Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Twelve
My idea of ‘help from above’ is a sniper on a roof.
—Bernice to Hux
Bernice
Huxley Hosea withdrawals were a real thing.
I didn’t know they were a real thing until I hadn’t seen him in five days.
He’d delivered some meat to Kalispell and had spent the night there stocking up on supplies and meeting an old friend.
I only knew he was there because I broke down and walked to The Mercantile for lunch hoping to run into him, and found Heidi instead who was more than willing to share Hux’s whereabouts.
Once he was done in Kalispell, he was headed to western Montana to deliver an elk.
From there, he would be turned toward home.
But Heidi hadn’t known an exact day he would be back.
Which led me to now, five days later, standing in my bedroom with the shower running in the bathroom, wondering if it was normal to think about a man so much who had barely given me the time of day.
Likely, it was just my lack of self-worth.
I should probably also not be as aware as I was that his truck hadn’t been in his driveway for five days, but there I was, looking out my bedroom window anyway.
The house on the other side of me was vacant, and the only one who could see this window at all was Hux.
Though I highly doubted he’d waste his time looking in my window.
But I sure wasted my time looking out of it.
My brother had been super nice and hung up blinds and curtains in the house, but I didn’t use them in my bedroom.
If I had them pulled closed, I couldn’t see him out on his porch drinking coffee every morning.
Or tinkering with his truck in his garage every night.
Eventually giving up that he’d come home today, I shed my work clothes and hopped into the shower, shaving everything that I could shave.
I hated the way the hair felt on my legs. I liked feeling smooth and clean shaven, but since I was cold all the time, I was always hairier than I wanted to be.
Luckily, the cold weather meant I could get away with the leggings and sweatpants all the time look.
After I’d applied lotion following my shower, I walked out to the bedroom and…screamed.
The man who was standing at my bedroom window took his face covering off and…
“Huxley?” I asked, rushing toward the window.
He held up his hand. “Don’t. It’s cold.”
It was cold.
“What are you doing there?”
“I tried calling you,” he said. “You didn’t answer your phone.”
I frowned. “Come to the front door.”
He looked reluctant to leave but went anyway.
I met him at the door in only my towel, shivering when the blast of cold air hit me in the face as he swept inside like he owned the place.
“Get dressed,” he ordered.
I listened, getting dressed in the sexiest pair of leggings I owned.
They were Halara, and they had this butt-lifting webbing at the top of my ass that made my butt appear bigger and more toned than it actually was.
I paired the leggings with a tight long-sleeved black t-shirt that was warm and so soft.
I didn’t bother with a bra, either.
I also forced myself not to put on the sweatshirt that I would’ve normally slipped on and headed out of the bedroom with a hairbrush in one hand and a pair of slouchy, warm socks in the other.
Taking a seat on the couch, I lifted one leg up and sank my foot into a wool sock.
“Nice socks,” he mused from his stance at the window.
He was looking out at the Hubers.
They were all out on their front porch, drinking in their rocking chairs, staring at my house like it was their own personal form of entertainment.
“They’re wool,” I found myself saying. “And come in pretty colors.”
He turned, but only after pulling the blinds shut.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t actually know where it is.”
His head tilted. “You don’t know where your phone is?”
“No,” I admitted. “I think it’s in the truck, maybe. But it was too cold for me to go look. Plus, I wanted to unplug for a bit.”
“Why?” he asked.
The way he asked “why” made me think of an avenging angel about to do battle.
I winced. “Because my brother is calling me twenty-four-seven, and he’s driving me insane.”
Hux crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the small lip of the window.
When he did, the muscles in his biceps bulged where they rested against his chest. The black Henley he was wearing made him look even sexier. Paired with the beige 5.11 tactical pants and…yum.
He also did not look happy about hearing this. He was glaring at the brick wall behind my wood stove. He looked like he was a few seconds away from dragging my brother’s face against the rough stone.