Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130380 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I had a quip locked and loaded, but there was something about the way she looked at me in that moment that made it evaporate on my tongue. It was the same way she’d looked upstairs that had made me pause earlier — a softness in her eyes that wasn’t normally present, defeat slumping her shoulders.
It felt… familiar, in a way I couldn’t explain.
“I feel like I know you.”
She arched a brow. “Trust me — you know absolutely nothing about me.”
“No, I mean like I feel like we’ve met before.”
Her lips tightened into a line, and with her hands still holding the cooler, she flicked her head back to get the fallen strands of hair out of her face.
I narrowed my eyes when she didn’t answer. “Have we?”
She finally looked away from the stairs and directly at me.
I swore I shrank a few inches.
“Don’t you think you’d remember if we had?”
The corner of my mouth kicked up at that. “Fair point. No way I’d forget meeting someone with such large…” My eyes trailed the length of her, appreciating the ample curves of her bust, her hips, her thighs. When I met her gaze again, she had an eyebrow quirked with a warning in her glare. “Tattoos,” I finished.
Her lips flattened even more, and then she turned and headed up the stairs.
“I really would like to see them all, you know,” I said, leaning against the bottom railing as she climbed.
“Go to bed, Leo.”
“Come on, tell me about them. Just one.”
“In your dreams.”
“Yes, actually, among other things. Want me to detail them?”
She paused, turning on her heel to look down at me. “You’re insufferable.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
She shook her head, but under her annoyed expression, I thought I saw hints of a smile.
“I’m too tired to deal with you,” she said, turning to climb the last few stairs.
“Need someone to tuck you in?”
“Goodnight,” she called when she dipped out of view, and I stood there at the bottom smiling even after I heard her door click closed.
Mary
The first dust of dawn was falling over the city of Boston when I shook out my yoga mat on the back patio. It was surrounded by the lush garden Holden had grown in his time here, and I closed my eyes, inhaling the scent of flowers and herbs and vegetables as I wiggled my toes on my mat.
Usually, I’d wake and bake sometime around eleven, maybe even noon, before I’d settle in for a yoga session. But that was because under normal circumstances, I was at the tattoo parlor until two or three in the morning. I’d been off the last couple of nights to get my current situation under control, and it felt like a piece of me was missing.
I couldn’t wait to get back tonight.
Still, even without being at the shop last night, I couldn’t believe I was up this early. I blamed the lack of sleep in a new place.
Holden’s bed was comfortable enough, and the house was quiet once the boys went to bed. But it felt like trying to sleep in a tree knowing creatures lurked in the forest around me. I was on edge, too aware, like I knew I didn’t belong there. It was just… strange, and I couldn’t fully relax.
I’d given up somewhere after midnight, tossing the covers off and deciding to wander the house. I used to have trouble sleeping when I was a kid, and I swore Dad was connected to me in a way no one else in the world was because he would sense it. He’d knock softly on my door, and then he’d tell me to put my shoes on and we’d go for a walk.
We never talked, just walked side by side around the block a couple times. It wouldn’t take long to quiet my mind, still my heart, and find myself a bit more relaxed.
I always slept better after those walks.
Of course, last night, I didn’t feel safe walking the neighborhood at midnight, even if we were in a relatively safe suburb. Instead, I walked around my new home, slowly taking in the eclectic décor as I ran my fingers down the walls. The Snake Pit had character, that much was easy to see. There were so many remnants of the past football players who had lived there — pictures, knick-knacks, scuffs on the walls.
Everyone who lived here left a small piece of them behind.
I still felt a little wound up when I finally ambled back to my bedroom, but I did manage a few hours of sleep before my body woke me with the desire to get on my mat.
With my eyes still closed, I inhaled, sweeping my arms overhead and stretching up to the sky. On an exhale, I folded, fingertips touching my toes as every kink in my back and hamstrings let go with a sigh. On a halfway lift, I inhaled, folded once more, and then easily stepped back for my first cobra into downward dog. It took me a few salutations to get fully ready, to really slip into the session.