Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 106147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
I smiled. She’d been carrying the weight of other people’s choices on her shoulders for too long, and I was damn proud of her for unloading it. “Good for you.”
“His face was a mess. You fucked him up good.” The corners of her lips twitched up, but she quickly looked down again. “I hate violence. Not only because of what happened to me, but also because of all the kids I work with. It never solves anything. It just makes new problems.”
“I know. And I made a shitload of new ones. I’m sorry, Autumn. I really am.”
She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Can I tell you another secret?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“I’m not that sorry, so you shouldn’t be either.”
My heart leaped, but I was still afraid to get my hopes up. “Really?”
She nodded. This time, it was her who squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry I pushed you away. I just needed some time to work through things. Actually, that sounds like I’m saying I’ve finished working through them. I’m sure I haven’t, but I think I’ve finally started. I can’t promise you that getting closer won’t scare me, or that I won’t do something stupid like run away again. But if you’ll have me, I’d like to try.”
“If I’ll have you?” I reached over and yanked her out of her seat and onto my lap. “Sweetheart, just try to get rid of me.”
She smiled. “Did you mean what you said in your voicemail?”
“What did I say?”
Autumn bit down on her lip. “That you love me.”
“Would it freak you out if I did?”
“No.” She leaned closer so we were nose to nose. “You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I love you, too.”
The biggest, dumbest smile took over my face. “I fucking love you.”
She giggled. “Fucking love, huh? Is that equivalent to a lot?”
I took her cheeks into my hands and smashed my lips with hers. When we came up for air, I smiled. “Totally enough.”
Her brows dipped. “Enough? You don’t want more kisses?”
I grinned. “Oh no, I want more kisses. Does your doorbell, by chance, keep the videos it records when someone rings it?”
She nodded. “For a month or until I delete them, why?”
“You can watch it later and figure out what I meant by enough.”
I went to kiss her again, and then it hit me that I hadn’t just professed my love to her on that doorbell video and told her she was enough. I’d come back drunk and belligerent. Shit. “Actually, can I borrow your phone a second? I need to see that app…”
***
That afternoon I’d run out to get us some dinner and made an unexpected pit stop. I’d texted Autumn so she wouldn’t worry when I was gone longer than the fifteen minutes it should’ve taken me to grab Chinese food two blocks over.
“I was getting concerned.” Autumn looked up from her laptop when I finally returned. She was sitting bare legged with her feet up on the couch. “You’ve been gone almost two and a half hours.”
I set the takeout bag on the kitchen counter and walked over to kiss her. “Sorry.”
She closed her laptop. “I thought talking to plants was an old wives’ tale. It’s an actual thing.”
I smiled. “Deep dive on talking to plants while I was gone?”
She shrugged. “I thought you were making it up.”
I walked back to the kitchen and unpacked the cardboard containers of food. “Nope. But I admit, when Bud first told me he talked to them, I thought he was nuts. I looked it up myself.”
Autumn came into the kitchen. She took a seat at the island across from me. “I watched an entire episode of Mythbusters about it. They set up a bunch of greenhouses next to each other. The silent greenhouses actually showed the least amount of plant growth.”
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded and took an eggroll out of a bag. “I’m starving.”
I laughed. “I could tell. You didn’t even wait for me to get plates or utensils.”
She grinned and covered her mouth. “Sorry.”
“I’m teasing. Let’s just eat out of the cartons and share.”
“Okay.” She finished chewing and extended the eggroll to me. “So what took you so long, anyway?”
I shrugged. “Had to get something fixed.”
Her brows drew together. “Vague much? And take a bite and give me back that eggroll.”
“Wow, you’re bossy when you’re hungry.”
She held out her hand. “Bite or give it back.”
I took a bite and handed it off.
“What did you get fixed?”
I pointed to my left arm. “A tattoo.”
She laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
I pushed up my sleeve and showed her the bandage. A piece of gauze was stretched over the area, followed by a clear plastic covering. “Nope.”
“You just randomly decided to get a tattoo fixed on the way to pick up our Chinese food? What tattoo?”
“The bird.”
“The one in the cage that you got when you were sixteen? I love that one. It was so meaningful, and I could relate to what you were feeling at the time you got it.”