Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
“At this rate, I won’t have any paper left,” he observed. “And did you just say darn?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m the freak of nature who doesn’t cuss.” My voice was pretty grumpy.
“I think it’s cute, actually,” Jackson said. “And I’m not like Hunter. I won’t press you about it.”
“Thanks.”
He was silent for a few minutes while I kept drawing. Finally, he spoke again. “I’m tired. After this house is done, I need a vacation.”
“I don’t blame you,” I said absently as I sketched what the mural on the back wall might look like. “You guys deserve some time off.”
“Not just time off, a real vacation. Like maybe Las Vegas. I haven’t been there in forever.”
“Sounds nice.”
“It is. And we could take a drive up to Lake Mead. Ever been there? And there’s that huge structure that holds back the water, but I can’t think of the name of it…”
“Hoover Dam,” I supplied automatically. When I was met with silence, I looked up. “That’s what it’s called.”
He grinned. “I know. I just wanted to make you say damn.”
Dang it, I’d walked right into that one. “I said D-A-M, not D-A-M-N.”
“Still sounds the same.” He had such a smug look on his face that I picked up one of my crumpled sketches and threw it at him. “Can you say it again?”
“No.” I tried not to dignify his little trick with much of a reaction, but it was hard not to laugh.
“Could you say it again if I get donuts tomorrow?”
“No.”
“The kind with custard in the middle?”
Ooo, that was tempting. “Okay.”
He pumped his fist triumphantly. “Let’s hear you say it.”
“Hoover Dam,” I said instantly.
He rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Garrison Dam. Oroville Dam. Monroe Dam. Cincinnati Dam.” Okay, I was making a few of those up, but it was fun to tease him.
Jackson just shook his head sadly. “You sure do know a lot of damn things.”
I just grinned. “I do indeed.”
14
PENNY
“Aunt Penny!”
A whole gaggle of kids surrounded me as I walked through the hotel lobby later that day. Most of them seemed to be my second cousin Betty’s kids—she had seven. Then cousin Dave’s twins were there, too. Evidently, Wednesday was the day the families with kids were checking in.
“Are you going to be the flower girl, Aunt Penny?”
I crouched down and addressed an adorable little girl who was clutching a toy rabbit. “It’s actually called a bridesmaid, Jenny.”
“Will you hold Bun-Bun?”
“Sure.” I took the ragged rabbit from her. “Good to see you, Bun-Bun.”
Jenny giggled, as did the other kids gathering around. “Not now. At the wedding.”
I shook my head sadly. “I think I’ll be holding flowers then.”
“Because you’re the flower girl?” Jenny’s brother Brandon asked.
“Nope, still a bridesmaid.”
“Will you look pretty in your dress?” Jenny wanted to know.
“I hope so.” I smiled at her when I answered, but as I straightened up, I realized it was actually true. I wanted to look pretty not so that Jeff would see me and realize what he’d lost, but for the triplets. Or at least for whichever triplet would accompany me to the wedding.
“Uncle Martin!” The kids spotted another one of my second cousins and ran off to greet him. Technically he wasn’t an uncle and I wasn’t an aunt, but in our family, that was what the youngest generation called cousins in the older ones.
The lobby seemed quiet after the kids moved away, but when I was passing by the restaurant, I heard my name being called.
Squinting, I looked inside. It wasn’t actually lunchtime, so there weren’t many people there. A woman waved me over. After a moment, I realized it was Naomi, the massage therapist.
“Hi.”
She pointed to the empty seat across from her. “Have you eaten lunch yet?”
I actually had, but I sat anyway and ordered tea.
“Thanks,” Naomi said when it came.
“For what?”
“For joining me. I hate eating alone.”
“At least they let you out of the suite,” I said. “I’ve heard you’ve been really busy.”
She nodded. “You have a lot of family members with a lot of tension in their muscles.”
“That tracks. I’m actually kind of surprised you remembered my name, since there are so many of us.”
“Oh, I remember you because I’m insanely jealous of your hair.”
I frowned, fingering a strand. “Yours is gorgeous.”
She grimaced. “But no matter what I do, it doesn’t ever get glossy like yours. Plus, at the end of the day, it’s mostly frizz.”
“Mine is too, if it’s really humid out.”
“Which it is, quite often, around here in the summer,” she commiserated. Then her look turned sly. “I also remember you because of that hottie you were with. No offense, but I’m glad I was the one who got to give him his massage.”
I laughed at the thought of that huge blond man, William, kneading Reid’s muscles. “I’m sure he was glad of that, too.”
We talked a bit, but when Naomi was almost finished with her salad, the kids came back. It sounded like twice as many of them were running through the lobby. I thought about going out there to try to get them to stop running and shrieking, but it sounded like they outnumbered me by a lot.