Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 391(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“How about we go out tonight?” he asks, kicking one ankle over the other and crossing his arms as I keep punching. He smirks at me from under the lock of hair that has fallen across his forehead. “Let’s see if you’ve still got the other kind of stamina.”
I groan, but my fists keep flying. “You really need to hit the trail with me later. It’ll drive you crazy if you keep obsessing about this.”
“You’re no fun.”
“Someone’s gotta be the adult,” I say. “Boone’s not here right now, so that leaves me.”
He lets out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine, be the adult, but if I die of frustration before you find a girl, I’m haunting your ass.”
“Noted.” I punch the bag one last time and step back, letting it swing to a natural stop. “You’ll live longer if you come for a run and besides, you’re already haunting me.”
“Is that a no for tonight?”
A trickle of exasperation rolls through me. “It’s a fuck no. We’ve already talked about this, man. Wherever the girl we’re supposed to be with is, it’s not here. It’s unlikely she’d have rolled into town this morning and then decided to spend her first night drinking at The Uncorked Cowboy.”
“I’m an uncorked cowboy.”
I can’t help but laugh as I slide the gloves off and flex my fingers. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re no cowboy. Uncorked or otherwise.”
He pushes off the wall with a sigh. “Maybe that’s what I should do. Build some stables and buy a horse. Become a cowboy.”
I jerk my head toward the view and meet his piercing blue gaze. “Does that look like the kind of terrain that’s navigable on horseback?”
“Maybe a goat instead.”
I chuckle, but right now, I’m only sixty percent sure he’s joking. Dillon, Boone, and I have known each other since high school, and we’re staring forty in the face in just a couple of years. That means I’ve known him longer than I haven’t, but sometimes, I still can’t read him.
“You can’t ride a goat,” I say before running a towel over my face. “I also don’t think goat-riding would qualify you as a cowboy, so I think it’s about time you accepted you’re shit out of luck on that front.”
“I’m shit out of luck on every front,” he grumbles as we leave the gym side by side, climbing the wide staircase that leads to the main floor. “Something needs to give, man. Building an empire and giving back to the community is great and all, but I want more. I need more. I want the woman who completes us.”
“Have you put up the ad for a data-entry specialist yet?” I ask when we hit the landing. “We’re drowning in spreadsheets over here and I’m not complaining, but the business is growing faster by the day. We need an ass in that seat. Maybe you should be thinking about that instead.”
Dillon shrugs. “I haven’t done it yet. Soon. I’ve been busy.”
“Busy inventing breakfast items that shouldn’t exist?” I rub the towel along the back of my neck as we reach the top of the stairs.
Dillon rakes a hand through his hair again and shrugs. “If they shouldn’t have existed, I wouldn’t have invented them. I know you liked the omelet waffles.”
“Pouring beaten eggs and veggies onto a waffle iron is an abomination.” I glance at him as I drop into a stool at our kitchen island. “The ad, Dillon. It’s important. I’m serious here. If we wait much longer, we’re never going to be able to clear the backlog.”
“I’ll get to it,” he says easily. “Don’t worry about it. Beer?”
“It’s nine a.m.” I roll my shoulders to ease the tension in them and drain the rest of the water I’d brought up from downstairs. “What’s going on with you? Be honest. I know it’s not just the girlfriend thing.”
“It’s the girlfriend thing,” he reiterates, widening his eyes at me. “It’s been a long-ass time since Sharon, and I realize that whole situation wasn’t ideal, but you cannot tell me you’re not feeling it too. Something is missing, bro. It’s grating at me.”
“Interesting how you can look back on that shit-show and refer to it as just ‘not being ideal,’” I say dryly, remembering how badly it’d ended. “Of course I’m feeling it. So is Boone, but what happened with Sharon was a cautionary tale. She’s exactly why we’re being so careful now.”
“So what if she got jealous?” He braces his hands on the counter and looks across it, directly at me. “That doesn’t mean we need to be so careful that we’re all going to be geriatrics by the time we get into another relationship.”
“She didn’t get it, bro. This time, we need to make sure that whoever we fall for really does understand our dynamic. We need to take it slow or risk getting our hearts broken. None of us want that.”