Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97409 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97409 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“Where did Collins go?” Everleigh stops beside me with a white box in her hand.
“She—” I put my hand on my leg, and wonder if she can see how fucking freaked out I am. “She—”
“Oh, good god, Theo, did you insult her?”
“What?” I move back as if she hit me. “Why would I ever insult anyone?”
“You insult me all the time,” Brock jokes, claiming the chair Collins just sat in. He picks up another lemon square and pops it in his mouth as if my life didn’t just fall off its axis. “I’m surprised, though. I didn’t think Collins was your type.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask, insulted.
“It means she’s not the normal girl you go for.” He picks up a donut, acting like he didn’t insult me indirectly.
“Would you stop eating everything?” Everleigh hisses at him.
“Baby, I’m starving.” He doesn’t even pay attention to the way she’s glaring at him. It just falls off him.
“I’m going to go and pack a box. You can take it to the station and drop it off for Collins.” She walks away from us, and I turn back to Brock, who is taking his second bite of the donut like he hasn’t had anything to eat in a year.
“What did you mean by that?”
“I mean, she’s not the normal type you go for.” He swallows. “It’s pretty self-explanatory.”
“Who do I normally go for?”
“Yeah, you like to surf the coast but not get too close to the shore.” He takes another bite and then chews twice before he continues. “Trust me, I know what that’s like.”
“I don’t even know what the fuck that means.” I sit back in the chair.
“It means you aren’t looking for anything serious, so you go home with these random women from out of town so you won’t have to look over your shoulder when you go out,” he explains. “Everyone knows—”
“People talk about this?”
“Dude.” He chuckles. “Where the fuck do you think you live? People talk about nothing and everything.” He finishes the donut and looks over at the piece of pie, contemplating whether he’s going to have room to eat it or not. “With that said, I think you should stay away from Collins.” He leans forward, and his tone is tight and almost dangerous. “Actually, scratch that, stay the fuck away from Collins.”
The hair on the back of my neck tingles. “Yeah?” I snarl. “And why the fuck is that?”
“Because she’s not your type.” He holds up a finger.
“She’s 1,000 percent my type,” I defend myself, because she is. From her eyes to her amazing mouth to the way she smiles, which she doesn’t do enough if you ask me. It almost makes me want to go out of my way to do something to make her smile. Something she hasn’t done with me the last two times I’ve seen her.
“I don’t mean her looks. It’s a given that she’s a knockout,” he states.
My eyes go into slits. “I thought you were married.”
“I’m not dead.” He side-eyes me. “She also doesn’t need your brand of trouble.”
“I’m going to tell you that it’s time you stopped talking.” The hand on my leg balls into a fist.
“Well, no surprise, I’m not going to.” He chuckles. “I’m going to do you and Collins a favor, something this town doesn’t do enough for her. Just drop it and move on. I get it, the thrill of chasing someone who says no is exciting. But you are going to move on, and she’s going to be the one who people talk about.”
I want to ask him what he means by that, but Everleigh comes back out with two boxes in her hands. “Here,” she says, handing them to Brock, “you can drop this off at the station. Give one to the guys there and then make sure Collins gets that.” She taps the box on the bottom. “I think she works three to three.”
“For you, baby”—he gets up and grabs the boxes from her—“anything.”
“He just called Collins a knockout,” I report, and Everleigh laughs.
“Well, she is.” She shrugs her shoulders. “She always was.”
“Yeah,” Brock agrees with her, and I hate it when he’s in a playful mood.
“I like you better when you’re broody and angry,” I tell him, “and not this.”
“You fuck with Collins, you’ll get a very angry Brock, and he’ll fuck with you like you’ve never been fucked with before.” He looks at Everleigh, who looks at me with her eyes widening.
“Oh no.” Everleigh shakes her head. “You can’t go there. Leave her alone. She’s been through enough.”
“What?” I ask, confused, looking at both of them. “What do you mean?”
“See?” She points at me. “Right there is reason number one why you need to just go bark up someone else’s tree. You should go to Thatcher’s tonight. I heard there is a group of girls who are in town for a team-building exercise. They came in here this morning, just your type. Not from around here, bubbly and cute.”