Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 256(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
“Yeah, but…”
He interrupted me to continue. “And that stupid dog you found outside the police station. You cried like a baby when you had to give him back to his owner.”
That dog was the best dog ever.
And ridiculously cute while simultaneously being the dumbest animal on the planet.
“Okay…” I started, but again he interrupted me.
“And that little girl who was so hungry they found behind a Jack in the Box eating out of their dumpster?” I continued. “We had her in our home for three days before her godfather was found. You wanted to adopt her, and almost got into an altercation with the man who was legally bound to keep her.”
I sighed. “Okay, so I love easily.”
He gave me an incredulous look, as if I wasn’t quite grasping what he was trying to say.
“You’ll love this kid more than me,” he pointed out. “And let’s not pretend like you wouldn’t sell me for a dollar if it meant keeping Chevy happy.”
He had a point.
“You’d do the same,” I pointed out.
He twirled a piece of my hair around my finger. “It terrifies me that one day my dad will die, and I won’t have him anymore.”
I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news but…it was going to happen. It was just the way of life. But it didn’t have to happen any time soon.
“One day it’s going to happen, darling.” I sighed. “At least, I hope it happens way in the future. I don’t want you to leave me until I’m so old I can’t enjoy you anymore.”
His grin was wicked as he drew his thumbs underneath the bags in my eyes.
Just as he’d swiped once, his phone lit with a text.
“Who is it?” I asked him.
“Banner,” he murmured. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
At my nod, he placed a small kiss on my lips then left, leaving me with no other choice but to go to sleep.
Sleep that came easily, despite all the news of the day.
• • •
FORD
I found Banner where I’d left him, sitting at the kitchen table with his baby still in his arms.
“So when can I hold her?” I asked.
He sighed and offered his daughter up to me.
I took her, pulling her close.
Banner watched me cuddle his daughter, grinning when I placed a kiss on her tiny head.
“They grow really fast, bro,” I told him. “One day, you’re holding her in your hand like this, and the next, you’re chasing them down in the snow naked.”
Banner grinned, because that’d been exactly what happened today when our child had been told no, he couldn’t go outside in the snow until he was dressed.
Luckily, Dad had caught Chevy before he’d had much chance to allow his feet to hit the ground.
“She’s cute, isn’t she?” Banner asked as I got my first up close and personal look of his daughter.
“Very,” I admitted. “Almond shaped eyes,” I said. “Your nose. All those long ass fingers. Those are yours, too. Still no name?”
“Still no name,” he confirmed. “We haven’t really had time to think about it.”
“I thought they didn’t let you leave the hospital without naming them?” I asked.
“Usually they don’t, but Titus sweet talked one of the nurses. We have twenty-four hours to get it to her or she gets her ass handed to her.” He paused. “Do you think the name Crenshaw is too weird?”
“What about Shaw?” I asked.
“Oh,” he narrowed his eyes. “Shaw. I like it…I’ll be right back.”
Grinning, Banner left me with his daughter, which was about the time my dad came out of his room in a pair of jeans and nothing else.
His eyes went to the baby. “Give her to me.”
I was already shaking my head. “No way, old man. I just got her.”
“I might die soon. You’ll have plenty of time to hold her when I’m gone,” he pointed out.
I narrowed my eyes. “Too soon, Dad. Morbidness like that won’t be tolerated until we can wrap our heads around this ‘cancer’ thing.”
Banner came back into the room with a look of consternation on his face. Oakley was on his heels.
She sat down next to my dad and moved as close as her chair would allow.
Dad wrapped his arms around her and said, “I love you, baby.”
I felt tears well in my eyes, but I quickly blinked them back.
“You better be here for Jett,” Banner grumbled. “I’m not raising this fuckin’ kid without you.”
Trance grinned. “Jett?”
Banner sighed and flopped down in the seat next to me, knocking the table that I was leaning on and jolting his kid.
“Yeah,” Banner grumbled. “I went in there to tell her I liked the name Crenshaw, Shaw for short, and she told me she’d already named the baby Jett.”
Trance laughed as I pulled Jett into my chest and shushed her.
She calmed down almost immediately.
“You’re gonna have to teach me that,” Banner said as he stared at me.