Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94624 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Never mind,” I told my friend, who winked at me, before I turned my attention back to my daughter. “Please finish about getting groped at the party. And don’t think for a second that wasn’t the most important part to me.”
“I know,” she said, grinning. “You were only concerned that I was turning into a lush.”
“I was not—I simply…would you please just tell the story?”
“Well, that one was more pat than the grab with the fingers that Mr. Slavon’s was, but Jake put that guy up against a wall in the living room anyway and yelled at him to apologize.”
“And did he?”
“Yes. Very quickly. And then when we were leaving, he came back with his friends, but Jake explained to them exactly what had happened and then asked how would they like it if some piece of trash put his hand on one of their girls.”
I smiled at her. “Jake has a way with people.”
“He really does,” she agreed. “But he was doing his regular talking about how disrespectful it was, and how Jake had to protect his girl, and the biggest guy, who looked like he could lift cars, he puts a hand on Jake’s shoulder and says yeah, he gets it and they’ll have a talk with Donny, and that was the end of that.”
“Good.”
“And for the record, we went there to see one of his friends who was entertaining at the party. We’re not drinkers, as you well know. We didn’t stay long either, because Jake’s also much more for yacht rock and seventies than loud house music.”
I knew that too, but it was nice to be reminded that they weren’t out getting trashed every night. Although, how they could and keep their grade point averages where they were, would have been a neat trick.
“Well, I still think you––oh, hold on,” I said. My phone was ringing in my back pocket, and since it might have been Sam, I needed to check who was calling. When I looked, I felt a quick pang of fear. “It’s Dane,” I told the table, and then answered. “Hey?”
“First, I need you to understand that he’s fine,” my brother told me. Always, he simply began speaking. He had never been the type to exchange greetings or pleasantries. He got to the point of the reason for all his calls quickly.
“Oh God,” I said, having trouble breathing.
“What’s wrong?” Hannah asked me, sounding as scared as I was.
I put up my hand to tell her to hold on.
“Is Dane all right?” Aja wanted to know.
I nodded to her question.
“Sam was shot,” Dane told me.
And that was the end of my heart beating.
“With a spear gun.”
Wait. “With a spear gun?” I croaked out.
“What?” Hannah gasped.
I would have put him on speaker so everyone could hear, but we were in a loud, boisterous, crowded restaurant, which would make things difficult. But outside would be fine.
I gestured to Dylan, and since we had been friends for ages, she understood. Hannah, Aja, and I went outside while Dylan would stay and explain what was happening to our waiter, and assure him that we would be right back in.
Rushing outside after telling Dane to hold on, once we were out on the street, we clustered together and I put him on speaker.
“We’re all here, love,” Aja said to him.
“Oh, how nice,” he said glumly. “I was going to call you right after this so––”
“Please do,” she urged him. “I miss you.”
He cleared his throat. “So we all went out on a fishing boat today, and some of the guys were drinking and some of us were not.”
We all stayed quiet.
“Or I should say, we were all drinking, but some quite a bit more than others.”
“Okay,” I said, because it made sense they were drinking, they were on vacation.
“Just a bit ago, we stopped fishing, and some people wanted to dive since they found some scuba gear and we were out pretty far. But the charter was not for that, so the captain asked them to please not do that, but some of the guys did it anyway.”
“So drunk people got into the water.”
“Correct.”
“And then?”
“Well, then pretty quickly we see dolphins near the boat, but the four guys in the water, who again, are drunk, surface and yell out that they think they’re sharks.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” I groaned.
“Well, we get three of them back on the boat, but the fourth guy, his name is Mark––”
“Oh, I know Mark,” I said, because I did. The last time he was at my house he’d smacked me on the ass. It hadn’t meant anything, he just forgot himself for a moment, but I was thinking if he’d been the one to shoot Sam with a spear, this might be the end.
“Okay, so I got in the water because I didn’t want him to accidentally shoot a dolphin, and I get him over to the boat, but when I’m trying to get him out of the water, one of the guys on the boat screams shark again, and he turned to shoot the gun. Of course, I went for the gun, and he raised it and accidentally fired at the same time.”