Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
I slide my phone back in my pocket and Carrie is inspecting me like she thinks I’m about to explode. “Relax, baby. I told you. I got this.”
“Meaning what? I just said the problems felt over and he called. What was that?”
“He watched me speak on the news. He said a final and proverbial ‘fuck you’ and then declared us even. We’re done with this war.”
“Really?” she asks hopefully.
“Really,” I promise, taking her hand and kissing it. “It’s all about the wedding now.”
“It’s over,” she says. “Really over?”
“It’s really over,” I assure her and I mean those words. Every obstacle we’ve faced we’ve defeated. Now is the right time to get married. Right after we pick up our dog.
Three hours later, I watch my future wife fall in love with a big, goofy golden retriever that tackles me when I squat next to her and Carrie. The three of us end up on the foster home’s floor, laughing and I have this surreal moment about this being my life with my future wife.
Later, while we ride home with Smith behind the wheel, the new pooch in the seat next to Carrie with her head in Carrie’s lap, I’m reminded of Carrie fretting over problems earlier today, and my promise to make everything right. I don’t like promises I can’t keep and I want everything real and honest with Carrie. Motivated by this thought, I cup her face and lean in close, my cheek to her cheek, lips at her ear. “I can’t promise there won’t ever be problems but I can promise you they won’t win. We will.” I lean back to look at her. “Because I will fight for us forever and fight to win. And no one will ever hurt you.” I kiss her and we end up with our dog licking our faces, but tonight, once we’re alone, I’m going to make sure Carrie knows how much I mean that vow.
No one will ever hurt her.
Chapter one hundred eleven
Carrie
Once Reid and I have Nikki home, we spend a good amount of time trying to properly introduce her to Kesha. To our surprise, this isn’t a difficult process. They sniff noses and butts and it’s not long before they’re snuggled on the floor together. It’s really incredible and easy when the internet had promised a different scenario.
It’s hours later when we lay in the bed with Nikki and Kesha snuggled in the chair by the window. “I didn’t know that you stayed in touch with her parents,” I say, speaking my thoughts into the shadows of the dark room.
His hand settles between my shoulder blades. “I did more than stay in touch. I took care of them.”
I lean up on an elbow. “You mean money?”
“Yes, money. Money isn’t the answer to how to be there for people, but it was the only way I had to help them.”
“Did you see them after the funeral?”
“When her father was in the hospital dying,” he says. “I was there for her mother.”
I lean in and press my lips to his. “You’re incredible.”
He rolls me to my back. “I was every shade of asshole possible, baby. Don’t make me some hero. I wasn’t. I’m not.”
“You’re my hero.” I trace his jaw.
He cups my hand and kisses it. “I promise you, baby, I will try to live up to that statement every day of the rest of our lives.” He kisses me, his tongue stroking deep, his hips settling between my legs, and then suddenly Nikki is licking our faces.
Reid groans and rolls to his back. “You wanted a dog.”
I laugh. “So did you. We’ll teach her no loving while we’re loving.”
He laughs and groans, his hand taking mine and wrapping it around his shaft. “Yes. We will.” He pulls me up and over to the bed, laying us both down side by side, as he yanks the blanket over our heads. “I’m fucking you and Nikki can’t stop me.”
I laugh as he pulls my leg to his hip and presses inside me, driving into me and the bed around us is moving in all kinds of ways while Nikki barks. Reid is not dissuaded. He thrusts into me, his hand cupping my backside and pulling me into every pump and grind, his mouth closing down on mine, his hand on my breast. Apparently, barking isn’t a problem for us, because, in a rush of fast passion, we’re quaking and collapsing into each other as Reid yanks the blanket off of our heads and gets a dog lick on his forehead as a reward. We are laughing as he carries me to the bathroom and I have a moment when I think about how bad today was and how bad I thought tonight would be emotionally for Reid.
But it’s not.
Because we’re so good.
I wake on my back with Reid’s leg between my legs, a cat on my arm and a dog at my feet. I smile. My God, how life has changed. I was living in my little apartment, so completely alone, and now, there is this. So much of this. “We’ve been attacked by a zoo,” Reid murmurs.