Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“My fault?” I put my hand to my chest. “How did this become my fault? I was minding my own business when you called me to give me more work,” I continue when the sound of pinging comes from my computer with the emails coming in. I notice the top email is from Grace. I click on the email and see the names she told me about. I scan the list of names. “Why isn’t Zoey Richards on this list?”
Caine laughs. “You think Zoey Richards is going to work for us? That’s like an HR nightmare. No way would you be able to keep your dick in your pants.”
“Um, excuse me?” I look at him. “I’m not the one who banged my assistant.”
“She’s my wife.”
“She was not your wife when you banged her the first time.” I laugh. “Besides, I think I can control myself.”
“You think?”
I shrug. “I mean, if she throws herself at me, I’m not going to say no.” I wink at him. The minute I met Zoey Richards two years ago was the first time you could say I believed in love at first sight. She took my breath away. If someone asked me to paint a picture of my dream girl, it would be Zoey. From her strawberry-blond hair to her almond-shaped green-gray eyes to the soft freckles that span over her nose. To her amazing smile that just lights up her face, fuck, she’s fucking gorgeous. To top it all off, she’s smart, she’s sassy, and apparently, according to everyone around me when we met, she’s totally off-fucking-limits.
“That right there.” Caine’s voice disrupts my daydream about Zoey on the beach wearing her bikini while she smiles at me. “That look right there is why we can’t hire her.”
“What look?” I try to act like my cock didn’t just get hard remembering her face.
“The look where your eyeballs turn into hearts and bounce in and out of your sockets.”
I pfft. “Would it be better if I was a condescending prick to her on her first day?” I throw the first day he met Grace in his face. “Would that be better?” I don’t even wait for him to answer. “Let me call her and see if she’s even taking new clients.” He just glares at me. “For all I know, you’re getting your panties in a twist for nothing.”
“Nash, I’m not kidding on this.” His tone is very much like a father would use to tell his kids that he was done playing around.
“Aye aye, cappy,” I say, saluting him. “Now if you will excuse me, some of us have to get the day rolling.” I don’t bother waiting for him to disconnect before I pull up her number on my phone, opting to text her in case she’s in the Pacific Time Zone.
Me: Hey, Zoey, I have a question for you. Call me when you get a chance.
Two
Zoey
“Wait a minute,” my cousin Zara says, slapping her hand on the table in front of her, “you told him what?” She’s flabbergasted. Her eyeballs look like they are going to jump out of their sockets.
I put down the cup of coffee I’ve been holding in my hand since I got on the FaceTime call with her two minutes ago. I sent her an SOS text in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep because I was replaying the worst night I’d ever had in my whole life. The minute she read it at nine o’clock in the morning, my phone was ringing. “We were having dinner.” My hands start to shake when I relive it out loud and put it out in the universe. I mean, it’s already out in the universe, but it was just between Josh and me, and now that I’m telling Zara, it’ll be sort of reality. “I looked over at him and asked him where this was going.”
“Just like that?” she balks. “Hey, can you pass the salt, and by the way, Josh, where are we taking this?”
“I mean, not in those words, obviously,” I state. “More like, we’ve been with each other for over two years now, and it’s like we’ve just started dating. You live at your place; I live at mine. We see each other a couple of times a week, but there is nothing more. I want to know where I’m going in the future.”
I didn’t think Zara’s eyes could get bigger, but I was wrong. “And what did he say?”
“He was like, I love you, Zoey, you know this. I just, I like having my space, doing my own thing,” I repeat the words that made my heart sink. “What we have is perfect. So I told him it wasn’t perfect. Nothing that we had was perfect. Did we love each other? Yes, I know we do, but I want to know he can’t live without me. I want him to want to rush home to be with me. I want him to be like, I don’t know, my parents.” I throw up my hands.