Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“You sound scratchy as fuck,” I said as she looked through all the pictures she’d taken. At least half of them were selfies of us. And I was absolutely going to make her send me a few of them.
“Too much woo-wooing,” she said as she drafted a text to Daphne, then sent her a bunch of images. Including pigeons we had to stop to talk to, this massive-ass bookstore we passed, the concert, and yes, ones of us.
“Does that mean you don’t want hot pretzels?” She shot me small eyes, making me laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes, you do still want them.”
“And the sesame steak. And the chicken curry. And…”
“We will hit them all on the way back to the hotel,” I assured her, giving her thigh a squeeze.
A text came through, making Sabrina smile. “Daph says we have to take her to that big bookstore for her next birthday.”
“I have a feeling she will talk us into taking her much sooner than that,” I said as Sabrina snuggled into me.
The booze was wearing off. And, clearly, she was the type to get sleepy as hell on the downslide.
“You wanna skip the food and go to sleep?” I asked, fingers sifting through her hair.
“No. I’m staying awake to eat all of that food,” she told me, then leaned up to my ear to whisper so the cab driver didn’t hear, even though he was on the phone, talking animatedly in Hindi. “And then have lots of sex where we don’t have to worry about being loud,” she told me.
Then promptly napped on my shoulder.
Luckily, we were stuck in traffic for a bit on the way back to the street the hotel was on.
We got our food.
And her energy returned after eating.
Then, yeah, we had lots of loud sex before curling up under the covers.
“Callow?” Sabrina called, sounding scratchier than before thanks to several rolling orgasms.
“Yeah?” I asked as my fingers drifted through her soft hair.
“Thank you for the best night ever.”
She had no idea that I planned to keep giving her as many ‘best nights ever’ as I could from here on out.
But I couldn’t wait for her to find out.
Sabrina - 7 months
“Moooom,” Daphne groaned when I didn’t step back from the car.
“You gotta let her go,” Callow reminded me. Then, when even that didn’t work, he grabbed my hips and pulled me back onto the sidewalk.
“Thanks,” Daphne said, giving Callow a megawatt smile.
“Drive safe, kid,” he said, wrapping arms around me to give me a comforting squeeze as my kid drove away from me for the first time.
“I don’t like this at all,” I said, heartbeat hammering against my ribcage.
“I know. But we bought her the safest car on the market,” he reminded me, pressing a kiss to my head. “And we have the GPS tracker on. She’s a really good driver.”
“I should have driven with her more.”
“Well, babe, we all decided that was a bad idea,” he said, dangerously close to laughing at me.
And, fine. I was a chronic gasper and forever stabbing my foot into my invisible brake pedal when in the passenger seat. We had all unanimously decided that Callow had the better temperament to teach Daphne to drive. Which he did. Happily. And often. I had nothing to worry about.
But I was a mom.
Worry was my default state.
“I have a surprise to distract you,” he said, waiting for me to turn to look at him.
“What kind of surprise.”
“One the kid and I have been keeping from you for a few weeks now.”
I faked a gasp, pressing a hand to my heart.
“Betrayed by the two people I love most!”
“In the best way possible. I hope,” he said, looking uncharacteristically worried.
Which, yeah, piqued my interest.
“Okay. Do I get any hints?”
“Not one,” he said, reaching down to take my hand and leading me over to his motorcycle.
I had a lot of rules about riding on the bike. Namely, because I was a mom and I had to be there for my kid, so safety was of the utmost importance. So even though I loved the way the wind whipped my hair and my belly bottomed out on curves like a carnival ride, we only took it if we were riding back roads, not the highways where speeds and other drivers made it more dangerous.
So wherever we were going was relatively close to the apartment. Which was intriguing.
After slipping on my helmet, I climbed on behind Callow, loving that I got to wrap myself around him on the drive. In fact, I was so distracted by his nearness that I didn’t even notice we were making our way deeper into a neighborhood.
Until the engine cut.
And I sat back to realize we were parked in a driveway to a sweet little penny brick ranch.
It had a ton of curb appeal thanks to the flowerbeds out front that were overflowing with pinks, yellows, and purples. And the weeping willow out front actually had a little swing hanging from it.