Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
***
An hour later, I was walking out of the Marks homestead with Carol right on my heels.
“If you could just be here on Mondays and Wednesdays, and most likely Fridays from seven forty-five to five in the afternoon, that would make a considerable difference.” Carol rubbed her hands together. “Now all I need to do is find someone that can cook.”
I snorted. “I unfortunately can’t help you there. However, I’d be willing to bet that someone would love to come out here and cook in that kitchen. Thank you so much for everything, Carol. Today has turned into a really good day when it started out to be such a bad one.”
She waved my thank you away.
“You have no clue what you’re doing for me. I’m so exhausted, and with all this morning sickness going on, I can barely get out of bed most days. God, if it quit, I’d never complain about anything ever again.”
I started to laugh. “Says every woman from the beginning of time.”
Carol laughed with me.
“I’ll also talk to my husband about getting you on the company health plan. Would you be wanting to put the kids on it, too?”
I shook my head. “I’m on Travis’ policy. But I appreciate the gesture. Would you like me to come back tomorrow, even though it’s Tuesday, and start the regular schedule next week?”
Carol nodded excitedly. “That’ll give me time to go to town and get all the errands done that I’ve been putting off.”
Her excitement was contagious, and I found myself amused as I said my goodbyes and drove all the way home.
Since Travis went to pick up the kids, I was left taking my time, and picking up two pizzas for dinner.
The moment I walked in the door, Travis’s surprise was evident.
“You’re home early…”
I grimaced, my smile long gone.
“Apparently, Allegra and her father are investors in the clinic,” I told him.
It took him less than thirty seconds to realize what had happened.
“I’ll kill her.”
Chapter 15
A beard is nature’s way of saying let’s fuck.
-Fact of Life
Hannah
“Goddammit, I hate this man,” Michael muttered, immediately reaching forward and skipping to the next song, but realizing that there was no button to actually skip. “Alexa, skip song!”
I slapped his hand and shoved him away from my counter where my Alexa tower was located.
My brother just laughed.
“Hey, fucker!” I hissed. “I liked that song!”
My brother gave me a droll look.
“You know what I do when I pull someone over and Sam Hunt is playing?” he questioned.
I shrugged, vaguely interested in what he had to say. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what he did. It was likely that I wouldn’t like it.
“I write them a ticket.”
“Right on,” Travis muttered as he came into the room, the puppy hot on his heels. “Fucking hate Sam Hunt. Country music poser.”
“You know,” I smiled, watching the man that had my heart and soul. “You did buy me tickets to see Sam Hunt in concert.”
He’d gotten them for me for Mother’s Day, and had given them to me last night.
Travis shrugged. “Know you like him.”
Michael started to chuckle. “You know that she’s going to take you…right?”
Travis looked up at my brother and sneered. “Actually, someone has to stay home with the kids.”
That was true…but still.
“My brother can watch the kids…right?” I asked. “Nikki won’t care.”
Nikki was Michael’s wife and I had no doubt in my mind that she wouldn’t care.
Nikki started to laugh. “You walked right into that one, big boy.”
Michael grunted and turned to his wife. “I don’t think I could handle them all by myself.”
It was clear that he thought to rope Nikki into helping watch my heathens. Little did he know that TJ had full blown colic, and there hadn’t been a night that passed since he was born where I hadn’t had to walk with him for hours a night.
“So, tell me about this woman that’s ruining your life?”
My brother didn’t mince words, and I’d had to give him something to come over here with Travis here.
They were under some sort of truce—a truce that they had to talk about outside for fifteen minutes the moment Michael got here—and so far, it’d been fairly calm.
A lot calmer than it had been the day that I’d given birth, and I woke up to my brother, Travis, my parents, and his parents in the hospital room with me.
Travis and his family were on one side, and my family was on the other.
My baby had been in Travis’ arms, and all of them had been sitting so tensely quiet that I’d had the urge to laugh.
Now, though, they chatted amicably about work, the weather, and even about their kids.
I noticed the tension between the two since I knew them both so well, but they were trying…and for that I was grateful.
“She’s not ruining…”
“Allegra is a conceited, self-centered, ruthless bitch whose father ‘practically owns this county.’ Her words, not mine,” Travis butted in. “I met her when I was young and dumb, while on leave. We met up another time when I came back on leave, and then I decided while drunk as a skunk that it would be a great idea to get married to her. When I came home for good eight months later, we married, and had a kid within six weeks. What I didn’t know, and my whole fuckin’ family forgot to tell me, was that she was a catty bitch who thought she was getting somebody that had a lot of money. Unfortunately for her, my father was the one with the money and not me.”