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)
Both froze.
“Be quiet,” he whispered to her. “Maybe he’ll go back to sleep.”
Gracen giggled.
Too loudly.
A second meow, slightly louder and more desperate than the first, followed. Then, a third. As much as it killed her to get up, she did. Just to see the black and white kitten already looking her way with a happy, fluffy tail flicking every which way. All the while, Malachi raked his hands through his hair and playfully glowered at the kitten standing up at the edge of the bed.
“I did not get you to cockblock me, cat,” he grumbled. “We’re going to have to figure this out, you and me, Mister Kitty.”
“Stop it,” she scolded back, “he doesn’t even know what that means.”
“Yes, he does, the furry bastard.”
“Malachi!”
“A cockblocking, furry bastard,” he added when she laughed harder.
“A cute one, though,” she pouted.
“Definitely cute.”
“I like Mister Kitty.”
“Obviously,” he teased.
“The name,” she shot back over her shoulder.
“Ah, well ... shit. I guess you’ve got a name, cat.” Malachi laughed breathlessly. “At least, he’s too small to climb onto the bed right now.” Just like that, he seemed to find new energy to stand from the cuddle couch. “Let me go find that bed thing—oh, and his food, too. A distraction is what we need.”
The tightness in her belly came back with more heat at the sight of his muscular, naked back exiting the bedroom added to the way his jeans rested low on his hips. His confident, fast strides said his mind was on the same thing as hers.
“Don’t forget the toys,” she called after him.
Malachi pointed a finger high. “Yes, cat toys, too!”
Chapter 36
The farmhouse came alive filled with guests. Thirty or so people trickled in just before dinnertime with a few more who were supposed to arrive later in the evening. The heartbeats and conversation infused the empty spaces lacking furniture and decoration with a different sort of life. Of course, the halls and rooms were alive to Malachi because of the way Gracen’s whole face lit up walking through one of them. He could practically watch the memories flood her on the spot. That sort of joy radiated.
With others, he could appreciate the surroundings. Gracen, on the other hand, made Malachi see how the house could be a home.
“When did you get here?” Delaney asked, sliding in next to Malachi at the kitchen island.
“Yesterday.”
Delaney looked up at him from the side with a knowing smile. “You’re all she talks about most of the day—happy or not, you know, you’re in her head—I hope you know that.”
Malachi smirked. “I do now.”
She only shrugged, but her gaze went back to the people moving between the kitchen and dining room.
He thought it was fair to add, “And for what it’s worth, happy is what I want her to be all the time.”
Delaney chewed on her inner lip, but didn’t act as if she’d heard his admission. In her arms, she carried the sweet kitten Gracen had fretted over all day because the cat showed far too much interest in the front and back doors every time they swung open.
What if he gets out? He’s so small, someone might not see him at the door! He’s not been here long enough to know how to get home, and all of the people might scare him ... On and on and on it went. Malachi could still hear Gracen’s agonizing from that morning, so he made an effort to keep the cat on the forefront of his mind.
Her worries never ended, but they also weren’t for nothing. Being small meant shit for Mister Kitty because those scrawny, fluffy legs of his could really move when he wanted them to. Trying to catch a kitten that could literally climb the wooden walls with his sharp claws was a trip. Until he promised fifty damn times that if he, personally, had to hold the cat all night so Mister Kitty wouldn’t remain locked alone in a room, then so be it. The damn cat would not be getting out of the house.
Delaney helped once she arrived, too.
Thankfully.
The cat’s safety was made easier by the fact he won over the crowd with practically no effort at all. Too cute to be real, almost. Not one person who saw him that evening could stop themselves from cooing and petting him. Mister Kitty wasn’t going anywhere.
Delaney leaned back into the counter, a pleased Mister Kitty watching the movement from his current safe place. His paws framed his furry face around his current captor’s forearm. “So, you’re gonna be sticking around for a while, then?”
Her straightforward question made him take a second glance at her even if he did quickly return back to his unbothered posture. Natural oak cupboards framed the walls while white floors and countertops around them gleamed. The kitchen and bathroom were the only rooms with tiled floors instead of hardwood, but it fit. The tiles also made the fast, nervous tap of Delaney’s ballet flat against the floor easier to hear.