Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“How’re they doing?” he asked.
“Drunk,” I admitted.
Cakes’s eyes went to the right and his lips tipped up. “What happened there?”
“The teenage kid that lives there tried to roofie a girl, and she caught him. She gave him the roofie, then the sister and the girl filled his yard with instant mashed potatoes out of what had to be an industrial-size box and forked the yard for good measure,” I answered.
Cakes’ eyes narrowed, and the streetlight above his head illuminated his face enough that I could see the news pissed him off.
It had me, too.
I was just too brain tired to think of a suitable option but going over there and cutting his dick off.
“Huh,” he said. “I’ll handle it.”
I grinned. “I can’t wait to hear about it.”
Cakes gave me a handshake before we switched shifts, and I started home, going well past the speed limit in order to get home faster.
I’d just turned into the city limits of Decatur when I caught up to the familiar brown Honda.
The brown Honda turned and disappeared down the sleepy street that would lead to her place, and I hooked a right and headed to the ranch.
All the while, I wondered what in the hell I was supposed to do about a woman that consumed way too much of my thoughts, and spelled out TROUBLE in big, fat, capital letters.
Nine
You tell someone they were in your dreams and they automatically think raunchy. Lady, you morphed into a dinosaur and chased me through Kmart.
—Searcy’s secret thoughts
SEARCY
Life was simple.
At least, that was what everyone always wanted you to think.
For the next eight weeks, Anders, Kent, and I spent our summer like we typically would.
I didn’t know about Calliope, mainly because she didn’t acknowledge me at all.
At least Kent and Anders wanted to spend time with me.
Over those two months of summer, Kent went from fourteen to fifteen, and Anders went from seven to eight.
Oh, and my mom still hadn’t shown.
But she sure the fuck kept taking money out of our account when she needed it, so at least I knew that she was alive.
I rolled over onto my back, and my tank top went one way while my breasts went another.
I hated sleeping in tank tops. Sometimes when I woke up in the morning, my left titty was in the kitchen making breakfast while the right was tangled in the bed sheets.
Well, they weren’t that big, exactly, but since I slept in a threadbare tank top, sometimes they had a mind of their own.
Getting up, I fixed my tank and headed to the bathroom, more than aware that I should’ve put some clothes on first.
However, since my clothes were currently in the dryer, probably still slightly damp because our dryer was shit, I didn’t have much of a choice unless I wanted to take my comforter with me.
Luckily, Kent wasn’t up yet, allowing me to get in the bathroom and get ready to go in the laundry room before waking him up.
Anders, bless her sweet heart, was already up and eating cereal by the time I came back out of the laundry room.
“Good morning,” I said. “Are you excited about school?”
She sighed. “I’m not in the same class as all my friends.”
I grinned. “I know. I made sure you weren’t.”
She grumbled something under her breath and followed it up with, “Yeah, yeah. I know you think I talk a lot, but really I don’t. I talk probably about as much as everyone else.”
“True,” I said. “But everyone else doesn’t have Calliope for a sister. She left a lasting impression with all of the teachers in middle school, and trust me when I say, you don’t want them taking anything out on you that Calliope did. Just keep your nose clean, be respectful, and listen always. Make them realize that Calliope is her own breed and make them love you.”
“I’ll have them eating out of my hand by next week,” she declared. “Is Kent up? The bus just turned the corner.”
“I’m up,” Kent said as he came into the living room fully dressed.
He was in a hoodie, and it was already ninety degrees.
The kid was crazy.
In three months, he’d be wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it’d be freezing out.
“Good,” I said as I walked to the drawer. “I wrote y’all checks for school.”
“Don’t need ’em,” Kent said. “Tear them up. Everyone gets free lunch this year for some reason.”
I paused. “Really?”
“Really,” he said. “Some rich kid’s dad covered everyone for the year.”
That was amazing, and truly something that would help.
Speaking of help, I seriously needed to go.
With school back in, I now had to find a way to do the diner thing on my own.
It was obvious my mother had no immediate plans of coming back anytime soon.
Which was why I had a potential hire coming in for an interview in fifteen minutes.