Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Lucas laughed loud. “They’re good boys, Mack. I bet he even stocked the fire when he was here just because.”
Because his dad taught him to. Mack’s sons didn’t have to be asked or told to know what was right or proper. They offered respect and courtesy to their neighbors as an engrained trait carried over from their mother and father.
“Let them be a little wild,” Lucas added. “It’s what helps them grow the most, man. We were that age once, too.”
Mack tossed a nod his way. “I suppose—Kenzie said Dylan dropped off your gas and the paper you wanted from the store. Said thanks for the extra fifty bucks.”
The hundred-dollar bill he handed over to the Smith boys to make a trip to the store for gas and a newspaper had been money well spent, in Lucas’ opinion. No matter what the boys chose to do with the extra.
“Good on ‘em,” Lucas said. “I hope they spent the rest already, too.”
“My guess, they filled up on junk and if they take off up to the camp, I won’t see them for the rest of the weekend. What do you wanna bet they’ve been in my liquor cabinet, too?”
“They would never.”
“Right,” the other man scoffed. “I caught Dylan behind the house smoking a cigarette last week. The shit.”
As he said that, Mack patted for the pack of cancer sticks he kept close in the top pocket of every coat—or shirt, in the warmer months—that he wore.
“Just doing what he sees,” Lucas returned.
Mack opened the pack, and stuck a cigarette in his mouth before he muttered a lame, “Yeah, well …”
He lit the smoke and inhaled one long drag.
Lucas only shook his head.
It had been a great day, despite the cold. His old friends helped to take his mind away from the harder things for a short while, and at the same time, reminded him why he liked being at the camp in the first place.
“Give my love, and thanks, to your wife.”
The man winked back. “I’ll thank Teddy for you tonight.”
Lucas waved his friend off with a laugh as Mack snapped the reins with a low yep sending the horses jolting forward. “Keep it clean, man!”
The wind carried Mack’s reply back.
“You know it, buddy.”
Lucas did his cursory check of the outside of the cabin and the generators, running smoothly but ready for a top-up on gas, before he headed inside to find Delaney. He shed his winter clothing—including the ski pants the Smiths had brought along for him to borrow from Mack’s collection—as Delaney filled the kettle at the sink.
Already undressed.
Well …
He would get her out of the baggy, gray sweats and hoodie soon enough.
“We’ve got two nights left in this place before I have to return to hell,” Lucas said, still standing on the entry mat.
Delaney’s smile melted away at his frank attitude. “When you’re just enjoying the day, it kind of feels like it will never end, doesn’t it?”
To say the least …
“Would you come back here with me?” he asked. “When it’s warm, and we could really get out and do some—”
“Would you go to Gracen’s wedding with me in the spring?” she interjected, grinning big and showing perfect, white teeth. “I’m the maid of honor, and I need a date. Since we’re apparently making plans, I’d like that date to be you.”
Did she now?
“When’s the wedding?”
“May.”
Another two and a half months, or so. He could make that work.
Lucas didn’t even have to think about it for long. “I’ll take half the damn month off … I could keep you out here in the woods for that long, right?”
Delaney swung away from the sink and headed for the stove to boil water, laughing like he was joking, but they both knew he was not. “I’d be willing to let you try, anyway.”
Well, then.
He noticed then how she had pulled items from the fridge and cooking pots out of the cupboards to begin making them something to eat to get them through the evening.
He liked how she looked there.
So domesticated.
Happy with him.
Here, she felt like his.
Like he had really found her.
Lucas just didn’t know how to say that outside of his head. Something he had to work on, maybe. He started doing that by crossing the cabin’s floor until Delaney was close enough that he could wrap her in his arms, which he did. When her head tilted back and those pretty pink lips of hers pursed for him to give her a kiss, he gave her exactly what she wanted.
She still tasted like the maple syrup candy she’d been sucking on like a lollipop the whole trip home. Her eyes stayed wide and on him the longer their lips stayed firmly pressed together, searching for something in him like he did for her.
Did she find it?
Whatever it was?
He sure thought he did.