Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I didn’t have the luxury of waiting until Sunday to catch up with shuteye.
I needed it now.
“No, we need to go, Willow,” Shelby said. “I only used you two as an excuse, but I have an early morning schedule of spa appointments tomorrow.”
“Well, use away,” I offered. “Everything’s fair game when spa appointments are on the line.”
She smiled at me.
Gabe gave me a squeeze.
We walked them to their car.
I gave Mike a hug first, while Gabe was doing the same with his mom.
Then I hugged her while Mike and Gabe man-hugged by doing a stand-up arm-wrestling thing and pounding each other’s backs.
Before I let her go, though, she whispered in my ear, “I think the periwinkle is perfect too.”
Whoa!
Shelby enters warp speed!
I pulled away and caught her soft look.
I returned my own.
“We can’t go unless you get in the car, woman,” Mike warned.
Shelby rolled her eyes.
Gabe claimed me again, this time with an arm slung around my shoulders.
We stood in his drive and waved them away.
“All good?” Gabe asked the road and their brake lights.
“Yeah. Jinx is probably getting it good right now, or has already gotten it good, and I’m going to get it good soon too.”
He looked down at me with a smirk.
Then he asked, “No, I mean your chat with Mom.”
“Well, for the point zero six seconds you allowed us to talk before performing a rescue I didn’t need, sure.”
He turned us to walk up to his place. “It wasn’t point zero six seconds.”
“Okay, one point zero six seconds,” I allowed.
He chuckled.
Yeah.
Those were definitely coming more often these days.
“And it was fine,” I said gently. “Stop worrying. She loves you. I dig you more than a little bit. So it’s totally fine.”
His brows went up as he pushed open his front door and waited for me to precede him. “You dig me more than a little bit?”
“Well…yeah.”
His expression changed.
My nipples got hard.
He locked the front door.
I bit my lip.
He tossed me over his shoulder.
And…okay.
I’d give it to him.
I dug him a whole lot more than a little bit.
And half an hour later, I dug him even more.
TWENTY-FOUR
ALL GOOD
I woke.
It was still dark.
I was sprawled on my back.
I turned my head.
My man was turned toward me, on his side, with an arm slung across my stomach.
He had a king.
I could be free and breezy in a king.
And I was.
There was something to say about being curled up like a cat, tucked up close to your guy.
Strangely, I preferred this.
I noticed from Gabe’s bedside clock I still had an hour to sleep.
And there was something to say about other sleeping positions too.
I rolled toward him, his arm tensed as I did, pulling me closer, but once I got in position of cuddled up front to front, it relaxed.
Mm.
Gabe pulled me closer in sleep.
I smiled.
Then I drifted away.
My Friday started out promising.
I woke up next to Gabe (not sprawled, still cozied up in each other arms, le sigh).
That was enough to make promising last the whole day, but then we had a quickie in the shower.
So, yeah, that made the start of the day super promising.
He brought me coffee while I got ready for work, and it seemed this was going to be our thing, and I liked that thing very much, thank you.
I went to work.
Gabe went to the gym.
Once at work, things were normal.
No parents ambushed me.
Ariana didn’t show out of the blue demanding a girl fight to win Gabe (and no, I wasn’t dissing girl fights, but I figured she’d fight like a girl).
Tex didn’t seem any grumpier about anything.
Tito was his usual present, but silent.
Raye shared we were having our chat with Titus because she figured he’d know the players, and he’d give us some insights into how to plan tomorrow night. And since she was right about that, and I’d never turn down the opportunity to hang with Titus, I told her that was a great idea, and I was all in.
So…
Yeah.
It was all good.
Okay, so it was boring, and I jotted on my mental to-do list to think later about the prick of discontent I felt that there was no drama.
But still, it was good.
Until, unbeknownst to me, seeing as I was in the restaurant, and this happened in the coffee cubby, workmen showed, and I only knew they did when they were gone, Tito wandered to the coffee cubby, and Tex bellowed, “Willow!”
The lunch rush was almost over, but all the girls were in (save Gemma and Joey), and such was that bellow, we all wandered to the coffee cubby to see what was up.
I sensed we all did this with low hums of excitement because the day had been normal (and boring) so far.
Really, even thinking on it only a little bit, it wasn’t a surprise we were Angels.
But it was only me who looked through the still-healthy line in front of the coffee cubby to the west window, so it was at first only me who gasped.