Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
His deep chuckle rocked my body.
I wasn’t sure what was funny.
“What?” I asked.
“Babe, it fucks with me I’m gonna live a life of boredom with you in it. But I’m down to make that sacrifice.”
Even though the words “live a life…with you in it” made me feel all gooey, I rolled my eyes.
He kissed me.
Obviously, while he did it, I stopped rolling my eyes.
Then, since I was leaking, I had to get up to clean up.
Henny, who had anointed himself the Official Bathroom Visitor, came with me.
Henny and I went back to Eric.
Eric and I turned off our lights, snuggled in, Henny curled at our feet.
And our little family went to sleep.
In our short relationship, Eric had never insisted on anything.
But the next morning, when I told him I was going to swing by the camp to see how Homer was doing before I went to work, he insisted on taking me.
Then again, I didn’t really fight him on it.
When he rolled the Tahoe to a stop across the street from the entrance to the camp, or more precisely, across the street from Homer’s tent, and we both watched Homer duck out, Eric said quietly, “I’ll wait for you here.”
I turned to him and nodded.
Then I got out.
I was halfway across the street when Homer put his hand over his heart.
He looked beyond me to Eric in his SUV, back to me, where he dipped his chin.
And with that, he ducked back in his tent.
I stopped moving.
Homer never ducked away from me.
I knew next to nothing about Homer, but what I did know was not to push this.
Feeling wrong—dejected, worried, maybe a little scared at what might be going on in Homer’s head—I turned around and got back in Eric’s car.
“He needs more time,” Eric said.
“Yeah,” I mumbled.
I heard him snap, looked down at the armrest between us and saw his hand extended, palm up.
I put mine is his. He curled his long fingers around.
After he did that, Eric took his foot off the brake, crept forward, found a place to turn around, and we drove away from Homer and the encampment.
As we did, one could say, I was really happy Eric insisted on coming.
“Uncle Eric!” Maisie shouted, hands on her little girl hips, pretty face screwed up in disapproval. She was standing among the open boxes of ornaments awaiting to be put to use. “This is such a boy tree.”
Luke and Ava’s second and final child, who was seven years old, had her father’s dark hair and her mother’s light-brown eyes.
She was also a bossy little miss.
The minute I met her, it was instalove.
“Yeah,” her father agreed. “I like it. We’re switching our tree to that next year.”
Ava, working beside me in the kitchen, snorted, this stating plainly not only was this a tease, but even if it wasn’t, no way Luke would make the effort to follow through with it.
I’d already sensed Luke was not a Christmas décor kind of guy and was only involved in the current sitch because it included hefting, assembling and mounting. Once the ornaments came into play, my guess was, he’d be out.
Maisie, along with her older sister Gracie, were horrified at their father’s statement, even though I’d noticed this happened a lot in the short time I’d been around them since their arrival the evening before. It nevertheless seemed lost on the girls it was a tease.
Luke would have a pink tree in a Barbie themed house if it made all his girls happy.
Though, he wouldn’t go out and buy it.
Sensing that was when I fell in love with Luke Stark.
“Daddeeeeeee, no!” Maisie screeched.
“Daddy!” Gracie cried in the horror a budding Victorian lady would use, lifting her hand to her throat and everything.
Cue the instalove with Gracie when I met her too. She had her father’s hair and dark-blue eyes, and it was clear she took her big-sister duties seriously. Therefore, we bonded on that score.
The two girls couldn’t be more different, with Gracie being quiet, observant, much more mature even if she was only nine, but having a talent with delivering understated dramatics that garnered deep respect from me.
On the other hand, Maisie was exuberant, talkative and had been given the gift I hoped she’d someday come to understand and appreciate: being the youngest, and as such, getting away with a good deal of shit.
It was borderline hilarious how GIRL! these two were when their father was the epitome of alpha masculinity.
That said, Ava was all girl too, in a womanly way. She was knockout gorgeous, with a curvy body, a head full of thick, blonde hair and a blatant attitude that sparked off Luke’s to such an extent, the sexual chemistry was thick in the air (that being theirs mingled with Eric’s and mine, obviously).
Though, I couldn’t say Maisie was wrong about Eric’s tree.