Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
I lifted both hands and crossed both sets of fingers for him. If he didn’t want to talk about it much or jinx it, I got it. Then I thought about what he’d said on the phone. “I thought you said you were hungry?”
“I am,” he replied. “Had some fancy chef and all, but it was finger foods. Swear on my life the fish dish he had was the size of a silver dollar with some brown stuff on it that looked like deer droppings and tasted like them too.”
“I don’t know how you survived.”
“I don’t either,” he said before following me into the kitchen. I’d cleaned it up while we’d been baking the cheesecake bites. I got it from Mamá Lupe, the need to keep things cleaned up. I couldn’t sleep knowing there were dirty dishes in the sink, but the good thing was, I was the only one who usually ate, so it wasn’t much. There weren’t three hundred dishes that came from having a big family. “His wife—his fifth wife, he’d claimed—said some pretty disturbin’ things to me every time she got the chance.”
“Like what?” He couldn’t just leave it open like that.
Our eyes met as I pulled open the door to my oven and pulled out the four slices of bread I’d put in there the moment after he’d called. Zac made a face as I set the cookie tray on top of the potholders I had spread out on the counter. “She mentioned some masquerade party they were havin’ comin’ up where anything goes.”
I made a face at him over my shoulder, and he nodded, eyes wide and goofy.
“Said I should go. Then she mentioned later on how he goes to bed at nine most nights.”
I blinked. He blinked right back.
I couldn’t help it. I really couldn’t. “Is it hard being handsome?”
And this idiot was totally stone-faced as he answered, “Very.”
Yeah, I couldn’t help it. I snorted. “What a burden you have to live with.”
Zac laughed. “I’m objectified daily.”
“I believe it.”
“Hey, it’s hard sometimes gettin’ taken seriously,” he said. “You know how shitty it makes me feel when some women tell me how pretty I am? I’ve had a few tell me out of nowhere how I’d look—” He stopped talking.
I pulled out a bag of sliced roast beef and eyed him. “How you’d look what?”
“It’s graphic,” he warned.
I rolled my eyes again as I opened the bag and pulled out a slice and rolled it up like a cigarette. “Please don’t make me say it.” I took a bite and chewed. He flicked his fingers at me to approach, and I did.
“Say what?” he asked as he plucked the slice out of my hand and put the rest of it in his mouth.
All right, so we were back to this point in our friendship. Sharing food. That was fine with me too. “You know what,” I tried to hedge, still chewing on my bite. “I know how babies are born.”
Zac blinked.
“They come out of buttholes.”
He burst out laughing, choking on the roast beef in his mouth. His face went red and everything. That’s what he got for stealing my deli meat. “I can’t believe he tried to pull that on you,” he gasped.
Once, after he’d tried to tell me about babies occurring just from kissing, Boogie, my dear, beloved Boogie, had tried to tell me that babies came out of buttholes. Word for word. If my memory served me correctly, Zac had been rolling on the ground laughing afterward.
But Connie had already told me the truth, so I’d just rolled my eyes and walked off.
“He’s so dumb.” I laughed. “If we see him together again, remind me to ask him if he got Lauren pregnant doing butt stuff.”
Zac howled, leaning forward and setting his forehead on my shoulder as I stood there.
I took a sniff.
He smelled nice, like expensive cologne.
Actually, knowing his cheap-ass, it was probably something his mom bought him for Christmas or his birthday every year.
“Who the hell have you been hangin’ around the last ten years?” he asked against my shoulder, his head a nice, comforting weight on me.
“People into butt stuff, obviously.”
His warm puffing laugh hit my neck for a second, and I had to hold very, very still as he cracked up some more.
After a second, I ducked out from under him and went back to finish his sandwiches, adding meat, some mayo, a little horseradish, and a slice of cheddar cheese to both of them. Damn, they looked good. My stomach grumbled in appreciation. Then I carefully set the plate on the counter and shoved it close to the man who was still cracking up.
But not cracking up enough to not notice he had food in front of him. He took a huge bite. “Mmm, this is good.” Those blue eyes hit me as he took another bite. “What’d you do today?” he asked, sounding casual.