Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 86537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 346(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
“I was joking!” He laughed. “Okay, okay. Let’s have pizza.”
I hung back with Viggo while he changed into a clean pullover and gathered his belongings. And in a matter of minutes, it was just us.
“Congratulations.” I nudged his elbow playfully.
Viggo grinned. “It wasn’t the Super Bowl, but it was fun.”
I cupped my ear. “Say that again, please.”
“No. But I’ll let you buy me a beer.”
“You got it.”
“And you can tell me about the doctor appointment. How did it go?” he asked, casually draping his arm over my shoulder.
Goose bumps rose on my arms. I shivered and burrowed closer, breathing him in. There was no one nearby, but at that moment, I officially no longer gave a fuck.
“I felt the baby,” I reported.
Viggo went still. “What do you mean?”
“I put my hand on Freya’s belly and it moved. It was so…incredible.”
“That’s better than beating Fallbrook.”
I chuckled. “Yeah. I almost felt guilty that you weren’t there for it. Like we should be sharing the experience.”
“Thank you. That’s nice of you, but…you’re the father, Dex. You should have the honor for yourself.”
“Hang on. You knew about it?”
“She told us both that the baby was active,” he reminded me. “I didn’t know if she would perform tricks for you.”
“She? Wait! It’s a girl? Do you know that? Did Freya tell you? Did you—”
Viggo stopped abruptly and dropped his bag on the grass. He tipped my chin with his thumb and stared deep into my eyes. “Relax, älskling. I don’t know anything. I say ‘she’ in my head sometimes and other times, I say ‘he.’ That’s all.”
“Right. Okay.” I studied him in the moonlight. “What does älskling mean?”
Viggo kissed my nose. “I’m not telling you.”
“Oh, c’mon.”
“Nope. Let’s get pizza, donut man. The town will come looking for us if we don’t show up, and chances are good that we’ll be naked and I don’t think they should get a peek at all this, you know?” He gestured to his crotch and undulated, and it was so ridiculous, it was funny.
Viggo waltzed ahead of me, shaking his booty while I laughed like a loon.
The stoic man I’d met months ago had a vicious silly streak. He used humor like medicine and sometimes as a distraction when we skirted too close to a truth neither of us was ready to face.
I played along because it seemed like the right thing to do.
I didn’t want either of us to get hurt, but I was beginning to worry we wouldn’t get out of this unscathed.
CHAPTER 28
VIGGO
AHalloween frenzy had taken over the town. The store windows on Main Street were decorated with paper ghosts, spider webs, and smiling skeletons. Dexter’s Donuts topped them all. He’d made a Frankenstein from a tower of green frosted donuts that sort of resembled a miniature Michelin Man and filled a cauldron with jelly donuts, oozing strawberry jam.
“It’s a little gory,” I commented, chomping on a fritter.
Janey cackled, adjusting her witch’s hat as she peered at the display. “It’s supposed to be gory, my pretty!”
“Mwahaha!” Dexter bared his teeth, showing off impressive incisors. “You like?”
“And who are you supposed to be?” I asked dryly.
“I am Dracula,” he said in a corny Transylvanian accent. “Can’t you tell? The teeth, the fashionable hair, and of course…the cape.”
I knew I shouldn’t touch him in public, but I couldn’t resist tugging at the pointed collar that fanned his handsome face.
“Nice touch.”
He scowled, and even that was adorable. “Don’t you need to trot home and get your costume on?”
“I do not trot, and I don’t do costumes,” I scoffed.
Dex pierced his lip with a faux incisor and flashed a naughty just-for-me mischievous grin. “Lumberjacks are all the rage this season anyway. Just carry an ax and maybe lose the jacket so everyone can see that plaid shirt.”
I just stared…and stared until Dex burst into laughter that was very un-Dracula-like.
Janey tsked as she rounded the counter, thrusting a cup of coffee into my hand. “Oh, my God, you two. Get a freaking room already.”
“We—we’re not—”
“What are you talking ab—”
“Save it,” Janey intercepted. “If you’re not…you know…you should be. You’re so cute together.”
“Cute? I am not cute.” I glowered, but she’d returned to her post at the register to help Meg and Dallas with the queue full of Halloween enthusiasts picking up donuts and coffee on their way to work and school.
Dex chuckled. “Yeah, you are.”
I glanced left and right to be sure I wouldn’t be overheard. “You’re not concerned that she thinks we should get a room?”
“Nope. In fact, I wish we could get a room right now,” he purred lasciviously. “I wish we could—”
His gaze snagged on the front door as the bell chimed to announce a new customer. I assumed it was someone with a particularly clever Halloween getup until his face went pale.
“What is it?”
Not what. Who.
Margaret Sandringham entered the shop like a modern-day Cruella de Vil. Except she wasn’t wearing a costume. Perhaps that was uncharitable, but with the dark sunglasses, red lipstick, and hair pulled severely from her face accentuating her high cheekbones, Dexter’s mother looked cartoonishly out of place amongst the revelers dressed as pumpkins, pirates, and princesses.