Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 880(@200wpm)___ 704(@250wpm)___ 587(@300wpm)
I’m surprised he doesn’t send Farrow to pick me up and bring me to the track.
I let the wheels spin in my head. Yeah, that is surprising. He didn’t send Farrow because he’s with Farrow. Dread starts to curl its way through my mind. Are they up to something?
Why is it so hard for Lucas to talk to me?
To hell with it. If he’s not at the track, he will be soon.
Closing my laptop, I swing my crossbody over my head and grab my phone, about to head to my bike.
But then I remember…
Doubling back, I swipe my new car keys off the worktable and turn off the bakery lights.
My phone rings as I open the alley door, and I glance at the screen. I answer as I lock the door. “Hi,” I chirp.
“Hey, kiddo,” Jax replies.
I slip my work keys into my purse and head around the block, toward my new-to-me Jeep.
“Sorry I haven’t been around much,” he tells me. “This summer is flying by.”
“It’s okay. We’re all busy.”
“It’s not okay.” He pauses, his voice softening. “I miss you.”
I toss my purse into the back of the car and hesitate, loving how that feels. When Jared calls, it’s not always unpleasant, but he usually has an ulterior motive, and when Madoc reaches out, it’s to get me to join in on a picnic or a party. Again, not unpleasant, but it always feels like I’m a baby bird being tucked back under a giant wing.
When Jax calls, I just feel like he wants me to feel loved. Like he didn’t growing up.
“You don’t miss me?” he blurts out.
I grin, climbing into the car. “I do. I’m just too busy smiling at how sweet you are.”
He falls quiet for a moment. “Yeah, well…”
I can just envision the blush on his cheeks.
The youngest of my three brothers is just as formidable as Jared, and just as powerful as Madoc, but he’s always a little gentler. Maybe it’s in his nature to keep his emotions in check, but I think part of him constantly feels like he doesn’t have the right to bark or make demands of me like the other two. Jax and I don’t share blood. There’s an invisible line he just never seems to cross, and out of the three, I wish he would the most. He is my brother, and I want him to know it.
“I appreciate you, you know that,” he says. “Hawke is driving me nuts right now, and I look at you and think maybe I was a good influence on someone. Because, let’s be honest, Jared and Madoc weren’t.”
I laugh a little, but the guilt makes my smile quickly fall. If he knew I was keeping a secret—or a few, actually…
Starting the engine, I put my earbud in and lay my phone in the passenger seat. “What’s going on with Hawke?”
I pull away from the curb and make my way down High Street, toward Fallstown.
“Oh, this frat he’s started.” His tone drips with disdain. “I didn’t think I raised a fucking preppie.”
I nearly snort. “He’s not a preppie.”
Hawke, Kade, and Hunter started a fraternity at Clarke University last fall, Sigma-something-or-other. They even renovated a derelict house on campus. So far, it’s just the three of them, but they’ve aligned with a national organization, formed an executive board, and begun the recruiting process.
He goes on, “Even Aro is disgusted she’s in love with a frat-bro.”
“Or oddly turned on.”
If I know anything about Aro—and Dylan—they will relish the challenge of their boyfriends belonging to clubs they can’t join. They don’t like—
Movement catches my attention, a car in my rearview mirror. I tense, recognizing the now-familiar sight of the black Dodge.
“Where are you?” he asks.
“Almost at Fallstown.” I turn left. “Dylan is racing tonight.”
I grip the wheel, glancing in my mirror again. That damn car is just pissing me off now. What does it want?
I clear my throat, shifting gears and speeding up. “You know I’m going to make some mistakes sooner or later, right?” I tell him.
“As long as he has a job, a license, no criminal record, and no sexual past, I approve of any of your mistakes.” I hear him chew something crunchy. “I’m very proud of the man Aro chose. And the one Dylan chose.”
Yeah. Both their guys are family members of his. And virgins, from what Aro told me the other night in the bounce house and Dylan confided about her and Hunter ages ago. I’m choosing someone who will make Jax more nervous because I’m in love with someone a lot older than me. Someone with a past that’s causing him a lot of problems.
“Well, thank goodness your criteria weren’t in place when Juliet, Tate, and Fallon were falling in love.”
“Right?” he retorts.
I chuckle. We all know that he, Jared, and Madoc would’ve had a hard time getting around those rules.