Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I yawn. “Not very well.”
“Digging up dead bodies again?” She sends me a sly side-eye and sips her coffee.
“Yeah, that’s it,” I mutter and take a big gulp of mine.
“What happened to your neck?”
Beard burn. “One of the animals… Hey, speaking of which, it’s still raining. Should I leave them out there?”
Now that the barn is done, I can’t wait to break it in.
“They love it out there when it rains. And they have the run-in sheds if it goes on too long… Blue, honey…” she says in a small voice and I know what’s coming.
“Yes, Mona?”
“How would you feel if we had another permanent resident at the Harris Ranch?”
“I’m very happy for you both. Unless you plan to kick me out to make room for him.”
Mona stands and throws her arms around me, my face somehow getting smashed between her double E breasts.
“Kicking you out? That’s nonsense. Who would I have all this fun with?”
“Good, because I have nowhere to go and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
I’m doing night check and Shane walks into the barn, just back from a run. Sweat drips down his forehead and he wipes it away with the towel hanging around his neck. He is the epitome of masculine beauty. One of those rare individuals who get even better looking the more you look at them.
Hazel sees him and starts braying and walking in circles. “You have stolen her heart, Hughes.”
His mouth kicks up on one side as he walks up, close enough that I can smell the salty clean scent of sweat and pine soap.
“What about you, Baldwin?” he leans down and kisses me, brushes his mouth against mine like the mere touch of our lips brings him pleasure. “Are you crazy about me?”
That’s a loaded question if I ever heard one. One that I cannot answer without giving it all away.
“Shane…”
“Yeah.”
“I want you to know that I would never hold you back. I would never stop you from doing whatever, or going wherever you feel you need to be.” I pick up my chin to look into his eyes because like Mona says, you never know when it’ll be the last time. “I don’t mind if you wander… Just come back to me.”
Chapter 17
“I’ll never be able to look at that guesthouse again and not see his naked ass,” I confess to Jess while simultaneously pushing the shopping cart and munching on the grapes I picked up in the produce section. It takes skill.
“It’s forever branded on my third eye. It’s a beautiful one; he is straight up the man of my dreams. But we have desecrated every piece of furniture in there.” A woman shopping in the baked goods aisle frowns at me and turns her cart in the other direction. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop, lady,” I say out loud. “It’s bad manners.”
It’s official. I’ve been invaded. My home is now occupied territory and my body a slave to conquering forces. But what about my heart?
It feels fragile and unprotected. I’m now convinced that’s what they really mean when they tell you not to have unprotected sex. They really mean your heart. And because of the state of my fragile heart, I had to talk about it with someone, and who better than the person who knows me best.
“Way to rub it in,” my best friend deadpans and I chuckle. “Never, ever carry on an illicit affair in your own home. It’s like a dog pissing on your couch to mark his territory. You’ll never get the stench of him out of there.”
I push the shopping cart down the frozen food and ice cream section and throw three tubs of Häagen Dazs in my cart. Mint chocolate chip, for Mona. Strawberry, for Darby. Dulce de leche, for me.
“I can always count on you to sugar coat it for me. And it’s not an illicit affair.” What exactly is it though? “It’s a one-way love story, sadly.”
“Wait, you told him you love him and he said nothing? That stinking puta.”
“Pump the brakes. No, I did not tell him I love him. But I can feel the words trying to jump out of my mouth every time he looks at me and smiles. They’re trying to come out. And he hasn’t said it yet. I mean, I see it on his face, but I need him to accept it. I need him to be at ease with it. People are their own worst enemy.”
“Preaching to the choir. Look, give him time.”
“I’m scared, Jess. I like this one. Scratch that, I love this one. But he’s turning thirty-seven a month from today. If he needs time to figure it out at his age, then we’re all doomed.”
“Tita always says things happen when they’re supposed to happen. I really believe that.”
I really believe that, too. “Can you do me a favor?”