Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Tonks was howling her hello.
Moxie had jumped up on the counter to inspect the grocery totes by stuffing her face into each one, as I’d noticed was her self-appointed role, one she took seriously.
I pulled out my phone and saw it was a call from Mona.
As proud millennials, we rarely called unless we made a phone date.
Not to mention, there was a time difference, but it was not that wide.
She should still be at work.
So this worried me.
I took the call. “Hey. Everything okay?”
“President of the board?”
“Sorry?”
“I’m texting you a TikTok right now,” she announced, then ordered, “Watch it.”
I felt the notification come in, took the phone from my ear and went to her text, my stomach sinking at the profile and caption of the TikTok she sent.
Profile: Misted Pines Community TikTok
Caption: Stony Bluff Animal Rescue and Wildlife Sanctuary President of the Board Has Got the Moves.
I touched the screen, TikTok opened up, and I watched with both delicious fascination and wild trepidation the very well-edited video of Hutch sinking shot after shot after shot (after shot, as far as I could tell, all twenty of them) with a soundtrack of Sia’s “Unstoppable.”
And yes, whoever filmed it caught me at the end, throwing myself at him, along with Hutch’s hot-as-all-hell one-arm lift.
But what made me stop breathing was the massive smile on my face as I said whatever it was I said to him (in that moment, I couldn’t recall). And the soft, even tender look on Hutch’s face as he held me to him, handsome head tipped back, and watched through his kickass shades as I spoke those forgotten words.
God, I’d been so excited at what he’d done, I’d missed that look in real life.
The video even included when he slowly put me down on my feet.
Then the editor took some artistic liberties, with Sia still serenading us, as Hutch gave Emma her bear, the cute high fives he gave the kids…
And it ended with us in slo-mo, his head turned, chin dipped down to look at me as my head was turned, tipped back, talking to him, while we were walking side by side with Tonks and Hannibal (Emma was cut out of that shot, but you could see her little hand by Hutch’s on Hannibal’s leash).
We looked like we were the King and Queen of Misted Pines in our casual but cool mountain town clothes with our dogs.
Good Lord.
We looked amazing together.
And if Hutch was hot in regular-mo, he kicked ass in slo-mo. Even I was half-convinced Liam was right, and he was a secret superhero.
But my heart actually stopped when I saw the likes (over one hundred thousand!) and comments (over five thousand).
I checked the MP Community TikTok’s follow numbers, and perhaps unsurprisingly after all the attention the town had gotten, they were over a million.
Or maybe it could be all the hot guys I’d seen around and excellent video editing.
Who knew?
I just knew I did not want to be on social media.
And I worried Hutch would want it even less.
I closed TikTok and put the phone back to my ear.
“Yikes,” I said to Mona.
“Yikes? Yikes?” she snapped. “First, are you seeing that guy?”
I was less excited about telling Mona about (what I thought was) my stellar friends-with-benefits idea. Mona both beneficially and detrimentally had the ability to cut through the horseshit, she didn’t suffer fools or put up with being treated like crap nor did she put up with anyone she cared about doing the same.
At one point during my spectacular breakup with my ex, I thought she felt worse than I did because she’d loved him.
He’d hoodwinked her too.
She wasn’t upset that he’d hoodwinked her.
She was upset that she hadn’t seen through him so she could warn me about him.
“His name is Hutch. And yes, technically, I’m seeing him.”
“Technically?” she asked dubiously.
“We’re friends.” Oh God. “With benefits.”
“Oh,” she said. “Okay then.”
I blinked at Moxie sniffing carrots.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Well, no. Outside of wondering why you didn’t tell me. Does Kacey know?”
“No, she doesn’t. Actually, it just happened.” I paused then amended, “Not true. We met a few weeks ago. One-night stand turned into him becoming my dog trainer and that turned into friends with benefits.”
This was whitewashing it a bit, but what could I say? I wasn’t going to tell her about the cult next door. She’d corral Kacey and then I’d also have to live in fear of them showing up and friendnapping me back to Orlando.
“You’re lucky he is all he is,” she replied. “You had a reprieve because I was forced to watch the video eighteen times before I called you to tell you I was pissed off with you.”
“Forced,” I snorted.
Though, I was probably going to watch that video more times than that.
“Okay, well, even if I’m not feeling all light and fluffy about this, considering the fact you look happy there. Like you’re having the time of your life. So that means you probably won’t come home…”