Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72122 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
He nodded silently.
“Your grandmother or great-grandmother ever have any men here?” he questioned. “This is a big ass place for someone like you to run on your own.”
“Yep,” I confirmed. “Though my grandfather’s health declined to where he couldn’t help in the later years. They hired a caretaker who came out once a month to do any major repairs before he passed.”
He winced, and then picked up a vase, causing me to giggle. “That’s my paternal grandmother.”
He set it down and backed away.
I snorted.
“I know you’re wondering why my mother didn’t get this place,” I said. “And I’ll go ahead and appease that curiosity. My mother is a squanderer. She’s selfish and greedy, and that sets her up for failure which is why she is barely holding onto her wedding planning business by the skin of her teeth.”
“Teeth don’t have skin…” he looked up to study the kitchen cabinets. “And your place really needs a complete remodel.”
I snorted.
“Yep,” I confirmed. “It needs one yesterday, but I don’t have time. I work full-time for the newspaper, and when I’m not working, I’m trying to keep my mother’s business in line, and stop the whole thing from imploding.”
“You don’t have any time for you?” he tilted his head to study me.
He was now leaning against my GG’s china cabinet, and I realized how out of place he looked in front of it.
“I blow.”
He blinked.
“That’s good news, I guess,” he drawled.
I snickered and went back out the kitchen door, and straight to the small workroom that I used to do my hobby.
“This,” I said, pushing open the door, “is where I blow glass.”
He looked around the room, studying everything.
“That’s amazing,” he finally said. “Did you make this?”
He picked up a hummingbird feeder the color of blood, and I picked up its twin.
“There are a lot of imperfections,” I admitted. “And yes, I did make it.”
He fingered the small stem that was where the hummingbird would feed when it was hung.
“Fuckin’ amazing,” he finally murmured. “I’ve always looked at these things and wondered how it was done. Will you show me?”
I smiled.
“Yes.” I placed the feeder back on the shelf. I had to ship them out tomorrow evening. “But not tonight. Tonight, I want to eat, kick back on the couch and watch our movie. I’m exhausted.”
“Why are you so tired?” he asked. “I’m not saying that you didn’t kick ass at catching all those Pokémon, but you have bags under your eyes that look like you haven’t slept in days.”
I fingered said bags.
“It’s rained the last three mornings in a row, and in the newspaper business, that’s not a good thing,” I told him. “People call and complain about the stupidest things, but when it’s raining, it’s a relentless stream of calls that never ends.”
He took my hand in his, and then led me back to the house.
“You can give me a tour of the rest of your mansion. Then you can show me what you have to cook, while you go find us something to watch on TV and I cook it,” he murmured as he pulled me along behind him. “Then we can have a Netflix and chill kind of night.”
I rolled my eyes. “Netflix and chill doesn’t mean what you think it means.”
He looked at me over his shoulder.
“I know.”
That was how I found myself becoming one with my couch while Truth made me the most delicious spaghetti and meatballs I’d ever tasted.
My food normally came out tasting bland, but the spices and overall taste of Truth’s sauce was something that I would remember for a long time to come.
And I would enjoy the hell out of my leftovers tomorrow during lunch.
Now we were watching Battleship, my most favorite movie in the world. I had a How to Get Away With Murder marathon planned after this movie.
“Why do you like this one so much?” he asked.
I smiled where I was at, leaning with my back to his chest, my head leaning against his collarbone.
“Because there are hot men in Navy uniforms in it,” I teased. “The Navy is my favorite.”
“Hmmm,” he murmured. “Interesting.”
I bit my lip.
I told myself not to ask, but Truth just struck me as a military man, and any information about him, even the most insignificant, I soaked up like a sponge.
“Were you in the military?” I asked.
He seemed to hesitate, and then he nodded. “Yes.”
Curiosity started to get the better of me, and even though I could tell that he wanted me to drop the subject, I didn’t.
Instead, I pushed.
And nearly lost Truth before I even had him.
Chapter 6
Ladies, just a reminder. There’s always another man out there with an extra inch more than the one who’s fucking you over.
-Fact of Life
Truth
“Were you in the military?”
Was I in the military?
Hundreds of things swirled through my mind at her question.