Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Staring at the plethora of plants on Cat’s patio, I say, “I do the same. How are my favorite cousins?”
“Nikki and I are great.” He laughs a little too hard.
I’m laughing too, so it’s all good. “Fucker.”
“Mack and Posey miss you. So do Poppy and I.” Laird wasn’t always sentimental. We were one and the same that way. It made it easy to maneuver through the rise in fame with a closed-off heart. Poppy changed all that in him and the twins even more so.
I’m not so opposed to wanting the same these days.
“It’s good to be missed sometimes. Let’s catch up this week about the riff and so I can see the babies.” I see Cat locking her door. “I need to go.”
“We’ll talk soon.”
Cat pulls open the door and slips into the passenger seat next to me. She doesn’t feel like a passenger. She doesn’t feel like a co-pilot. She feels like a partner—in crime sometimes, but a partner all the same. “Look what I found.” She waggles a thick and oversized blue book in front of her. “Our yearbook.”
Her excitement is contagious, but mine’s not regarding the yearbook. It’s because she’s in my life. “Oh wow. That’s great.”
“We can do our research tonight.”
“I had other ideas to pass the hours, but maybe we can fit it in.”
She laughs, buckling her seat belt. Pleased as punch, she sits back with a huge fucking smile on her face. “This is going to be fun.”
“It sure is.”
“Oh, and by the way, I took my pill.”
More fun indeed.
I set a glass of wine on the table next to the lounge chair where Cat has taken up residence. “Look how cute you were, Shane.” Tapping the page in the yearbook she has spread open in front of her, she looks up at me and grins.
My whole world is wrapped up in that gorgeous smile of hers.
Popularity came easily based on our looks in high school. Some people never change, putting weight on stuff that’s not as important as who a person is on the inside.
I peer over her shoulder and smile when I see the girl beside me at eighteen. Leaning down, I tap the photo. “Look at that beauty. Wonder what she’s up to these days?” I smirk when Cat giggles.
“No one would believe it.”
“Everyone would believe it. You don’t see yourself properly.”
Rubbing the back of my leg, she angles her head back and puckers, calling me for a kiss. As my lips press against hers, I realize this is one in a million. A million more kisses span our lifetime, and if she lets me, I’ll double it. Returning to the page, she says, “It’s how I felt on the inside. Invisible to the world.”
I move around to the other chair and sit down on the side facing her. I don’t know what to say to make this right for her. I don’t think it’s something I can fix. Resting my hand on her ankle, I watch as she sits there with the sun shining in her eyes. “You were never invisible to me. I wasn’t brave enough for you. I wasn’t ready to be what you needed.”
Sitting forward, she smiles with the sweetest expression embedded into her pretty face. “You don’t have to be a knight in shining armor for me. I can save myself. I always have. But at eighteen, you were the perfect crush for me.”
I move over to the end of her chair, pushing the yearbook closer to her. “What about at thirty-one?”
Her cheeks pinken, and she leans forward to whisper, “At thirty-one, I get to call you husband.”
Leaning forward, I push up on my knee, shoving the yearbook aside. The book hits the deck as I kiss my wife like she deserves to be. She fumbles with my shirt, dragging it up my body until I sit up and tug it off over my head. When she starts on the button to my jeans, I still her hands. “We can’t. Not out here.”
She looks around but then turns back with confusion, stitching her eyebrows together. “The neighbors can’t see us. I don’t see any houses facing us.”
“It’s not about the neighbors. It’s about the long lenses.”
“Oh . . .” She steals a quick but shuddering breath, and then says, “Let’s go inside then.”
I’m on my feet and scooping her into my arms. Her long hair hangs over my arms, and her giggles are a shot of happiness to my heart. I don’t bother closing the door. It’s dark enough in here compared to outside to fuck up some shutter speeds. I lay her on the couch, reaching down to help her take off some of those clothes, but she sits up. “No.”
“No?” She was giving me every green flag. She’s the one who wanted to come inside. Fuck. I can’t say I’m not disappointed. On the outside of the jeans, I adjust my dick because they’re feeling too tight with an erection.