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)
“Good,” I repeat, smiling at her. “Great.”
“I guess she just walked in the room?” He laughs.
“How did you know?”
“Your voice got that lovesick puppy tone,” he teases. “I’m going to let you go. I want to meet her when you get back to town.”
“I think I can make that happen.” I put the phone down as she walks to me.
“How long have you been out here?” She sits next to me, curling her feet under her.
“Not long.” I wrap my arm around her and pull her to me. “Are you hungry?”
“I didn’t think so and then I smelled the bacon, and my stomach rumbled louder than it’s ever rumbled before.”
“Well, we’ll eat and then you can go back to sleep. You need your rest,” I remind her as she snuggles deeper into me. I kiss the top of her head. “What do you want with your bacon? Pancakes or eggs?”
“Hmm,” she contemplates, “both.”
I chuckle as I pull her into my lap. “I can do that.” I lean in and kiss her neck, moving her to the side and starting to get up. “Do you want to lie out here or inside?” She moves to get up. “If you think you are coming in to help me, you’re wrong.”
“I can do the pancakes.”
“I can do the pancakes and then the eggs.” I point at her. “Don’t come inside until I call you.”
“You’re going to have to stop doing these things for me.” Her voice is soft. “I’m going to get used to it, and that’s not a good thing.”
“You can get used to it. I’m not going to stop taking care of you.” I kiss her head. “Rest, baby.”
She looks up at me, her gray eyes shining with a ring of blue around them. “Okay,” is the only thing she says, and I can’t help but kiss her lips.
“Be right back,” I tell her and walk into the kitchen to finish making her breakfast.
We pull up to my parents’ house, and I look over at her. “You okay?”
“No.” She shakes her head, and I smile at her. She ate breakfast, and then we both went back to bed. She slept in my arms, and for the first time in a long time, I slept peacefully. “My blood pressure must be through the roof.” She puts two fingers on her neck. “Yup, high.”
I study her, worried. “I’m going to need you to calm down.”
“I’ll get right on that,” she mumbles, opening the door. “When has telling a woman, much less a pregnant woman, to calm down ever worked?”
I walk around the truck toward her as she shakes her hands in front of her. I grab her hand. “If at any time you want to leave, or you feel uncomfortable in any sort of way, you tell me and we’ll leave. No questions asked.”
“Okay.” I know, even if she feels uncomfortable, she’s not going to say one word.
With each step toward the front door, her hand grips mine a bit tighter. I step inside and immediately hear a baby crying.
“Hello,” I holler and then follow the commotion coming from the back of the house.
“He’s here,” my mother shouts. When we walk in the room, I spot my two sisters side by side, looking at Collins with big eyes.
“Jeez,” Daisy starts in, “how did he land her?” She breaks the ice. I was nervous, and I didn’t even know until the moment I heard Collins laugh. My body feels like a whoosh has just gone through it.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say she didn’t get to know you before she accepted that first date,” Lizzy goads. My throat gets tight when I realize I’ve never even taken Collins on a date. I make a mental note to do that as soon as we get home.
“Wow,” I respond. “Collins, these are my sisters.” I drop her hand and wrap my arm around her waist. “I told you not to believe anything they say”—I don’t exactly whisper that—“and I meant it.”
She giggles, and it makes me settle just a little bit more.
“Oh, stop it,” my mother says, holding the baby. “Come in, come in.”
I introduce Collins to my sisters and their husbands, and then look around. “Where is Carter?”
“They’re going to be late,” my father answers. “He just texted. I’m going to go and start the grill.”
I nod at him as he shares a smile with me, but it’s not his usual smile. This one seems forced. “I’m going to help my dad. Are you going to be okay?” Collins doesn’t have a chance to answer me since Lizzy cuts in.
“Of course she’s okay. We already like her more than you.”
“Great,” I deadpan and kiss Collins on the lips before following my father outside. He is sitting in the chair beside the grill, right in front of the fenced-in pool. The fairy lights hung around the fence give us a bit of light as the sun starts to set.