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)
It took a moment for me to process what he was telling me.
“Oh.” I felt my face burn as I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. “Right.”
I turned as I put the phone back to my ear and hurried back to my reception. “That wasn’t funny, ye spanner!” I hissed into the phone. “Me mechanics think I’m a feckin’ eejit now, thanks to you!”
Laughter erupted from the phone before the line went dead.
“You’re fuckin’ adorable.”
I groaned as I put the phone down and looked up at my boyfriend. “I’m mortified. I know better than that.”
“Ye have to admit it was funny.”
I snorted. “Maybe a little.”
Dante grinned as he leaned over my desk and brushed his lips against mine. As he pulled back, I watched as his T-shirt stretched over his broad shoulders with an appreciative sigh. He had a little dirt on his face, on his arms and clothes too, but that came with the job. His hair was a little tousled, likely from being under a car. He wasn’t at all put together, and I found that was just the way I liked him.
“Lilly is here. I just saw her pull up.”
My expression made Dante laugh.
“Stop worryin’ about her.” He leaned his elbows on the desk’s countertop. “I told ye that she’s accepted ye.”
“Just because she said goodbye to me when she was here last does not mean she’s accepted me.”
“It does,” Dante stressed. “Ye didn’t do her biddin’ right away when she asked for one of us to see to her. It was subtle, specs, but ye stood up to her. She respects that.”
I swallowed. “Are ye sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure.” He chuckled. “I know Lilly.”
I exhaled a breath and nodded. I trusted Dante. If he said Lilly was cool with me, then I believed him.
“Besides, she won’t be here long. It’s Thursday.”
“What relevance does the day of the week have?”
“Every Thursday is when her and the knitters get together.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“That’s what the members of her knittin’ cult are called.”
“Lilly runs a knittin’ cult, I mean club?”
“Yeah, it’s called Knit Happens.”
“No!” I put my hand over my mouth. “Is it really called that?”
“Yup, it surely is,” Gavin answered, entering the reception and overhearing our conversation. “They have merch, too. I bought a T-shirt when they were raising money for Crumlin’s Children’s Hospital a couple of years ago. It’s a black T-shirt and has Knit Happens in white letters. Then there’s a picture of knittin’ and crochetin’ needles shaped into a hand givin’ the middle finger. Not entirely appropriate when raisin’ money for sick kids, but it worked because they raised thousands.”
That was simply amazing. I wanted one of those T-shirts. Badly.
“D’ye think I could join her club?” Dante and Gavin stared at me, and I shrank in my seat. “I like crochetin’,” I said in my defence. “I’ve been doin’ it for years. Ye’ve seen me bag of supplies, Dante.”
He had seen my wool, yarn, and crocheting hooks that I had purchased over the past few weeks … He had just never seen me actually crochet anything because when I was around him in my apartment, crocheting was the very last thing on my mind.
“Will ye make me a scarf if they accept ye as a knitter?”
Dante swatted the back of Gavin’s head, making him hiss.
“What?” he scowled. “I was only askin’ a bleedin’ question, ye dope.”
Dante made a motion to hit Gavin again, but the youngest Collins ducked out of reach with a wry grin. I giggled. “Of course I’ll make ye a scarf, honey.”
Gavin looked at Dante. “Ha! She loves me, too!”
He disappeared into the hangar, laughing, when Dante tried to kick him.
“Leave him alone,” I chided. “It’s good to see him back on his feet and teasin’ us.”
Dante looked into the hangar, and a dark emotion filled his eyes. I knew he was thinking back to the night a few weeks ago when the dark side of Gavin’s other job got twisted and nearly cost him his life. When Dante looked back at me, his Collins blues were clear once more. The look of adoration and love he gave me made my heart flip inside my chest. I stood and leaned forward with my lips puckered. Dante smiled as he met me halfway. Our kiss was soft, sweet, and not nearly long enough.
“Tell me about Knit Happens,” I said when I sat back down. “And I mean everythin’.”
“To the world, it’s a knittin’ group. To Lilly, it’s a resistance, and she’s its leader.”
I snorted. “I’m gonna ask her if I can join.”
“Who are you, and what have ye done with me missus?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s a perfectly normal thing for me to do somethin’ like this.”
“I’d agree if it were anyone other than Lilly that ye’d have to talk to,” Dante said with earnest. “You’re scared shitless of the Frodo lookalike, and she knows it. She’ll smell your fear and eat ye alive, country. She’ll laugh if ye cry. She may have accepted ye, but that leprechaun is bloodthirsty.”