Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 574(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“Something ugly will come down the line,” she warned. “It always does.”
“It does and it will, but it’s not relentless. It’s not me working day to day in a sea of every possibility people can make of doing stupid, ugly, greedy, selfish shit that affects lives. I’ll take months of quiet and wildflowers before the next big thing blows up in our faces.”
He dropped closer to her.
“I’m happy. I promise. I wake up and go to bed happy. And part of that is, if something ever weighs on it, I know I can tell you and you’ll listen to me.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to get married?”
They’d had the discussion.
She didn’t want it either, for different reasons, mostly having to do with the fact she thought it was an outmoded tradition that tended to levy heavy sociological and emotional burdens on women.
He couldn’t disagree.
That wasn’t why he didn’t want to do it.
He didn’t want to do it because he didn’t need a piece of paper and a promise to the government to make him commit to the woman he loved…and her daughter.
When he started tearing down walls to build his mancave, that was when he committed.
And as far as he was concerned, the discussion was closed.
But in order to give her peace of mind, he’d reopen it.
“Yes,” he answered. “Are you sure?”
She nodded.
Right.
Discussion closed again.
“Have fun at the barbeque today?”
She nodded again. “I think Madden has a crush on Acre.”
“It’s a different kind entirely, but Acre has a crush on Maddy. He won’t grow out of his, but she’ll grow out of hers.”
“I don’t know. She has good taste. Like her mom.”
All right then.
Fuck it.
He kissed her.
They were in the attic room on the top floor, the better to give Lucinda a massive bathroom and closet.
And the walls were solid.
So Rus committed to something else.
Putting effort into giving his woman an orgasm.
Then, since everyone he loved was under one roof, and they were all like him—happy—Rus fell into a dead sleep.
And he didn’t wake up.
Cin
They were down by the river, her girl and her man.
Cin stood in the window, her arms crossed in front of her, and watched them.
Brittanie had long since been swept away, fattening up fishes and becoming one with the silt.
They had a date tonight, Rus and Maddy. There was a movie on in town that Maddy wanted to see. They were going to get popcorn and M&Ms and Reese’s Pieces and have dinner after at the Double D.
Rus loved his second chance to be a girl dad, and he didn’t hide it.
He was also so grateful for Cin, he let her feel it always. Sometimes in a glance over coffee before she left to take Maddy to school. Sometimes not releasing her eyes when he was moving inside her in their bed.
She knew, here, with her and Madden, after a lifetime tethered to people who didn’t let him be all he was, finally, he was free.
He’d been crouched, but she watched as he stood, so tall, those shoulders so broad, his body lean and muscled and strong, the sun glinting in his dark hair.
He was so fucking beautiful.
He was also a bona fide hero, the real kind who rode himself ragged in the pursuit of justice.
Last, he was her miracle, the man he was, the woman she was.
That he’d be hers.
That he’d return the favor, and love her as the woman she was, letting her be free.
There wasn’t a Bonner woman in her line who’d encountered a man like Zachariah Lazarus.
Rus had told her what that man had to say, and Richard Sandusky got one thing right.
Rus was pure.
He was beauty.
On this thought, Cin walked out the back door, got in her golf cart and put it in gear.
She reversed out, her champagne gold, slingback pump pressing the pedal.
She adjusted it to drive, and in her head, she could hear Rus giving her shit about putting off in her golf cart to go rule her empire.
But she was putting off in her golf cart to go rule her empire, being the first in the Bonner line herself.
This being knowing a man she’d give it all up for was hanging with her daughter at the river.
Needless to say, these thoughts in her head, as she putted to work in her cart, Lucinda Bonner was smiling.
The End