Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Was great spending the day with you, too—as always :)
I added a heart emoji, then erased it. Too much?
I smirked as I walked back inside the shop to lock up for the day.
If someone had told me a couple of months before that I’d even be considering using emojis in my texts, let alone hearts and smileys, I would have laughed in their face. But here I was, and that’s exactly what I was doing.
I just didn’t care, though. I liked Joanne. A lot. And if that meant adding some creative punctuation, then so be it. If anyone had anything to say about it, they could suck an eggplant.
Before I could think too much more about it, my phone pinged a second time.
I know we didn’t really plan on doing anything tonight, but… dinner later?
I still hadn’t stopped smiling from the previous message, but now my cheeks started to hurt as my smile grew even wider.
It was pretty clear that Joanne felt the same way I did about our situation, and that was a very, very nice thought.
Absolutely. Just come over whenever you’re ready and we can go get something.
Then, a moment later, I fired off one more message, before I could talk myself out of it.
Stay with me tonight. All night.
The reply came back almost instantly, and I exhaled a deep breath that I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.
Can’t wait! See you soon!
I hadn’t really expected any other answer, but still… it was nice to have it confirmed, on a screen I could go back and look at again later, just in case I doubted my eyes or my brain. And I already knew I would doubt them.
All my life, I’d only trusted the things I could see, could touch, could experience.
But now? Now my heart was telling me things my eyes and my brain would never have believed—it was sending signals and bringing up feelings that I had given up on experiencing.
I would have been tempted to give in to my heart—to just sit back and enjoy the ride—except for one thing.
In the back of my mind, I knew—my brain knew—that it all had to end.
Soon.
Chapter Thirty-Two - Brady
“Isn’t it funny how we just sort of… clicked?” Joanne’s voice was sleepy and contented after the mountain of Chinese takeout we’d just devoured, and I smiled as she nuzzled up against me on the couch.
“Funny?” I hadn’t really thought of it like that before, but it was definitely out of character for me to open up so completely to someone I’d only known for a few weeks. “I guess it is, a little. But it doesn’t feel funny when we’re together. It just feels—”
“—Right?”
“Perfect,” I said, planting a kiss on the top of her head as I wrapped my arms around her body and pulled her in even closer. “It feels so perfect, babe.”
“Yes, perfect. Exactly.” Joanne looked up at me and nibbled at her lip in that cute, sexy way that I could never get enough of. “I can’t imagine going back to the way things were before. Or… I guess I could, but I definitely don’t want to.”
I understood the sentiment completely. I could perfectly remember how my life had been before I’d met Joanne, before I’d come back to Castle Falls. Before my dad had passed away and before I had left the NFL. I could remember it all—and vividly—but looking back on it, I hadn’t realized at the time how empty my life had been.
It hadn’t felt empty—I’d spent my days busy doing stuff from dawn to dusk—but that stuff had only occupied my hands, and sometimes my mind. My heart had been completely, totally empty.
And now?
It was so close to overflowing that I literally couldn’t stop smiling. No matter where or when, if I thought about Joanne—her face, her smile, her body, anything—a grin crossed my face so wide and so fast that I was powerless to stop it.
“Do you know what else is perfect?” Joanne asked, letting her fingers lazily trace a trail down my chest and over my abs.
Her touch was light and slow, but the direction her hand was moving combined with the slightly suggestive tone of her voice had sent a jolt straight through my body—straight to my cock.
There’s no way Joanne didn’t notice the straining bulge as her fingers trailed and circled closer and closer to it.
An involuntary groan escaped my lips at the thought of her slender fingers wrapped around the shaft—or even better, her full, pouty lips.
“What?” My throat was so dry, the word came out as barely a whisper. I cleared my throat and tried again. “What else is perfect, babe?”
“You. Us.” Joanne’s hand moved lower, and she palmed my cock through the denim that was separating us. “This.”
I leaned in to capture her mouth in a kiss as she stroked me through my jeans, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more. I needed to be naked with Joanne.