Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Which made me roll my eyes as soon as I got into the obnoxious orange delivery truck.
I was a thirty-five-year-old man. I was an emergency room doctor. I was six-foot-three, could deadlift five hundred pounds, and I could run circles around every single person at my CrossFit gym.
The only thing was, a little woman that I couldn’t even work up the courage to ask her name, was making me so nervous and giddy that I could barely contain my excitement.
I really needed to get a life.
Or work up the courage to ask her out on a date.
I was hoping one day I could talk myself into the latter.
I got hos in a lot of different area codes.
-Santa T-shirt
Nola
“Is he there yet?” my sister, Creole, asked.
“Not yet,” I admitted, my thick Cajun accent in full force. “He’s usually here by now.”
“Maybe he saved you for last,” Creole suggested.
I snorted. “He did not save me for last. I can’t keep ordering things like this, either. It’s getting really out of hand.”
My credit card was already bursting at the seams.
The only good thing was that I knew that Creole’s kids would enjoy all the presents that I’d bought for them this year.
“So, did you get a pic of him yet?” she asked. “I want a better one than that blurry one you took through the blinds last time.”
I snorted. “You know that’s all you’re going to get. I swear to God, it’s like the man knows when I’m taking a photo. He always catches me, and I have to act like I’m taking a picture of my dog instead.”
“How is King Cake doing, anyway?” she asked. “I miss him.”
My family had a theme.
My mother, father, sister, and I were from New Orleans, Louisiana.
When we were eighteen, my sister and I moved away to start school in Texas.
Then, Creole decided that she needed to see more of the world, and then decided to up and join the Navy, leaving our dog, King Cake, in my loving care.
She hadn’t seen him in over a year since she was stationed overseas, and I missed her like crazy.
“King Cake is walking around like a fat little spring roll,” I admitted. “I seriously need to help him lose weight, but he’s so old now that I feel bad making him walk.”
King Cake was a fourteen-year-old French Bulldog that needed to lose weight about eight years ago.
Sadly, with how much the two of us worked, King Cake was left to his own devices a lot, and by the time that I got home at night sometimes, the last thing I wanted to do was take him for a walk.
And now that I had the time, and I wasn’t on call so much—thank God that residency was over—he was just too old to be doing half the things that he needed to.
The most excitement he got now was when the delivery man came by and got him all riled up.
Speaking of delivery drivers…
“Oh, my God. He’s here,” I gasped.
That’s when the big orange door slid open, and none other than a blonde Nordic god stepped out.
I moaned and pulled up my phone, switching to FaceTime.
“This is the best I have,” I whispered when her face appeared.
I switched the camera around and set the phone on the ledge.
“Don’t yell or you’ll give yourself away,” I ordered.
“Like I can control when I yell at your nieces and nephews,” she grumbled. “They’re being awful today, by the way. Getting all riled up about picking out a Christmas tree. Now, go before you give me away.”
Go I did.
When I heard the door of the truck slam, I hurried out to the porch and let King Cake out before he could do any more damage to my screen door.
The moment that the door was open, he was running across the yard as fast as his fat little legs could carry him.
The blonde Nordic god grinned, pulled a bone out of his pocket, and then dropped down onto his haunches, giving me time to study the object of my obsession.
Delivery Guy—DG for short since I still didn’t know his name—was tall. And when I say tall, I meant I had to crane my neck to look up at him. He was also stocky, had a luscious beard that did things for me that I wouldn’t even admit to myself, and had the bluest eyes I’d ever seen that didn’t belong to a dog.
Which was then awful for me to think about—comparing the man to a dog.
There was nothing dog-like about that man.
He was tall, sexy as hell, and had the sexiest do-me lips that I’d ever seen in my life.
Like, women killed to have lips like that, and the delivery guy had them naturally.
His eyelashes were super-duper long, too.
“Hey, Delivery Guy!” I called, grinning from ear to ear.