Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 558(@200wpm)___ 447(@250wpm)___ 372(@300wpm)
My dad had always preached on forgiveness, probably because my mom had given him her fair share of it. Every time the sermon at church had his conscience eating away at him and confessing he had hooked up with some lot lizard on one of his runs, Mom turned the other cheek. Made his dinner. Folded his laundry… Maybe that was why forgiveness had always felt like weakness to me and why I hadn’t been able to forgive Jade for…for what? For me not being good enough for her?
I huffed a laugh, opening my eyes and leaning over my knees, hating how irrelevant she’d made me feel.
I was well into my self-wallowing when the back door creaked open. Footfalls crunched the grass, sounding off the hum of the mower. I kept my head down, focused on the ground. When Jade’s scuffed sneakers stopped in front of the empty chair beside me, I didn’t want to look at her. My emotions were too high.
“Thank you.” The nylon creaked when she took a seat, her knee bouncing before she drew in a deep breath. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her tugging at a loose thread on those damn Roller Burger shorts. I wasn’t in the mood for conversation. I wanted her to go back inside the house and leave me alone to clear my head.
“It’s not that serious. Fuckface can handle ‘no’ once in a while.”
“Okay. Well…” She gripped the arms of the chair like she was about to push up but then paused.
I could feel her staring at me, but I kept my focus on a patch of weeds at my feet.
“Why did you do it?” she asked.
Because, like I’d just admitted to myself, no matter how much I didn’t want to, no matter how much I didn’t understand it, I still cared about her. “Figured you didn’t want to be sold off like cattle. Unless that’s changed, too.” I couldn’t help that little jab. I might have still cared about her when I didn’t want to, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t be a little bitter about it.
“I didn’t think you cared what I wanted.”
“There’s a line, Jade… And putting you in a situation like that is it.”
There she went, pulling at that thread again, her anxiety seeming to fill the silence until she let out another deep sigh. “I didn’t mean it.”
I looked at her, and honestly, I wished I hadn’t. The softness behind her green eyes nearly killed me. I should have ignored her, but instead, I opened my stupid mouth. “Mean what?”
“When I said I didn’t give a shit about you.” She averted her gaze, finally snapping loose the thread and winding it around her finger. “Nothing I’ve ever done has been because I don’t care, Wolf.” She pushed to her feet and walked away, leaving me with that comment that felt like battery acid in an already festering wound.
Ten
Jade
The back door closed behind me before I made my way to the laundry room to throw in a load. Wolf Brookes wasn’t some ambassador for good—he was a thief and drug dealer, for God’s sake. But for me, he had always been the white knight. I’d just seen a glimmer of the guy I’d once loved so much. The one who cared enough not to sit back and stay silent when he thought something was wrong. And that auction was wrong. I’d done a lot of healing over the years—thanks to Wolf—but not enough to be able to face that situation, and he knew it. His standing up for me had restored a little bit of my faith in humanity.
I grabbed a dirty hamper and hauled it onto the lid of the machine.
I’d just tossed in the last pair of socks when my phone vibrated in my pocket. My mom’s name flashed across the screen, and my stomach knotted in anticipation the same way it always did. “Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, honey.” She sounded…bright. Almost cheerful.
The tension in my chest eased a little. “Is everything okay?” I reached for the detergent with my free hand.
“Yes. Your father had his appointment today. The doctor prescribed some new pills for him. She said they should make him better.” Make him better…from a condition they couldn’t even diagnose. “He might even be able to go back to work.” She sounded hopeful, for the first time in forever.
I bit my tongue, not wanting to squash it. Still, I had to ask… “How much do the pills cost, Mom?”
There was a beat of silence, and I knew I’d taken a crap on her glimmer of joy. “Not that much.”
“How much?” I dumped the detergent into the washing machine and closed the lid.
“Two hundred a month.” It was far less than I’d expected from the rip-off drug companies, but still, an extra two hundred dollars a month… And they’d have to come up with it immediately to fill the script. I let out a breath, fighting the urge to cry. I had hoped the money from Rogue’s drugs would buy me more time, but it seemed there was never enough time, enough money, enough hours in the damn day.