Total pages in book: 176
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 836(@200wpm)___ 669(@250wpm)___ 558(@300wpm)
I quietly backed out of the room, shooting a text to Joren as I passed by the stairs. I stopped and turned when I heard a crash and saw another one of my damn kids tumbling down them before landing at the bottom.
Zuri started crying when she noticed she had an audience, but I paid her no mind and kept going as I wandered over to the panoramic sliding door overlooking the backyard.
I scanned the huge space until I found her.
Sitting at the edge of the pool with her back to the house and her legs swishing through the water was Atlas.
After we had our second child, I packed my family up and moved us into a larger house at the edge of the city limits where I knew we’d have room to grow.
I slid the door open and stepped out while she peered over her shoulder and smiled when she noticed me.
More than a decade had passed since we met, but when she looked at me like that, I still saw that nineteen-year-old girl that gave me hell and turned my life upside now—in the best way.
“Damn, baby,” I grumbled as I took a seat next to her. “This shit is getting out of hand. I think we need to send those damn kids to disciplinary camp or something. We’re not the Addams.”
“There is no such thing as disciplinary camp, Owen. We were supposed to discipline them.”
I looked at her like she was crazy. “I tried to, remember? You said I couldn’t threaten to shoot them motherfuckers anymore.”
She giggled and laid her head on my shoulders with a wistful sigh that said she knew I would never change and loved me more for it. “Because your kids thought it would be fun to get shot and would always dare you to do it. They wanted to have bullet holes like their daddy.”
“What the fuck were we thinking, bae? Seven is too fucking much. I’m fitting to drop their asses off in the middle of the hood and leave them there.”
“Says the same man who whines and complains when one of them tries to spend the night elsewhere.”
“I don’t whine.”
“Remember that time Malayah had her first sleepover, and you ruined it by breaking into her friend’s house in the middle of the night, scaring that little girl’s parents half to death, and bringing Yah-Yah back home because you said you couldn’t sleep without your daughter under your roof?”
“Stop bringing up old shit, Atlas. That was so long ago.”
“That was last month, Owen.”
A piercing scream rent the air from inside, and we both looked back at the house before staring at each other.
“Not it,” we both said at once.
“Hmm…maybe we should call Joren to come babysit?” she suggested.
Remarkably, he was the only who could get those demons of mine to behave. They loved their G-Pop, as they called him, and I hated to think that if it hadn’t been for Atlas’s and Joren’s capacity to forgive—each other and me—my kids wouldn’t have known what it was like to have him in their lives.
“As usual, I’m already three steps ahead of you. He said he’ll be here in an hour.”
Atlas tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I figure we have a few more minutes before one of your kids suffers severe mutilation or death.”
When I recognized the look in her eyes, my teeth sank into my bottom lip. “What should we do with that time, wife?”
Atlas slowly lowered into the water, and I spread my legs to make room for her when she reached for my shorts. “I have a pretty good idea, husband.”
I caught her chin when her hand dipped inside and wrapped around me. Eyes bright with mischief, she looked up at me. “I know we met because of grief, but have I ever thanked you for finding me, Dream?”
“Yes.” She blushed. “All the time.”
Smiling, I leaned down and kissed her lips. “Get used to it.”