Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 67490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Thank you for not leaving me,” she whispered.
I curled a sweaty piece of hair behind her ear and said, “You can’t get rid of me even if you tried.”
She smiled sadly, then sat up.
She had sleep lines on her face from her hand and the blanket.
“This was one of mine and Addison’s favorite places to eat,” she said softly, her tears making me want to murder myself. Jesus, if I’d known… “Let’s go eat.”
She was bailing out of the car before I could stop her, and then I was gathering my phone and hers—which had been vibrating off the hook—and walked in behind her.
When I got there, she was already ordering.
She stopped and looked at me when the guy asked if there was anything else.
My lips tipped up, happy that she’d assumed we were paying together, and I ordered my usual.
When I pulled out my wallet from my back pocket, she waved me away. “I have enough points saved up that this’ll all be free.”
My brows rose as she paid using her points, then we grabbed our drinks and walked to the table farthest from the door.
As we sat, I slid the phone across to her.
“Your phone’s been going crazy,” I said.
She picked it up, scanned everything, then winced.
“Shayne. My brothers. My parents letting me know their flight to Germany was about to take off.” She sighed. “I’d better call them back before they worry about me.”
So she did, instead of eating her food.
I waited until all the calls were made—her assuring her family and friends that she was fine and with me—before hanging up and reaching for her burrito.
I picked up mine, and we ate in silence for a few minutes before she said, “My brothers asked who you were.”
My lips twitched. “Did they know that you’d met someone?”
She eyed me with an arched eyebrow. “Do you think I’d be stupid enough to tell my family full of cops about a man I met, and slept with, at an airport, who I’d been talking to for the last few weeks?”
When she put it like that…
I chuckled and went back to my burrito, not stopping for another talk break until the only thing left on my plate were drips of queso.
She eyed me steadily before offering me the rest of hers.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She placed the entire thing on her plate, then shoved it over, chips and all.
“A-Addison and I used to share one of those,” she admitted. “It’s not that I couldn’t eat it all. I could. But I’d be seriously miserable for a full hour after. And since we’re going to all our favorite places, I was hoping that you’d take me over to Cinnaholic next door so I could get a cinnamon roll.”
My lips twitched. “That’s my sister’s favorite place recently. I’ll take you.”
So that’s what we did.
After I polished off all of her leftover food, I headed next door with her.
She ordered an Original. I got two scoops of cookie dough.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like the cinnamon rolls here, but I had a body that needed maintained, and sometimes sacrifices had to be made.
Like not getting a thousand-calorie cinnamon roll even when you were dying to have it.
Only, she took about four bites before she passed it over to me with a wobbly smile.
And, not able to deny her this, I ate the thing.
It was fuckin’ fantastic.
So was my cookie dough.
Goddammit, I was going to have to burn all this off tomorrow at the gym.
“Thanks,” she said, her eyes welling with tears. “I feel like I can sleep for a week.”
I bussed our trash, then caught her hand and led her back out to my truck.
After settling her into the passenger seat, I got inside and started the truck, but didn’t move.
“Where would you like to sleep for a week?” I asked. “Your parents’ place? Your brothers’?”
“I need to go see them,” she said. “They’re probably still freaking out. They’re at a bar down the road from some high-rise apartments. They like to go there because a couple of their friends live there, and the bar is super nice without the ‘trash’ as they like to call it. We can run by there… and then if your place is open for me to sleep at, then I’d like to go there.”
I’d love to have her there. “Plug in the address.”
It took me two turns and a twelve-mile drive in the direction of my apartment building before I realized which swanky apartments she was talking about.
My lips twitched as I pulled over into the parking garage and parked my truck.
Her eyes were wide. “Can you park here?”
I tapped the glass. “The swanky apartments you were talking about belong to Winston, and he’s my brother-in-law. I live here with a few of the sisters.”
Her mouth dropped open in surprise, then she giggled. “They’re gonna love that. They’ve always talked about having so much money that they could just blow it on an apartment in the middle of Dallas with so much security the president could live here.”