Read Online Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) by Jessica Prince - Free Book Online Page B

pointless. The eye twitch I’d developed two years ago hit full force as I stood before him.
    “Goddamn it. Will you knock off that stupid tick! You look like a retard!” At his words, I squeezed my one eye closed, trying to get it to stop, but I couldn’t control it. “And you’ll make up every one of those fucking hours before and after school. So help me, if you fail this year, I’ll make you live to regret it.”
    With that, he stood from his recliner to go.
    “Sweetie, where are you going?” my mother asked, jumping from the couch and following like an obedient dog as my father stormed from the living room.
    “I’m going out.”
    “Please, Gary,” Mom pleaded. “Don’t leave. I made your favorite. Let’s just sit and have dinner together like we used to—”
    “Christ, woman! Would you stop your damn sniveling? It’s pathetic.”
    I was silent as the front door opened and shut on the sounds of my mother’s whimpers. Seconds later, the loud rumble of his truck pulling from the driveway alerted me he was gone.
    My mom stomped back into the room and stood before me, brushing the tears off her cheeks. “This is all your fault, you stupid little brat. I wish you’d never been born!”
    I couldn’t find it in me to be hurt by her cruel words. I’d heard them so many times growing up that I’d become numb to them. The only thing I was thankful for was that I’d managed to avoid my father’s fists, at least that time.

Present
    As a rule, all single men hated grocery shopping. It was just a part of our nature, but seeing as I’d already finished my last pack of Ramen the previous night and ate my only can of Spaghettios for breakfast that morning, I didn’t really have much of a choice but to endure the dreaded grocery store.
    “My mommy says those is full of bad stuffs that’ll make your tummy hurt,” I heard off to my side as I tossed another bad of potato chips into my cart. I looked over, and then way down to see two little brown-haired, hazel-eyed kids standing next to me, staring up in wide-eyed wonder.
    I smiled as I watched the little boy shove half a cookie into his mouth. “Well, hey, there. Where’d you two little bits come from?”
    “You don’t gots no ve-i-tibles,” the little girl told me, sounding out the word vegetables slowly. It was the most adorable thing I’d ever heard. “You has to eat healthy, mister,” she scolded before biting off a piece of her own cookie.
    “Well, those cookies you’re munching on don’t look all that healthy either, you know.”
    “Mommy said we’s allowed one cookie if we be good,” the little boy said with a full mouth. “Is you a giant, mister?”
    This little boy bounced from one topic to another faster than I could keep up.
    I threw my head back on a laugh. “No, I’m not a giant. I’m just a really big guy, bud.”
    “Does dat mean you ate all your veg-i-tibles like a good boy?” the little girl asked.
    “Nah, that’s just something parents say to make little kids eat all that nasty shit.”
    “Ooooh, you said a bad word,” the little boy scolded at the same time a woman shouted down the aisle, “Cameron, Callie, there you are! What have I said about running off? Huh?”
    I spun around to see the figure of every recent sexual fantasy come storming down the aisle looking like one pissed-off Momma bear, and I couldn’t help but smile. She was even gorgeous when she was pissed off, and just seeing her made me momentarily forget that we were both mad at each other.
    “Well, hello there, beauty.”
    She narrowed her eyes at me before turning her angry gaze to her little rugrats. “What have I told you two? You stay where I can see you at all times.”
    “Sorry, Mommy,” the little boy said, having the good grace to look properly chastised. Although a part of me was pretty sure those sad puppy-dog eyes were just for effect.
    I was proven right when the little evil genius turned all of Kenzie’s attention back to me by