Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140604 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 703(@200wpm)___ 562(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
She selected a national brand and put it in her basket. It wasn’t what she would usually buy but beggars couldn’t be choosers and she needed her caffeine. So did her men. Keane had started making a full pot in the mornings because they were all caffeine junkies.
This morning he’d brought her coffee into the bedroom, waking her up with soft kisses and the smell of a dark roast.
He would have to make do with a medium roast until they had the time to go grocery shopping.
They’d cuddled together under the covers while enjoying their morning coffee and then they’d gotten her in the shower. Yeah, she wasn’t going to forget that soon either.
Keane took the coffee from her hands and placed it in the basket. He looked around. “It’s kind of sad. It looks like it got stuck in the seventies or something.”
She never came here. For her mom this place had bad memories. She’d heard the stories about the owner of the store refusing to sell to her mom. At the time, her mom had to drive two towns over to buy groceries. That owner had retired, but his son was still keeping the place running.
Barely.
“After the new store was built, this place kind of went downhill. From what I understand it was the only grocery store in town for decades. They had zero competition for miles around,” she explained, looking at the sad selection of tea they had. Pretty much black and green, and the green was out of date. “I almost never come in here. My mom was not treated well by the owner. His son runs the place now, but they never recovered from HEB putting a store in close enough we can drive to it.”
HEB was kind of a wonderland. It was a food Disney World. No one would come to this store except for convenience.
“How did they not treat her well?” Keane asked as they moved to the next aisle. He grabbed a bag of chips.
This was a story she’d heard from her grandmother. Her mom didn’t like to talk about that time much. “Back when she was pregnant with Lexi, they wouldn’t allow her to shop in town. She was dating this guy—Lexi’s dad. His name was Adam, and he was the golden boy of his wealthy family. He died in a car accident after he told his parents off and that he was going to marry my mom.”
Keane whistled. “So they blamed her and they had power. They blackballed her, and the store owners went along with it.” He stopped. “Does your daddy know that story?”
“Of course. They weren’t nice to her when she came back twenty years later. That was when she met my dads,” Olivia explained. “She had to fight for her right to buy tampons. It’s kind of a legendary story around here.”
“Did your father buy the HEB?”
It was a good guess, though there were things even her father couldn’t manage. “Nah. He talked to the CEO and said this would be a good place for a store.” She hadn’t thought about it that way. Why would her father try to talk the largest grocery store in Texas into putting a store in their tiny town? It had worked out for everyone, but since when had her dad cared about groceries? It all clicked into place. “And he offered them an excellent deal on our beef. Damn. You’re right. He did that. Dad likes revenge.”
Keane chuckled. “I’m starting to like your dad. He’s a long-term thinker.”
She shouldn’t let them spend too much time alone together. Garrett was her Captain America who would do everything through legal channels. Keane would learn way too much from her dad. He was the one who could hop onto the revenge train and ride it for the rest of his life.
And he meant what he said. He really was a lot like her dad. Overly protective and unapologetic about it. She’d planned to go down to the office and see if the insurance adjuster had come by, but Keane had nixed that plan.
He wasn’t allowing her to walk around on her own in her own town. It was obnoxious. When she realized they were serious about not allowing her to be alone, Gigi showed them her never-ending array of bejeweled security devices. They were not impressed. As Gabe was working in the garage on the new table and Garrett had been on the phone with an overseas distributor, Keane had been the one to take her into town.
“Anything in particular you’re looking for, Miss Olivia?” a deep voice asked.
She turned and Stephen Gunderson stood there. Where his father had been a larger man, Stephen was all lean and wiry. It gave him a slightly predatory, hungry look. Like a coyote who hadn’t eaten in weeks.