Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
That seemed to throw Boomer off. His frown suddenly didn’t seem so menacing. “All right. Let’s put some coffee on and talk about it. But please go take a shower. You…”
“Smell like sex,” Molly said.
Sometimes he hated that bird. Still, he locked the door and ran off to do the man’s bidding.
Twenty minutes later he was clean and dressed in clothes that were mostly clean. He needed to do some laundry. He would throw a load of his and Lou’s clothes in before he left. He settled across from Boomer and Molly, the bird eyeing him like she had none of her owner’s sympathy.
Sprinkles was cuddled up with Bud, the dogs taking this time for a nice nap.
“So you’re serious about her?” Boomer set a mug of coffee in front of him. His cell phone went off. He checked it and then placed it back down on the table.
“Is it Lou?” There was no question she would have gotten a notification that the doorbell camera had gone off. If she’d looked, she would have seen it was her dad.
His cell started ringing again. “Yes. Hang on.” He slid his finger over the screen and brought it to his ear. “Hey, sweetie. Yes, I’m here and I’m talking to him. I was happy to know he wore a condom. Don’t worry about it. This is between me and TJ. Have a good day at work, and you should know that your mom wants a word.” Then he hung up and settled into his seat. “So?”
Boomer had asked him a question. “I’m always serious about Lou.”
“Then why did she cry over you so much?”
So they weren’t pulling punches. This was probably a talk that had always been inevitable unless TJ wanted to fade out of her life. “It wouldn’t have worked back then. If I’d gotten physical with her back then, I don’t know that we would even be friends today. She had work to do.”
“And you?”
“I had to figure out how I could possibly add to her life,” he admitted. His cell buzzed. He glanced down. Lou was calling him now.
“You should answer her,” Boomer offered. “She won’t stop until you do.”
He answered and brought the phone to his ear. “Hey.”
A long sigh came over the line. “I need you to tell my dad that it’s all for the op. Nothing happened. We’re the same as always. It’s going to be okay. We can get out of this. I don’t know what the condom thing was about, but tell him you were joking. Hey, there’s half a cheesecake in the fridge. Offer him some.”
She thought she could get everything she wanted out of this? Sex with him, but she didn’t have to admit that she was in a relationship with him? She could have the orgasms but spare herself the shame of slumming?
“And I need you to stay in our bed.” He didn’t want to pretend. He was done with that, and anyone who thought last night was acting was going to get an announcement. “For once I would like to wake up with you actually in bed beside me. We can’t always get what we want, baby. Now you get back to work and I’ll handle your dad. Also, Molly is very interested in us having safe sex. I’m going to go over all the ways we won’t be making anyone a grandparent until you agree to marry me.”
A chuckle came from the other side of the table. “That makes me feel so much better.”
“Is he sitting right there?” Lou practically screamed the question.
“Where else would he be? I gotta go. What do you want for lunch? I should be there before then. Or we can go out,” TJ offered.
Lou hung up on him.
“I guess that means no lunch.” He set the phone back down. “See, I keep screwing up with her.”
Boomer stared at him for a moment. “What changed? I have to ask because you’ve been insisting there was nothing between you for years.”
He needed to figure out how to make anyone understand. “What if you had met Daphne right after her husband died?”
“I met her a couple of years after he died, so I get your point. She would have been raw then. She wouldn’t have given us a chance. She almost didn’t anyway. I had to kind of sneak date her for a couple of weeks,” Boomer explained. “She had the mistaken impression that I was involved with someone and therefore safe. But that’s not the case with Lou. Lou’s been in love with you since she was twelve. I think her feelings for you have cost her every relationship she’s been in.”
“No, sir.” He was going to own up to this. “It wasn’t her feelings most of the time. It was me because she kept picking guys who were not worthy of her.”