Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
I talked to them while I transplanted them, telling them that they were going to like it here and describing everything I was adding to the soil. Compost, worm droppings, and a bit of peat moss, along with a healthy layer of pebbles at the bottom of each container for drainage. The planting boxes were made with reclaimed wood, with non-toxic plastic trays full of holes in the bottoms. I’d been trying to find alternatives to plastic for years, but clay pots only came so large, broke easily, and weren’t right for plants that really liked to spread out. So far, I hadn’t found a substitute.
Even cement wasn’t a perfect option unless you mixed it yourself, because there could be anything in it! Glass might work, but it was delicate and it wouldn’t hold moisture for the roots to draw on the way unfinished terra-cotta or wood did.
I hummed a little while I worked. It was sunny out, and even though it had seemed like the world was ending only a few days ago, I was feeling hopeful, truly hopeful, for the first time in years.
Maybe for the first time ever.
The sounds from the job site were definitely softer, although Mac said it would be a few days before they could add more trees. He was even talking about adding another row to help soften the sounds even more.
I felt that warm, inexplicably happy feeling bubble up inside me again. A warm feeling that had a six-feet-tall stud written all over it.
Maybe… maybe this was something real. I knew what I felt was real. I just didn’t know whether he gave all the girls the royal treatment or if it was just me. He might be the kind who loves them and leaves them. I knew there were girls who loved the idea of falling in love more than the reality. He could be one of those, too.
But as of right now, it didn’t much matter.
A vehicle coming up the drive had me brushing off my hands on my jeans and leaving the greenhouse. I was expecting packages, supplies, and was friendly with my UPS driver. Delray was the strongest woman I’d ever met, and she had a big laugh.
When you are pretty much a hermit, you rely on visits from the UPS lady, I thought wryly. But she was so cool, I counted myself lucky to be on her route. I always offered her a drink on hot days and even made her snacks sometimes or sent her home with some of my tomatoes.
But it wasn’t Delray.
I stared in disbelief and rapidly escalating annoyance as Douche Canoe climbed out of his douche mobile.
Chapter 18
Jack
I chewed on a straw, leaning against the wall of the storage room. I didn’t move when I felt someone come to stand beside me. I was too busy watching one of my closest friends and brothers slowly lose his mind.
“What’s he doing?” Callaway asked.
I grunted.
“Stacking crates.”
Mac lifted another box of full booze, moving it to the clean side of the stock room. He’d been at it all day. He was sweating, shirtless, and he looked like a man possessed.
“On a Saturday? Can’t he get one of the prospects to do that?”
“He wanted physical labor.”
Callaway was silent. I looked over to see him taking a video on his phone. I shook my head.
“What? The guys have got to see this.”
I nodded. They did need to see this. I was a little bit worried for my quiet friend. Mac was almost, but not quite, as quiet as I used to be. Of course, I wasn’t that quiet anymore. Being in a house full of crazy ass redheads will make a man speak up now and then.
Mostly to tell them how much I loved them.
Or how they’d saved me.
Mac was a loner. He always had been. His cousin Donnie was the chattiest Devil’s Rider there was, other than Lucky with his big ass mouth. But Mac was different. Soft-spoken. Observant. Tough as a motherfucker, but only when it was needed.
And right now, he was in a bad way.
“I’ve never seen Mac like this,” Cal said softly, putting his phone away.
“No one has ever seen Mac like this.”
A soft ping made me turn my head.
“Your phone,” I said to Mac. He didn’t pause from what he was doing.
“Who is it?”
I fished his phone out of his leather jacket, which was slung over a stack of boxes. I squinted at it.
“It’s Suzanna. She said she’s coming here.”
He stopped and stared at me.
“What?”
“She said the lawyer came by. She seems shaken up.”
He cursed and started pacing.
“Tell her I’ll come there. I’ll take care of him, once and for all.”
I shook my head.
“Says she is already on her way.”
He ran his hand through his hair.
“Fuck. Make sure they know to let her in.”