I brought her here for a sundae and a cheeseburger to cheer her up.”
Six pairs of eyes locked to my face, and only then did they realize that my face and right eye was swollen. I’d done a good job at hiding it with makeup, and then wearing my hair down to add to the camouflage, but Viddy didn’t know how to keep her trap shut.
“What happened?” Kettle barked, turning my head so he could examine my eye.
I shivered at the touch of his rough fingers on my chin, and looked into his piercing blue eyes, becoming lost.
“Addy?” He asked, worry evident in his deep baritone voice.
I blinked, and then told him what happened earlier that day.
“I’m a high school science teacher, Kettle. Most of the kids use my class to blow off steam since there’s a mandatory lab, but today was a little worse than normal since it was a pep rally day. One of the boys on the football team was picking on a young girl, calling her names, and another boy, one of the ones that has a crush on the girl, intervened. I’d just walked around the corner when the football player threw a punch at the kid, who incidentally moved out of the way just in time, causing the player to punch me in the face instead.”
Kettle’s teeth ground together, making an audible noise as he listened.
“What did they do to the kid?” Silas’ voice broke the connection causing me to turn and look at him.
I shrugged. “Suspension. Benton High has a zero tolerance policy for fighting. He’ll be gone for well over two weeks.”
“That’s it?” Trance asked from further down the table.
I shrugged again. “I don’t know. It was an accident. Or at least the hitting the teacher part. So I can’t really get too mad at him.”
“Fuck that,” Kettle growled. “You sure as fuck can get mad at him. Nobody should be throwing punches with people that close around them. They should be aware of their surroundings. That shouldn’t happen at all in a school. What did the school resource officer have to say about it all?”
I would’ve replied if a commotion coming from the opposite corner we were in didn’t capture everyone’s attention, including my own.
“Let me go!” Kettle’s sister shrieked at a young man that was wrapped around her from behind, groping her boobs.
Kettle’s chair scooted back loudly as he took in the altercation, and then he exploded.
Literally.
One second he was in his chair and scooting back, and the next second he was across the room, punching the guy across the mouth with his fist with the force of a sledge hammer.
“Oh, shit.” Sebastian groaned.
The sentiment was echoed by the other four men as they, too, got up and started heading over towards the altercation.
I didn’t know if it was to help Kettle, or restrain him.
I’d seen many fights in my tenure as a high school teacher.
I’d broken up many of them, too.
The sounds that always surround a fight are unique.
There is the jeering from the crowd, the scuffling sound from the two people grappling, and then the actual sound of flesh meeting flesh.
Kettle’s fight resembled none of those.
The bar became so silent that the only sound that was heard was the ice machine dropping ice into the dispenser. No talking, laughing, cheering, no nothing. It was as if everyone was anticipating the upcoming events about to go down. Like watching a tiny car stuck on a railroad track and a freight train barreling down the tracks toward it.