Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122206 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I dropped my hands and said, “Okay.” Because what else could I say?
Dante grinned. “D’ye have everyone’s name straight in the garage yet?”
“I do,” I said with pride. “I struggled with Harley and Gavin this mornin’, only because they look so much alike from the back. Ryder is easy to remember. He mentioned that I’d meet his younger brother on Wednesday when he’s back from his week off.”
“Damien.” Dante nodded, his tone gruff. “He’s ugly compared to the rest of us, so ye’ll spot him right away.”
I snorted because it seemed like banter, but Dante looked dead serious, so I simply nodded away the awkwardness.
“It seems like a brothers-only kind of garage I’m musclin’ me way into.”
“I’ll say.” Dante chuckled. “Kane is their brother too, ye know?”
I dug my eyebrows in tight. “Who is whose brother?”
“Kane,” Dante repeated. “Your landlord. He’s Ryder and Damien’s brother.”
“Oh, Mr Slater?” I said, surprised. “That’s funny. He is your brother-in-law, and his brothers work in the same place as you and your brothers. Small world.”
“Only two of his brothers,” Dante explained. “He has two more. They’re a right group, the Slaters.”
“I can only imagine.”
A moment of silence stretched between us. Dante suddenly inhaled deeply, and he groaned a little as his eyes fluttered shut. I stared up at him, not knowing what he was doing but unable to look away from him. I couldn’t move either.
“What is that smell?” he practically growled. “If ye say heaven, I’ll believe ye.”
I remembered that I had just taken my dinner out of the oven. I had put my working aid in to hear the timer on the oven go off, that’s what allowed me to hear Dante and Mr Slater making all that noise out in the hallway.
“I just made dinner.”
Dante’s stomach picked that moment to rumble. Loudly.
“Would … would ye like to come in?” I asked before I could stop myself. “I have extra if you’re hungry and want a plate—”
“I’m always hungry and wantin’ a plate.”
I giggled at his prompt interruption. “Come on in then.”
Stepping back, I gestured him into my apartment. When he walked by me, I closed the door after him. “I was about to tell ye where the kitchen was,” I tittered at myself. “As if our apartments don’t have the exact same layout.”
I followed Dante into the kitchen and watched as he practically devoured the food dish with his eyes. I had made lasagne from scratch. I didn’t want to toot my own horn, but I knew my way around the kitchen. My father hated processed food, so everything he ate had to be freshly prepared from organic ingredients we grew on our farm. I didn’t entirely share his ideology when it came to that, but I did enjoy homemade food, and it seemed that Dante did too.
“Please,” he said, his eyes flicking from me to the food, then back to me. “Please don’t tell me ye make lasagne homemade?”
I frowned. “Is that a bad thing?”
“No,” he practically whimpered. “It’s a very good thing.”
The man looked like he was about to drool.
“It’s not hard. I’ve been makin’ it for years. Daddy hates premade frozen meals, so I make everythin’ from scratch.”
“The more ye talk, the more I want to ask ye to marry me.”
I started to laugh to cover up how flustered that comment made me. I walked over to the dish and leaned up to open the press above the counter. I froze when I realised I only had one plate. I closed the door and turned to face Dante, whose captivating eyes were locked on mine.
“This is so embarrassin’, but I only have one plate.” I clasped my hands together. “They sold them individually in Aldi, and until I get my first month’s wages, it was all I could afford. I’m tight on money.”
“Don’t be frettin’, specs. Give me a second. I’ll grab some delph for meself from me apartment.”
When Dante dipped from my apartment to his, I looked down at my hands and then at my legs, and I realised I was wearing a T-shirt. Just a T-shirt. I fled to my bedroom and quickly pulled on a pair of black leggings. I hopped around until I got the fabric over my feet. I nearly fell on my face twice, but when I had the leggings on, I hiked them up.
“Kid?”
“Be right there.”
“Take your time, love.”
Love. Country. Specs. Kid.
The man called me everything but my name.
I headed back into the kitchen and laughed when I saw Dante standing over the lasagne, just staring down at it. I grabbed my oven mitts and put them on.
“D’ye like cheesy garlic bread?”
Dante turned his head slowly and asked, “Why?”
The word was almost a whisper.
“Because …” I bent down and removed the loaf of cheese-covered garlic bread that was cooking on the top rack of the oven. “I made a loaf of it as a side to the lasagne.”