Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80495 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
I haven’t gotten this far in life by being an unobservant asshole—just a regular asshole—so I wait another twenty-three minutes.
I’m rewarded for taking a chance on her being home after all and calling the cops to evict me forcefully when a white car sweeps into her driveway. It’s not a cop car. Just a regular sedan.
When I see her get out of the passenger side, my heart nearly leaps out of my chest and plummets to the floor. I know what her family looks like. I had her file. I know that’s her sister in the driver’s seat. I said I didn’t want to violate her privacy, but now, I feel like not doing enough research ahead of time has me at a disadvantage. I didn’t know her sister was out here. Is she visiting? Living here? Living nearby? That car doesn’t look like a rental. It’s too old and too worn in, with too much missing paint on the front bumper and too many cracks in the windshield.
The windows of the rental I’m in aren’t tinted, and it’s clear Ignacia spotted me before she even got out of the car. Now she’s standing there in the rain and staring at me through the window with her mouth wide open. She’s getting soaked while I just sit here.
No. It’s too cold for her to be out in the rain.
Her sister may be shocked, too, but she recovers quickly. She has good survival instincts. She wraps her hand around Ignacia’s arm and pulls her away from the side of the car, up the stairs, and under the porch. Then, they stand there together, both of them giving me the stink eye.
I get out of the car anyway. I can’t just sit in here with an oh, no, shit, I’ve been spotted expression on my face, and I’m not going to roll down the window and try and shout what I had to say.
I practically throw myself out of the car. I can’t move fast enough. Not to get out of the rain but to get to her, this woman who I have thought of every single minute for every single day and night since the minute I met her.
I stop before the stairs. Before the porch. I stop halfway because I just can’t. I have no right. What if she hates me? What if she doesn’t want me here? What if she’s disgusted and—
“Are you insane?” she yells at me over the roar of the rain. “Get under here! It’s raining assloads out there!”
I officially win the prize for the world’s dorkiest grin. I’m also officially soaked again by the time I get under the overhang.
Her sister scrunches up her nose and studies me like I smell bad. I think I might smell bed after a flight and a long drive, but that’s pretty impossible, given how sopping wet I am. “This is him, isn’t it?”
Oh. I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or not. Her bad-smell expression doesn’t change, so probably not so good, then. My hopes sink further and further, and my heart does something I’m powerless against. I haven’t completely made my peace with that, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to being helpless like this.
All I can do is sink to one knee. My shoes and pants squelch unmercifully.
“Oh my god!” her sister gasps. “He’s proposing!”
“I’m not proposing.”
“He’s not proposing.” Ignacia waves a hand over me. “See? He’s just…ummm, what are you doing?”
I tilt my face up and look into hers. She’s so breathtaking. I thought I’d be prepared for it if I ever saw her again, but even now, she still sucks the oxygen straight out of my lungs. I love that she’s so natural. I adore her sense of fashion, even if I once thought what she calls a prairie dress was quite strange and old-fashioned, trending to granny or a historical play. I now know that’s the point. She beams without so much as cracking a smile, and even though it’s still pouring assloads, just having her sweet blue eyes on me is like a slant of sunlight shot straight through the clouds.
“Apologizing,” I say, bowing my head. “Sincerely.”
“Ooh, can I stay and listen?” her sister gushes.
“No,” Ignacia states dryly. “Please, god, Katie, no.”
“Ugh, alright. I’ll be right inside.” Her volume goes way up. “Hurt my sister, you assling, and I’ll make sure you get what’s coming to you in the form of mega karma that hurts a hundred times as bad. Don’t test me. I know a few bus drivers who are just looking to…well, not run people over, but I’m sure it can be arranged.”
My head jerks up, and I watch Ignacia’s lips twitch.
“Katie, no one is getting run over. Will you make tea for us? Beau happens to have a special thing for chai,” Ignacia says.