Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93301 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
But I was nervous about my odds on this one.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
Surprised, Austin turned around and raised his eyebrows. “Why not?”
“Easy.” I shrugged. “I’m not a fucking idiot.”
THIRTEEN
kelly
“Your family is so nice,” I gushed as Xander turned around in his brother’s driveway and I waved to Austin, Veronica, George, and the kids, who all stood on the porch watching us leave.
“Thanks for spending so much time with them,” Xander said, switching the wipers on. Fat raindrops were just starting to splash onto the windshield. Lightning flashed in the deep gray sky. “My dad was definitely living his best life when you asked him for lessons on throwing horseshoes.”
“Aww. He’s such a sweetheart.”
“I thought Adelaide was going to cry when you asked to see her bedroom.”
I laughed. “I know how important a girl’s room is. How she decorates it says a lot about her personality.”
“So what does it say that she has a giant poster of you on her wall?”
“That she has good taste in music, duh.” I reached over and slapped his thigh. “Oops, sorry. I broke a rule.”
“You’ve been breaking it all day,” he complained. “Why do you have to be so touchy-feely?”
“It’s not on purpose. I’m just a touchy-feely person. I’ll try to be better.” I put my hands between my knees and squeezed them. “How’s that?”
He glanced at my legs, but his frown only deepened. “It’s fine.”
Hiding a smile by looking out the window, I noticed we’d turned onto the downtown main street, which looked straight out of a movie set—red brick sidewalks, charming little boutiques, quaint coffee shops, an ice cream parlor, an art gallery, a tiny movie theater. Even the old-fashioned streetlamps were adorable. Most of the businesses were closed, since it was close to nine o’clock, but through restaurant windows I could see people lingering over their Saturday night dinner tables.
“This town is so cute!” I said. “I can’t wait to come back and explore.” At the end of the business district, Xander turned left, and the street sloped down toward the harbor. The view was so pretty, I gasped. “Oh, look at the moon on the water! Is that the lighthouse your dad mentioned?”
“Yes.” He slowed down. “This is Waterfront Park straight ahead of us. That big place on the right is called The Pier Inn. I used to work there every summer busing tables. The marina is on the other side of it.” He turned left and we drove along the water.
“Is there a beach?” I asked, straining to see. “It’s hard to tell in the dark.”
“Not here. This is just a park and harbor. But there’s a public beach up the road. On the left here—along the bluff—are big vacation homes that were built by rich Chicago families over a hundred years ago.”
“Wow,” I said, trying to lean over him so I could look out the driver’s side window. Through the misty dark, I could see the hulking shapes of big old Victorians—turrets and gables and porches and witch hat roofs. “I wish I could see better.”
“I’ll bring you back during the day. I’m hoping to buy a house around here in a few months—not one of those, of course. Something smaller.” As we left Cherry Tree Harbor behind us, the road became a highway, and Xander picked up speed. Rain drummed hard against the windshield.
“For your wife and three rowdy kids?” I teased.
“Ha.”
“So Veronica lives in the apartment above Austin’s garage?”
Xander laughed. “I think she technically lives in the apartment, but my guess is she spends a lot of nights in Austin’s bed and sneaks out early.”
“That’s kinda fun.”
“It’s kinda ridiculous. Those kids know what’s going on between them.”
“Maybe, but having a secret makes you feel close to someone.” I looked over at him. “Don’t you think?”
He shrugged. “I don’t really have any secrets.”
“Oh, come on. Everyone has secrets. Stuff they bury way down deep.”
“Not me. I’m an open book.”
Shifting in the passenger seat to face him, I tucked one boot under the opposite knee. “An open book, huh?”
“Totally.”
I rubbed a finger beneath my lower lip. “I disagree.”
“What do you mean, you disagree?” He tossed a frown in my direction.
“I mean, I think you’re one of those guys who claims to be an open book, and you keep everyone distracted with that cocky grin and easygoing charm, but you actually have a second book that you keep tightly closed, hidden from view.”
“A second book?” He snorted. “And what’s in this mysterious, hidden second book?”
“Your real feelings, of course.”
He burst out laughing. “Like a little diary where I write down the names of all my crushes? Mabel had one of those she used to lock with an actual key. Except she hid it in the most obvious place ever, and Dashiel found it and cut it open.”
I gasped. “He didn’t.”