Page 68 of Driftwood Daffodil 2

His fist flew through the air, giving me enough time to hop in the truck and start the ignition. I was peeling out of the parking lot before Gio could do much more than yell my name.

I was satisfied with the outcome.

Memphis was not.

“Do you really think antagonizing him is the best choice?”

I won, so yes I did. In fact antagonizing Gio was the only choice.

“It’ll be fine.” What was he going to do? Choke me? Been there, done that.

“But,” Memphis interjected. “Don’t have to spend the night with him?”

“That’s not until Friday.”

And that was a Friday me problem.

“Um, Nova… it is Friday.”

Well, shit.

NOVALEE

FRIDAY NIGHT

Ilearned two things today. My truck could go a lot faster than I thought it could, and my skills in the time keeping department were seriously lacking. While I’d like to blame the latter on my cheap plastic banded watch, I’d have to actually know where the thing was for that.

I took it off a few days ago and hadn’t see it since. Much like my favorite rainbow toe socks, it was lost to the being that ate things in my room. I wished my phone would do the same.

I sighed at the text echoing an annoying buzz through the kitchen table.

The name Fuckface flashed across the screen along with a message that I couldn’t be bothered to read. I didn’t need to open it to know that Gio was pissed. This was the sixth time he’d texted in the past fifteen minutes, and the time between was getting consistently shorter.

He was persistent, I’d give him that. But not as persistent as I was stubborn or curious. And my curiosity wanted to see how long it would take him to call? At this rate, I was going to guess it would be about ten minutes.

Maw Maw dropped her purse on the table as another text came through.

She looked at the lit up screen on my phone, then up at me. “Are you going to answer that?”

“Nope.” I had another nine and a half minutes.

“Who is it?”

“An asshole.”

A hand wacked off the back of my head, jarring my stare down with my phone.

“Novalee Ford, you will watch your language.”

I rubbed the back of my head and grumbled, “Knox isn’t here Maw Maw.”

Veda didn’t get off work for another seventeen minutes.

“I don’t care. Proper ladies do not use vulgar language.”

Proper ladies? Did she forget who she was talking to? I was raised by my mechanic brother. Plus… “I hardly qualify as a lady.”

Pretty sure that possibility went out the window with my first oil change lesson.

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