I grinned wickedly at that. “Now was that so hard?”
Blakely was visibly shivering now.
“No.” She paused. “But he’ll kill me.”
I rolled my eyes. “He won’t kill you. He doesn’t have the balls. Plus, I know everyone in this town. Unless he does the dirty work himself or can pay some stupid lowlife like you to do it for him, you’ll be fine.” I wondered. “But I have to admit, I’m not really feeling sorry for you. You brought this on yourself.”
Blakely started to cry, and I chose to take that as my cue to leave.
I had a woman to get back to, and this place was starting to stink of desperation.
Plus, I had some planning to do. That planning starting and finishing around Haylin Smith, the man that had raised the piece of shit that had nearly changed the entire trajectory of my life.
CHAPTER 18
I had my patience tested. It was negative.
-Sophia to Haggard
SOPHIA
I was officially released to work out.
It’d been three weeks, and I hadn’t seen my dad, Clem, Boston, or anybody else besides Haggard, and I was beginning to get tired of it.
Not that I didn’t adore spending time with Haggard, but I was bored.
He’d gone back to work last week, leaving me alone mostly the entire day until he got home around seven that night.
Which left me standing in Haggard’s kitchen—I hadn’t been back to my own house in over a month now—and wondering what kind of workout I could do while not leaving the house.
But, sadly, in the next five minutes, I decided that any of the weight exercises I would normally have done—which I could do in Haggard’s bedroom gym—meant that I would probably be a little over my head with my first day back at working out.
Which was why, five minutes later, I texted Taos and asked him to pick me up for the noon class at the CrossFit gym that he and my dad owned together.
He answered quickly, and I went and got dressed in some of Clem’s workout clothes.
Clem was a little freer with her workout style than I was, but since I’d been wearing her clothes for the last three weeks—she’d allowed this and encouraged it for some reason instead of getting my own clothes from home—I didn’t really have much of a choice unless I went home and got my own clothes.
Which I was hesitant to do.
Because I had a feeling as to why everyone was going out of their way to keep me at Haggard’s house.
They hadn’t outright said it, but I had a feeling my dad wasn’t in a good place.
As in, he was probably drunk off his ass, refusing help, and barely making it like he’d been doing for the last year.
I chose to continue my ignorance, and instead, focused on how fuckin’ awesome it was being in Haggard’s home, in his arms, and having no worries in the world—like going to work and having to deal with Blakely the entire damn day.
Funny enough, I’d continued to work from home, selling cars online, and making just as much money now as I’d been making previously.
Oh, and I didn’t have to put pants on, so bonus!
However, I was tired of being at home.
And not even the shortest shorts imaginable would stop me from leaving this place.
Taos, like clockwork, showed up at Haggard’s place within five minutes of him telling me when he’d arrive.
The moment I got into the car, he pulled me into a hug.
“You’re looking a lot better,” he pointed out as he pulled his muscle car onto the road and sped away from the curb.
“You mean, I look like a normal human being now that the whites of my eyes aren’t bloody and red?” I corrected him.
He snorted, then said, “Yeah. That.”
I shrugged. “I feel better. The bruises aren’t as severe anymore. And other than the damn burn mark on my face, I feel fantastic.”
As fantastic as a person could who had their insides squished by a car.
Luckily, other than some residual soreness, I really did feel fine.
Hence the reason I was going to work out.
At least, I was going to attempt to work out.
“That’s good, darlin’,” he murmured.
And together we talked about light, airy topics that didn’t once stray toward ‘tough territory’ on the way to the gym.
At least, we talked about light topics until we pulled into the parking lot of the gym and he parked.
It was when I was getting out that he said, “Hey, Sophia?”
I looked at him over the roof of his car. “Yeah?”
He studied my face for a few seconds before saying, “Are you and Haggard…”
My lips twitched. “Are we what?”
Honestly, I didn’t know what Haggard and I were.
He’d said a lot of things over the last week to give me the impression that we were ‘something.’
I just couldn’t define that something yet.