Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
“Do it,” I suggested, eyes gleaming in excitement at the thought of pissing Gail off. “Let the party begin.”
Twenty
He wiped away her tears, and accidentally her eyebrow, too.
—Boone to Nettie
Boone
One month later
Nettie is seven months pregnant
The Dixie Wardens MC had a big reach. Not just in Montana but everywhere.
The chapter in Montana worked to make her life miserable, refusing her service at their stores all the way to going out of their way to ignore my mother if she came around.
Honestly, life was pretty good.
It’d been a month into the freeze-out, and my mother had disappeared.
The divorce was finalized in record time.
The judge Dad knew awarded my mother a small monthly stipend that would end the moment that she met another man and got married or found a job.
Dad was awarded the estate since it was his before he got married. And Mom got absolutely no stake in Dad’s company, and was forced to sell her shares to Dad at a reasonable price.
Mom was pissed as hell, but there was nothing she could do without drawing attention to her, so she took the divorce quietly.
Even better, when she went to buy a house in town, no one would work with her. Sellers refused to sell. Renters refused to rent.
It was beautiful.
The best part, though, was that she was forced to move out of town. And not just into the surrounding towns since those were run by the Dixie Wardens, too. She was forced to go to a completely different county well over two hours away.
The town was quiet, and the best part was, I was able to enjoy being newly married to my wife with a baby on the way.
It felt like the world was finally working in my favor.
Holly sidled up to me in that moment and leaned against the pillar next to me.
We’d just successfully saved a dog after he’d been hit by a tractor. He was now missing his tail, one ear, and his left front leg, but he’d make a full recovery after some downtime.
“The owner is so happy,” she said as she stared at the pitiful boy.
“Wonder what the hell that owner was thinking,” I shook my head.
“He saved his life,” Holly ran her fingers over the dog’s silky fur.
At least, the fur that wasn’t singed.
The owner had been out in the barn working on his farming equipment. He’d started something up and hadn’t been paying attention to where his dog was when all of a sudden he heard a yelp.
The dog’s collar had gotten caught up in some moving parts underneath the tractor. From there, it’d gotten an ear and one of his paws before the farmer could react.
The poor guy had to amputate his own dog’s leg.
“Animals are more trouble than they’re worth sometimes,” I mused.
She snorted. “From what I hear, you have quite a few starting to show up at your place.”
I groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
“What are you up to now? Two cats and a couple of goats?”
“All rescues,” I admitted. “I don’t even know where she’s finding them.”
“Me neither.” Holly cackled. “But she calls me to get me to check them out so she doesn’t have to call you.”
“She knows that I’d say no.”
“I don’t have that problem.”
She walked away after one last finger along the dog’s lone ear.
Speaking of my wife, I pulled my phone out and called her up.
“Hey,” I said the moment she answered. “What are you doing?”
“Lunch with Ida Bell, your grandmother, and my sister,” she answered. “Want me to bring you something?”
I thought about it, then decided against it.
It was too close to when I was needing to be in surgery.
“Nah,” I said. “I’ll grab a protein bar out of my office desk.”
“I left you leftovers in the fridge,” she suggested. “Chicken tacos from last night.”
I frowned. “Did you come by and I didn’t see you?”
“You were with that dog,” she said. “And I talked to the farmer. He was heartbroken.”
“The dog made it,” I said. “Probably have PTSD when it gets around farm equipment, though.”
“Gonna be trouble when the dog lives on a farm.”
True.
“What’s everyone have to say?”
After meeting Ida Bell, my grandmother had taken a new lease on life. She was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed now, instead of lethargic and slower moving.
Though, I felt like a lot of her attitude also had to do with Nettie and her arrival back in town.
Nettie had a way of keeping everyone on their toes, and she refused to let my grandmother go peacefully. She wanted her here for as long as possible, and she certainly wanted her to meet our daughter.
Our daughter that would be here in less than eight weeks.
Just the thought had my stomach somersaulting inside my belly.
“Ida Bell says that you need to stop telling Koen to keep an eye on her.” Nettie giggled. “Your grandmother says that her life is now complete without Gail at the estate. And Eddy just told me she was thinking about getting pregnant, but she wanted to see me have the baby first before she decided anything concrete.”