Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68959 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68959 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Codie gave Nico a sheepish look.
“Ace was showing me how it was done,” she said. “He told me that you can’t show them fear or they’ll attack.”
Nico burst out laughing. “Honey, you have no idea how true that really is.”
With that, he led the way to the table, and Codie and I followed in his wake.
It was only when she arrived at my side, her hand on the first available chair to pull it out, that she realized that it wasn’t just Nico and Georgia, that there was another person there as well.
“Ch-chief.”
Chapter 13
Will give you crime scene advice for tacos.
-Text from Codie to Ace
Ace
I wanted to leave her about as much as I wanted a root canal, but her grandfather had called needing help, leaving me with nothing else to do but allow her to leave after enjoying dinner and her talking to Luke.
It was hours later now, and I was lying in bed, wondering if I could just show up and it be all right.
I was already on the verge of heading her way when the text messages started. The more I got, the more worried I became.
The first one, I didn’t mind so much because it was a picture of her wall, which made me chuckle because she still had a boy band poster tacked up there—LFO it said.
Codie: Attachment
Codie: Srjdk hdhd J J J J Q
Codie: Attachment
Codie: Attachment
Codie: Attachment
It was after the fourth picture of her wall, this time from the floor, that I started to get worried.
Then the FaceTime calls started coming.
The first one I missed.
The second one I caught just as I was stepping out of the shower.
I answered it without a thought or care to my nakedness, and waited for her to come on the line, but the only thing that I saw was the whirring of her fan and the soft ‘thump-thump’ of something in the background.
I hung up, thinking she’d done it on accident, but then the FaceTime call came again.
That was when I started to think that there was something actually wrong.
Throwing on a pair of sweatpants, I stepped directly into my most worn pair of cowboy boots and darted for my window, completely bypassing the front door completely.
One, I didn’t have time to explain to my brothers what was going on.
Two, the window was the fastest way out of the house—I would know, I’d done quite a bit of sneaking out in my younger years.
Hauling ass to the barn, I pulled the closest horse out of his stall and mounted him bareback.
Used to me by now—I rode bareback quite a bit when I was too lazy to saddle them—I practically raced him out of the barn and straight through the front yard to the back that butted up against the Spears’ land.
I had to hop off twice, once to lead Jude through the backyard gate that separated our back yard from the pasture behind our house, and the second time to open the gate that separated our land from the Spears’ land.
I passed a pissy Scooby who wasn’t happy about having any intruders on his stake of land and continued riding until I was at Codie’s window.
All in all, it took about five minutes.
If I’d gone by truck, it’d have taken ten.
But when I arrived, it was to find her… not there.
At least initially.
When I got off the horse and climbed in her open window, it was to find steam coming from the bathroom.
The door was barely shut, and my heart started to thump.
I couldn’t hear anything but the spray of the shower.
No movement. No nothing but water hitting tile.
“Codie?” I called loudly.
There was a squeak, and all of a sudden, she was throwing the shower curtain open and staring at me in surprise.
Before she could get pissed at my abrupt arrival, though, she took in the worry on my face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, uncaring that she was naked.
That was when her nudity hit me.
Seeing her healthy and whole, I forgot to be worried and remembered that I was highly attracted to the girl.
I bent over at the waist and allowed my breathing to return to normal.
At least, I would have had Codie not stepped out of the shower and placed her wet hand on my bare back.
“Oh God, Ace,” she breathed. “You’re freezing.”
Now that she mentioned it, her hand did feel exceptionally hot over my overly cool skin.
I really was freezing.
Shivers wracked my body now, and I knew that the coolness to my skin wasn’t sweat but water from the shower that I hadn’t completely dried off from.
My balls were also sucked up tight to my body, and I was trying to convince myself that I wasn’t that cold.
“Take your pants off and get in the shower with me,” she ordered softly.
That’s when I finally allowed myself to see her fully. To take in her nakedness. And I about died.