Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Small enough to fit in her hands, she was too scared to pick him up as his hazy blue eyes blinked out of sync up at her. He even yawed—tiny, sharp teeth stretching wide—and a pink tongue lolled out of his mouth.
“Oh, my God!”
Her shriek echoed over the little valley she now called home.
Malachi’s laughter soon followed. “He meowed almost the whole way here. He only fell asleep like twenty minutes ago.”
Gracen finally picked up the kitten when he stood up on his blanket with a shudder as he stretched out his spine and tail. He meowed softly, his soft wiggly body settling into her arms as she hugged him to her chest and turned to the man responsible for delivering her such a cruelly cute creature.
“Why is there litter and a box, all those toys, and whatever else is on the floor of the truck?” she asked.
Malachi winked. “He needed stuff, didn’t he?”
Bags of it, though?
It didn’t even matter.
Malachi’s plan landed flawlessly.
The last of Gracen’s air rushed out of her chest. “You really got me a kitten?”
“I would have gone for the puppy,” Malachi admitted with a shrug, “but I didn’t know what kind of breed to even start with.” Moving close enough that the tip of his finger could softly flick the kitten’s ear, he added, “This guy was a lot simpler. And kind of perfect, too. He just looked meant for you.”
She couldn’t breathe.
Her heart hurt from being so full.
Malachi leaned in for another kiss that she happily provided with a huge smile that couldn’t be dimmed. “Welcome home, babe.”
Chapter 35
Malachi didn’t slow in his focused work when Gracen came to stand in the doorway of the large master bedroom. The electric drill whirled noisily as he plugged the wooden structure of her king size bed together with screws. At the old place, the bed had taken up a significant portion of the room but here, it nestled between two big windows that faced the barn and field.
Situated above the equally sized kitchen and dining room down below, the bedroom took up half of the upstairs. The other two bedrooms on the other side of the upper portion were a third of the size each, with a bathroom at the middle just beyond the stairwell landing overlooking the entry nook offset from the living room.
With a low fuck it and a sexy grunt, Malachi hit the last beam connecting the sidewalls of the bedframe with the heel of his palm. A crack echoed but the beam fell into place. She didn’t miss the way he flinched at the sound and leaned higher to get a look at any damage he caused.
“Fuck my life, that was stupid,” he mumbled, but not unhappily.
Nothing broke, apparently.
The bed, with its big head- and footboards and four posts, could take a beating. Older than her, it had seen a lot of abuse being moved over the years. He didn’t have a reason to worry, but Gracen didn’t bother to bring it up.
Gracen giggled in the doorway, finally gaining his attention. Of course, his gaze traveled to the bundle of blankets in her arms. Swaddled and sleeping like a baby, the kitten she had not yet named, slept happily.
Mostly, she called him Cat.
For now.
“Look at you,” Malachi teased.
Gracen rolled her eyes, knowing damn well how she looked rocking a kitten, but she couldn’t bear to put him down. He kept waking up and meowing in that soft, barely-there way of his, and it broke her heart when he always looked like he couldn’t find her.
She rubbed the spot between the kitten’s ears, not disturbing his sleep in the slightest. “We had some milk, and a snack, and then he peed.”
She grinned, glancing back up at Malachi.
He laughed under his breath, turning around to move the box spring and mattress from the wall to their proper position on the bed. The man made it quite a show to watch him lift heavy things and move them around. Luckily for her, Malachi didn’t seem bothered by her ogling.
“In the box?” he asked.
“Yeah, he used the litter.”
She was kind of worried how that would go overnight when the kitten was too small to climb the stairs. She wasn’t sleeping downstairs, and the litterbox wasn’t going in her bedroom, so they were going to have to make a compromise somewhere. Probably the litter up and downstairs daily until she could grab a second box.
“Did your dad make the bed, too?” he asked.
Her attention snapped up from the cat again. “No, actually.”
“Oh.” Malachi dropped the mattress on top of the box spring, adding, “I assumed because other than that thing in the corner—” He pointed at the cuddle couch Delaney had practically forced Gracen to take out of their living room because it was way too big for the space. “—you didn’t bring a lot of furniture. It’s wood, and yeah.”