Free Vodka On The Rocks (The Uncertain Saints Book 3) by Lani Lynn Vale Page B

woman’s trying on the whole damn place. I’d be happy to buy her whatever she wanted, as long as I didn’t have to sit there and watch her do it,” I told him.
    He turned a grizzled smile my way, and I was struck by how happy he looked.
    “Oh, I love my Mary Bell,” he rolled his eyes. “I just like to give her a hard time.”
    The electric doors behind me slid open, and I glanced over my shoulder at Tasha as she stomped her way out.
    She didn’t stop at my side, either.
    Instead she walked right up to my old truck, yanked open the door, then slumped into the seat.
    She didn’t even manage to get the door closed before her energy gave out.
    And I found that I liked her needing my help.
    I wondered idly what it would take to get her to never leave my home but decided not to dwell on that right now.
    “Well,” I said standing. “It was nice to meet you.”
    The man offered me his hand. “A little piece of advice, son?”
    I turned to him and smiled.
    “Yeah?” I asked.
    “She may be feisty, but those are the ones that are worth every bit of fight you have in you. Treat her well, and she’ll hand you the world.”
    With that, he got up, and I watched as he escorted the woman that’d come out of the door while we’d been talking.
    Like him, she was elderly, too
    But the moment she saw the man at my side, she lit up like she had been presented with the best fuckin’ gift in the world.
    I watched as he helped her across the parking lot, holding her bags and laughing at whatever she was saying.
    And I realized something.
    I wanted that.
    I wanted that badly.
    Looking at the woman sitting in my truck, leaning her head against the door watching me, I wondered if maybe I already had it within my reach.
     

Chapter 8
    Mondays suck so hard that they should become a part of the porn industry.
    -Casten to Tasha
    Tasha
    “What do you think is appropriate to wear to a wedding you’re attending, with a man you’re dating, and I say dating as a relative term since Casten and I aren’t really dating,” I rushed out.
    I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.
    There wasn’t anything going on between Casten and I.
    In fact, he’d been somewhat distant since yesterday.
    I’d watched him watch the older couple and something had crossed his face that I hadn’t been able to decipher.
    Something possibly resembling longing, if I had to make a guess.
    “I don’t know,” my sister sniffed. “I’ve never been to a wedding.”
    “You’re married, dumbass,” I drawled, picking up the slimy ball that Koda had let drop into my lap and tossing it across the room.
    Koda ran for it, bumping into a dozen things before she finally got it and carried it back.
    The wooden stool that normally sat at Casten’s bar clattered to the floor, and I smiled.
    She only liked me for my ball playing skills.
    Sometimes, if I tried to pet her, she growled at me.
    And I don’t know why I continued to throw the ball for her when she didn’t really care for me. It didn’t make any sense.
    She loved Casten, though.
    I’d heard from CeeCee that Casten had brought Koda home with him after his last tour in Iraq. She said that Koda had saved Casten’s life while on a mission. They were both injured in a roadside blast, and it was those injuries that left them both scarred.
    Casten’s crew had saved Koda while Casten was hospitalized for his injuries he’d sustained in the same blast. Both Casten and his team had petitioned for her to be sent home to him.
    It’d happened, but apparently it’d taken seven long months.
    So she was allowed to be a little grumpy every once in a while.
    “I know I’m married. But I don’t remember any of it. It’s all a blur. And I think everyone wore jeans and a t-shirt to mine. Mig told me that Casten said that this is some sort of formal affair,” Annie explained.
    I sighed.
    “Shit.”
    I hated getting dressed up.
    Hated it with a passion.
    And the dresses that Casten had picked out weren’t going to