Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
It meant that you couldn’t go home alone or do the things you really wanted to do during snowstorms. He’d all but begged me to allow Hux to drive me home today after he dropped me off at work.
And since I wasn’t stupid, and I knew that I was safer to have someone who knew how to navigate in blizzard conditions, I’d agreed.
“Why?” he asked.
I bit my lip. “In all honesty?”
He grunted. “I don’t like being lied to, so yeah, in all honesty.”
“I am ready to go,” I admitted. “I have a true crime documentary calling my name, and I want to go home. Also, I watched this video a little bit ago about diamond mining in Arkansas, and I want to do research on it. Plus, this store gives me hives, and I don’t want to be here any longer than necessary.”
He grunted.
“Hence me asking if you need help. You look like you’re nowhere near being ready to go. And since you’re my ride…”
“Fold those bags over on themselves, stuff them as full as you can get them while still being able to lay flat. Then I’ll tell you what to do after that. But wash your hands first and get some plastic gloves on. There’s a hairnet over there, too. I think I have some smaller gloves underneath the counter for when Heidi offers to help.”
I did just that, putting on the hairnet, washing my hands, then gloving up before going to help him pack bags full of meat.
It wasn’t hard work, but it was quite satisfying for some reason.
Though a lot of that satisfaction came from watching Hux wield a blade.
He was a damn master.
I found myself watching his forearms and hands move with such admiration that I didn’t realize he was talking to me at first.
“…you can start putting all of this in the grinder behind you.”
I looked behind me at the massive grinder.
“Whoa,” I said. “Do you think that if I accidentally put my arm in there, it’d grind it off?”
“Without a doubt,” he answered. “But there’s a guard there to prevent that.”
My stomach evened out at the knowledge. “Okay, good. It’d be just my luck that I’d get it stuck in there.”
“Your luck?” he asked.
“It’s trash,” I found myself saying. “I literally have the worst luck in the world. When I was five, I tripped, fell, and broke my forehead.”
He grunted. “Normal for a kid.”
“When I was eleven, I got punched in the face because my brother was trying to beat up the bully that was kicking my ass every day after I couldn’t produce him any lunch money.” I found a bowl on the counter behind me and started filling it up with the parts that he said that we would need to grind. “My bully missed my brother, nearly fell on his face when my brother stepped out of the way, and caught himself on my face. Broke my nose and my eye socket.”
Hux made a noise in his throat, but didn’t interrupt.
“Things like that happened throughout my life, but a couple of years ago.” I leveled Hux with a look. “This never leaves the room.”
Hux’s brows rose. “Okay.”
I’d never told anyone this.
Not a single soul.
I couldn’t believe that I was telling Hux it now.
But for some reason, I was in a sharing mood.
And honestly, I wanted someone to know.
Just in case.
“I was in the bathroom,” I said quietly, keeping my eyes on the way Hux’s muscles moved in his forearms. “At my job. And I survived a serial killer attack.”
Hux’s muscles stopped moving.
I looked up to find his gaze solely on mine. “I’m sorry, what?”
“It was a great thing that Creed’s wife, Birdee, came to find me when she did. I was being stalked by a serial killer for almost a year. If it wasn’t for the new name and the new life? I might not have been alive for him to ever talk to again.”
Hux gently laid the knife down.
“Tell me everything,” he ordered quietly.
I walked behind the table and stared at the meat grinder. “How do you work this?”
He came up behind me, not touching, but definitely not giving me very much space as he reached over and flipped the button on.
It was a lot quieter than I expected it to be.
“Use this paddle here to shove it all down the tube,” he said. “Start talking.”
He dumped the meat onto the tray that was above the long tube that eventually led to the meat-grinding part and then shoved it down the tube with the paddle.
Once I understood, he stepped back, let me do my thing, and waited.
Patiently.
I gathered my thoughts before I started .
“Like I said, I was in the hospital bathroom. Desperately trying to control the asthma attack that was trying to kill me. I was sitting on the toilet fully clothed, head on my knees, feet resting on the toilet lid. It looked like no one was in there, you know?”