Looking At Forever (The Rock Gods Book 4) Read Free

probably always there, but now he was seeing with a fresh pair of eyes. For the first time in quite a while, Wheland was excited to be moving forward.
    Wheland finger-combed his hair with one hand, before he pushed it off his forehead and tucked it behind an ear. He caught his reflection in the rear view mirror of his sports car and saw the fatigue in his hazel eyes. Odd, he thought, considering how full of energy he’d felt just a few short days ago on the Vineyard. His hand skimmed over the prickly whiskers on his chin. The stubble was much longer than he typically kept it, and if he didn’t shave soon it would be considered a beard more so than a five o’clock shadow.
    His gaze scanned the traffic clogging the road around his car. He knew the bar he wanted to stop at and it wasn’t too much further. At the rate everyone was crawling forward in their vehicles, it would be time for dinner by the time he got there instead of lunch. The sooner he made it to a bar to get drunk at the better. Wheland cursed at himself for waiting so long to leave the house. He knew how bad traffic was heading into town this time of the afternoon. He slammed his open palm against the steering wheel and tipped his head back against his leather seat.
    Decade old memories and horrible traffic were the perfect way to ruin what could have been a nice day. A few cars began to move around him and Wheland zipped his Ferrari out of his lane to navigate a few spots up in the traffic jam. He was going nowhere fast and considered turning around and visiting Alex. Alex always knew how to get him past this anniversary without ever knowing there was something Wheland was trying to forget. But, Alex was on his honeymoon with Chase and Danni to a destination no one knew and he’d be gone for several weeks. His other option was calling Cooper, but Cooper was in full-on nesting mode with Jayson. No way in hell Wheland wanted to interrupt that.
    Nope, this year he’d handle the anniversary all by himself, thank you very much. He’d get himself to the bar, have a thick burger with fries, and wash it all down with enough alcohol to make himself forget what today meant to him. He was purposefully trying to force his mind off of the bad memories looming in his brain and get himself to think about something good. It was no use. The ugly thoughts kept replaying over and over making his head ache.
    It seemed nothing less than miraculous to Wheland that he’d somehow managed to keep that entire pile of dog shit from his past buried for over a decade, never telling a single person in his life about any of it. Even his closest friends didn’t know about the sordid details of his upbringing. He kept that bit of tainted family history locked away and only took it out of his sub-conscience once-a-fucking year on the anniversary. He picked off the scab yearly just to torture himself, to remember the less than honorable lineage he came from and get drunk while he did it.
    Wheland downshifted his car quickly, cutting off a BMW, as he pulled into the center lane of the road. He waited at the stop light, rubbing at his forehead, as if by doing so erased the memories. It didn’t. All it did was amplify the dull throb he had going on inside, which was an issue he intended to remedy as soon as he arrived at the bar to eat and get drunk. He didn’t care which happened first. It made no difference to him at all. He was happy to call a taxi to take him home if he had to.
    Wheland saw the line of traffic in the right-turn lane start to move forward on their green light. He revved his engine, dropped the stick shift into first gear and let the clutch slip free beneath his foot before he realized, at the last second, his lane of traffic hadn’t moved. His black Ferrari lurched ahead in the lane and slammed directly into the ass-end of a Mercedes sedan. A second later, a hand popped out of the driver’s side window and directed Wheland to pull over his car.
    Shit!
    The light turned