Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
She grumbled and moved to walk behind me.
“What are you doing? There’s enough room to walk by my side,” I said, waving to the empty space.
“I’m staying right here,” she said, placing her hands on my shoulders. “I’m using you as a human shield in case of a snake encounter.”
“Of course you are,” I said, unable to stop the smile on my lips as I led her up the overgrown path.
“Ah… not that I am morally against trespassing, since we just fuck on these peoples’ dock and all, but this seems like it is someone’s house,” she said as it came into view.
It was a little rundown from outside. And, admittedly, inside too.
The bank had owned it since before I’d brought her here the first time, and it looked like it had been neglected for at least that long.
“It is,” I agreed, reaching in my pocket, then turning with the keys held up. “It’s ours,” I told her, watching as she went from confused to shocked then, finally, as a smile spread across that gorgeous fucking face.
“No way,” she said, rushing toward me, and snatching the keys from my hand.
“It’s a little rough…” I acknowledged as we walked up through the backyard.
There was an enclosure around the kidney-shaped pool that looked like it needed some repair. And the pool itself would likely need to be drained, repaired, and refilled.
But, hey, it was there. The potential for something awesome was within reach.
“That’s the best part,” Rynn declared, practically skipping toward the house, going around the front. “It looks like people were murdered here. Were people murdered here?”
“I, ah, I didn’t ask,” I admitted. “It was vacant for a long time, though.”
“Well, we can pretend it was a murder scene, and that the unhappy spirits still haunt the halls…”
“Whatever knocks your socks off, baby,” I agreed, following her as we rounded the front of the house.
It was a mess.
Everything was overgrown and covered in moss thanks to the thick canopy of trees overhead keeping it shaded and the ever-present humidity keeping it damp.
The house itself was a sprawling ranch.
Not as grand, structure-wise, as Rynn’s penthouse, but a big, solid house that could withstand a beating that the storms sometimes battered us with.
It needed a good power wash, a new front step, and shutters that weren’t a hideous red, but again, the potential was there.
And Rynn loved decorating.
Stabbing the key in the locks, she pushed the door open, revealing ancient tile floors with dark grout, a large living room, a dated kitchen, and a dining room to the other side.
Off the kitchen toward the back was a family room. And down off the living room was a hall that led to three bedrooms.
More than enough.
Even if we did have a kid or kids. We hadn’t really discussed that yet. But we would be prepared when we decided on that.
“It’s rough…” I said as I followed her into the kitchen.
“That’s the best part. We can make it completely our own. I have so many ideas already,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her back through the living room, then into each of the bedrooms and bathrooms.
“You’re going to have to get real cool about dark paint colors really fast,” she told me when she was done checking out every room.
“Baby, anything you want to do with it,” I said, waving around the space, “you just tell the prospects, and they will have it handled.”
“It’s so fun to have workers at our beck and call. I should feel guilty about making them do all the heavy lifting around here…”
“They’ll like a break from washing the bikes and cutting the lawn,” I said, shrugging it off.
Paying your dues was something we all had to do. Especially when you are at the club and eating the food and enjoying the drinks and girls, but not trusted enough yet to actually do the work of the club. So you had to make yourself useful.
“The cats are going to love the catio.”
“Catio?” I asked.
“The pool enclosure,” she said. “Obviously, that is going to be their catio.”
“Of course it is,” I agreed, smiling.
“Is this done? It’s yours?”
“Ours, yes,” I said, nodding. “It turned out being perfect. There is the sentimental value of it,” I said. “But it was also a steal since it’s been sitting so long. And it’s close enough to the clubhouse that Huck was cool with it.”
There was one beat before she just… launched herself at me.
“I am so excited,” she said, hanging on as I spun her around twice. “For the house. And the future,” she clarified.
And, fuck, so was I.
Whatever it held for us.
Rynn - 2.5 years
“I say this with all the love in the world I have for you,” Josie said as she handed me my tube of lipstick I’d picked out just for this occasion. “But I never thought this was going to happen.”