Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“Thanks,” I murmured as I dragged my tired ass back to the truck.
“Ready to hit the road?” I asked.
Her face was pale as I looked over at her once I put it in drive. “More than.”
Six
I’m a side chick. Mashed potatoes. Macaroni. Potato salad.
—Birdee’s secret thoughts
Birdee
“All right, Gordie,” I said as I put the prairie rattlesnake that I’d been milking back into his enclosure. “Be a good boy and make some more venom.”
A chuckle from behind me had me whirling, and I pressed my hand over my chest as I stared at my creep of a boss.
I was glad that I’d finally graduated and I could finally look for a different job.
I had my eye on two jobs in specific. One with the United States Department of Agriculture for Wildlife management, and one with a private company that makes dog food as a research developmentalist.
Both jobs couldn’t get back to me fast enough.
“Hi, Stacy.” I smiled at Shade’s stepdad, though it didn’t reach my eyes. “I thought you’d gone home.”
Hoped you’d gone home…
“Came back to get my cell phone. Left it on my desk,” he lied.
He purposefully left it on his desk so he’d have a reason to come back for it when I was all alone.
Something he tried to do once a week.
When Shade’s mother, Rayelle, had first started dating Stacy, we’d all gotten a huge laugh out of it. I mean, first the man’s name was Stacy. And Stacy had been young when Rayelle met him. Rayelle had been in her early fifties, and Stacy had been just barely twenty-one.
Shade and I had seen the reason behind Stacy’s interest early on. She was hot and rich. A very potent combination when you’re a lazy twenty-one-year-old kid that didn’t have any ambition in life.
But they’d been married for going on ten years now, and I’d been forced to have him in my life since.
Stacy had always given me the creeps, and probably always would.
“Ahh,” I said. “I’m just about finished up here. My friend Creed is going to pick me up soon.”
I hoped.
He said that he would when he’d dropped me off this morning, but hadn’t gotten there yet.
He’d probably forgotten.
Not that it was an issue that he’d forgotten. It wasn’t like I was anyone to him.
“Oh.” He scowled, not liking the sound of that. “Who’s Creed?”
I knew it’d bother him.
Every time that a boyfriend was brought up on my end, it always bothered both Shade and Stacy.
Though, lately it was bothering Stacy more than Shade.
Shade, I could understand.
He was protective of me.
But Stacy was nobody to me. I barely said two words to him if I could help it.
It only sucked that he was the one to get me a job here.
I loved the job. Hated the boss.
How he’d even gotten this job, I didn’t know.
Probably Shade’s mom offering favors of any kind to look the other way on Stacy’s qualifications.
Oh, and did I mention that not only was he my boss, but he was also my landlord?
The house that Stacy had rented me was his parents’ house once upon a time.
I also suspected that he’d kicked the previous tenants out so I could stay there.
Not that I could complain. Stacy gave me a great deal, even though it came with a hint of creep.
“Oh, he’s a man I’ve been seeing,” I lied.
I was going to hell.
He would definitely know that I wasn’t dating Creed.
Hopefully he didn’t show up here until after my boss was gone, or Stacy would see how far out of my league Creed was and know that I was lying through my teeth.
“You’ve been seeing.” He stared at me as if he could see right through me. “Isn’t that interesting.”
The way he said it made it sound like he knew I was lying.
How he could know that, I didn’t know.
I could be!
Well, maybe not Creed Daugherty, but I could be seeing someone!
“I’ll be going now.” He sounded amused. “Have a good night, Birdee. Don’t stay here too long.”
I grumbled something dark under my breath before I started to finish up for the day.
By the time that eight o’clock rolled around, I knew that Creed wasn’t coming, so I began cleaning up.
By the time I was finished, I was exhausted and really not looking forward to a five-mile walk home in the freezing cold darkness.
I was halfway down the pathway that led to the sidewalk when I looked up and… “What are you doing here?”
And where did you come from?
“Givin’ you a ride,” he said as he waited with his feet crossed as he leaned against his work truck.
The man was damn potent in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. He was downright debilitating in his OD green tactical pants, khaki long-sleeved shirt with all the emblems and patches on it, and his black bomber jacket that declared him as a “GAME WARDEN.”