Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“And you don’t think me calling him will affect his decision-making process of whether or not to come?” he asked.
“Honey, the man asked me to marry him when he was already married. How he thought he was going to pull that off, I have no earthly clue. But I think it’s established Bryce Katz is gonna do what Bryce Katz is gonna do, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about it, even if he’ll swear up and down you’re his whole world and all he’s doing is for you.”
“How would you feel if I told you, it’d make me feel better to phone him?”
Instantly, I picked up my phone, engaged it, went to Bryce’s contact and handed the phone to Hutch.
For a very long beat, he didn’t take the phone. He didn’t even look at it.
He stared at me.
Then he took the phone.
“My name used to be Callie,” I told him.
Or, at least, one of them was.
He didn’t even twitch when I said that.
He just hit my phone screen, so I set about putting groceries away.
But I didn’t hide I was listening to every word Hutch said when he started saying them.
It started with, “No, this isn’t Callie. This is Callie’s new man.”
Callie’s new man.
Lord, Hutch had a way of making a girl shiver.
Then it went on with, “Listen, motherfucker, I don’t give a shit about anything you have to say. I’m calling because word got to my woman you’ve got your panties in a twist that the woman who scraped you off a year and a half ago has moved on. Take a fuckin’ hint, man, move on too.”
The “panties in a twist” was class.
Bryce was sure to hate that.
After that came, “You do you. And she’ll slap a restraining order on you. I know you’re scrambling hard to convince yourself you aren’t a lowdown, filthy piece of shit for what you did to your wife. You can run from that and do it hard for a long time. It doesn’t mean it isn’t gonna catch up with you. It is, because it has. You fucked up your wife’s life. You’ve fucked up your kids’ lives. Everything you touch turns to shit. And you’re gonna have to live the rest of your life understanding that. Except for Callie. She’s where she wants to be, with who she wants to be with, and you do not factor.”
There was a short pause, and then there was, “Your call. Make a fool of yourself. Waste your money. You’re already a joke. We talk about you and laugh about your ass.”
That was a lie.
But it was a good one.
Hutch went on, “We can always use a new punchline.”
And with that, he hung up.
He looked at me.
“He’s coming, isn’t he?” I asked.
“No clue. I think he might have a mental defect or a learning disability. At the very least, and I’m not tellin’ you something you don’t know, the man struggles with the skill of simply listening.”
It was my turn to smirk. “I should have just given you the phone when you first asked, because that was all kinds of epic.”
He didn’t respond to that.
He said, “I gotta train Tonks. Then I gotta get back to my dogs so I can get back to you so we can spend the night fucking.”
“Is there a lot of walking on this sanctuary tour?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to go easy on me tonight so I don’t pass out halfway through the tour and lose my cool auntie vibe in front of the kids?”
“No.”
Of course that’d be his answer.
“Do you want me to?” he asked.
Of course I didn’t.
I gave him the side-eye.
Thankfully, he let it slide.
“I’m gonna go work with Tonks.” He looked at the groceries. “You need help with this before I do?”
“No. I’ve got it.”
He came to me and gave me a quick kiss.
Then he walked away, whistling and patting his leg.
Tonks danced to him.
He grabbed the lead, and they headed out.
I put away groceries.
After I got that done, I watched that TikTok twenty times.
There were many best parts about it, but one of them (lower down the list) was that Bryce was going to take one look at Hutch, and his dick was going to lose an inch, because Hutch was in reality the kind of man I suspected Bryce thought he was, but deep down, it wrecked him because he knew he wasn’t.
And I didn’t lie to Hutch.
I didn’t care about Bryce anymore.
But that made me glad.
NINETEEN
Phone Calls
Hutch
Early Saturday morning, Hutch scuttled back on his belly until he was hidden behind the hind ridge of Stony Bluff.
He turned to his ass to look at the screen on the back of his camera.
He clicked through the photos he took and muttered, “Damn.”
He’d been out there only three times this week because he could only go on days when it was gray and there was no sun to reflect off his camera lens.