Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Catch up on superhero movies.
Buy new clothes.
Go out to eat.
Make a dent on the giant pile of books my Aunt Reese had been building for me over the years anytime she came across something she thought was amazing.
Raising guinea pigs.
Decorating an apartment.
Teaching classes.
And building solid foundations with Vance, the guy who had been my dream before my life veered off its original course.
He was still my dream.
Except I actually got to have him now.
It was every bit as perfect as I had imagined.
More.
"Alright," Vance said, hopping up, back in decorating mode. "So, which ones of these are going on the shelves in here?" he asked, pulling some of Holden's carvings out of a box.
Seeing him turn that first little wooden bear around in his hand gave me the strangest sense of rightness.
My past and my present, all in one place.
Yeah, I could really get used to this.
Vance - 6 months later
A somewhat childish part of me hoped this day wouldn't come.
The rational part of me, of course, knew that it would. There was no way around it.
Ferryn was Ferryn after all.
And she hadn't dedicated nearly nine years of her life to something just to toss it to the side when it became a lot less convenient.
There had been jobs since Ferryn had settled in Navesink Bank with me in a more permanent way. But Chris had set it up so that the new team members took care of it. She claimed that she did that so they could get their feet wet, so they could get the thrill of doing some good in the world. I suspected, though, that Chris was trying to give Ferryn a little time to put down roots.
Sure, she had initially given Ferryn a hard time about giving up the mission now that she was home, but I think some time with her therapists, her mom, her aunts, had softened her to Ferryn's very unique situation.
Chris had, after all, been afforded every bit of help that money and love could buy her. She'd been nurtured and guided. She'd been allowed to heal in her own time.
Ferryn needed a chance to do that as well.
And Chris, someone who seemed to value rationality almost above all else, had been persuaded to understand that, had jumped on the bandwagon to help Ferryn readjust to normal life.
So she kept her away from the missions for as long as possible.
But not even her stubborn ass cousin could keep Ferryn on the bench forever.
The flu had torn through her karate class, making work no longer an obstacle to overcome.
So she was slipping into an all-black outfit, sticking a knife into her boot, tucking her karambit into her pocket, a hard shell came down over her body, blanking out her eyes.
"Ferryn, come on," I reasoned, trying not to be too pushy, knowing that was a surefire way to make her freeze up, freeze you out.
"You're not changing my mind. I want to do this alone."
Pointing out that she wouldn't be alone, that her team would be there, was definitely not the route I needed to take right then.
"I was helpful last time."
"You just want to have affirmation-of-life sex afterward," she told me, a little bit of light teasing in her eyes once again.
"I won't lie, that is a major perk," I agreed.
"You told me you won't get in the way of me doing this for as long as I still wanted to do it."
"I know," I agreed, nodding, maybe selfishly wishing the me who said that had just shut his fucking mouth.
"It is literally three hours from here. I will be home right after you finish your shift at the clubhouse."
I still suspected that she had asked Chris to schedule the mission for the day Colson had asked to switch shifts with me so he could go to Jelly's dance recital, knowing I would never back out on him when he needed me to be here.
That said, in a pinch, I would con someone else into taking my shift.
"I want to be there to have your back."
"And I really appreciate that. You have no idea how much I used to dream of knowing you would want to be there for me. But I need you to understand that I can take care of myself too."
"Seeing as you whipped my fucking ass in class last week," I started, referencing the time she decided it would be fun to teach her girls self-defensive moves by practicing them on me, "I think we have established that I know you can handle yourself, Ace."
"Is your ego feeling a little better about that?" she asked, giving me a smirk in the mirror.
"Not a bit," I admitted. "It is hard to get over a class full of eight-year-olds laughing at you. That shit sticks with you."
She smiled at that, but it slipped quickly away as she stared at her own eyes in the mirror for a long time before her gaze found mine again. "Would it help you if I told you that this is going to be my last mission for a while? Maybe forever?"