Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97409 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97409 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
“I’m sure they will understand,” I say, trying to ease her fear.
“I really fucking hope so. I worked so hard to get to this point with them.” She looks ahead. “My parents didn’t do me any favors when I was growing up,” she shares softly, “and I’ve been working my whole life to make sure people know I’m not like them.” It’s the first time she’s let me in. The first time she’s given me a piece of her that I know she’s been hiding.
“I promise you that everything is going to be okay.” I raise my hand and tuck the hair behind her head. My fingers touch her cheek as I gaze into her eyes.
“I highly doubt that,” she tries to joke.
I can’t help myself. My head moves into her space, and my lips touch hers. It’s a soft kiss, or at least that is what I wanted it to be. Instead, my hand moves to her cheek, and I hold her face as I slide my tongue into her mouth. The kiss I didn’t know I needed. The kiss I know I’m going to want to have more of. The kiss, I think, that changes everything. She places her hand on mine at her cheek as we share the kiss that is slow and full of need.
She’s the first one to move away from the kiss, and when she does, I bend my head and kiss the side of her neck. “You should get to bed,” I tell her.
“Yeah.” She rubs her thumb over my hand before standing up. “Thanks for making me dinner, Theo. I’ve never had anyone try to take care of me.” I stand and slide my hand into hers, making a silent vow that I will do whatever I need to do in order for her to never feel that way again. I am going to show her that I will always take care of her. Of her and our child.
I walk with her to the front door, and she lets my hand go, but I follow her inside. “I’m going to clean the kitchen before I leave.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, Collins, but I’m going to. I can’t do much for you right now. You’re doing all the work.” I reach for her hip instead of putting my hand on her stomach like I want to do. “So you take care of our baby and let me take care of you.”
She walks to her purse and takes out the picture of our baby. “This is for you.”
“Thank you so much for this.” I smile as she hands it to me, looking at the image. “I already picked up a frame to put this in.”
“You did?” She sounds surprised.
“Yeah.” I nod. “Shit, I should have gotten you one also.”
“You’re too good to be true, Theo,” she mumbles and walks away from me into her bedroom. All I want to do is follow her. Instead, I go to the sink and wash the dishes. As I leave her house, the sun is slowly starting to rise.
I stop by the bakery to grab a coffee before heading to the jobsite.
“What the hell are you here so early for?” Everleigh asks me. “You’ve been my first client for the past week.”
“Yeah.” I chuckle. “Early bird gets the worm, right?”
She makes me a coffee and hands me a little bag with a donut. “On the house,” she says. “That’s your reward for being the early bird.”
“I’m going to tell Brock that you gave me a donut and flirted with me,” I joke.
“It’ll be your funeral.” She winks at me. “Have a good day, Theo.”
I’m on the job twenty minutes later. I’m putting on my tool belt when the door opens, and Caleb walks in. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Sierra said if I didn’t go to work today, she was going to cut off a special piece of me that I would like to keep.” I laugh at him as he cups his junk.
“What the fuck are you doing here so early?” he asks me. My stomach tightens. “Did you come here from one of your dates?”
“No . . . I’m sort of seeing someone.”
He looks at me, shocked. “Excuse me?” He puts his hands on his hips. “Did you say ‘seeing someone,’ as in singular? Since when are you a one-woman man?”
“You’ve been otherwise too busy for me to mention it.” I avoid looking at him. “I think I’m going to go and visit my parents in a couple of weeks.” I thought of it when she told me she would have a couple of days off.
“That should be fun.”
I nod, grab my things, and move to the bedroom where I’m going to be putting up the crown molding.
The guys show up, and everyone gets to work. When four o’clock hits, I unbuckle my tool belt and put it in the corner of the room as usual. I find Frankie and Nino in the middle of the kitchen, placing the island base. “You need help?”