Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I’d seen the scar, of course.
I remembered him from before after he’d explained that we’d seen each other that day when I was in town with Joseph.
I’d seen him in the hotel lobby with his K-9 officer, Boss. Though I hadn’t known who they were at the time, I’d kept his face in my mind.
It’d been captivating.
I’d seen the scar running down his face, but his eyes—they’d been so freakin’ brown. And the glasses were even cuter. I’d thought he looked like a contradiction with his scarred face and his cute black-rimmed glasses.
I was so happy to finally know what his face had looked like. I didn’t know why it mattered to me so much, but I felt at peace about it finally.
Like I knew who it was that I’d fallen in love with completely now.
“Hey, bro,” I heard called. “You need help carrying anything else over?”
“Actually, yes,” Garrett said as he walked deeper into the house. “I have a tray of some sort of appetizer…”
“Sausage crinkles!” Mom and I both said at the same time before I finished with, “They have cream cheese, sausage, and crescent rolls in them.”
“Yum,” I heard said.
“Which brother was that?” Mom asked.
“That was Quincy,” Garrett explained.
“And that one right in front of you with the adorable baby?” Mom pushed.
“That’s Quinn, Quincy’s triplet.”
I smiled as I walked farther into the room.
My mom let my hand go, and I felt a little bit naked in a room full of people with no idea where to go.
We’d left Rooster at home because it’d be utter chaos in the house with all the people around.
But now I wasn’t sure what to do or where to go.
“Hey there.” Atlas’s voice came from my side. “Can I take the pan for you?”
I nodded, thankful that someone had come to the rescue.
“Ohh!” I heard running feet. “Can I help you to the couch?”
I smiled. “Sure. You’ll have to remind me who you are, though. I can’t talk to strangers.”
The little girl giggled so cutely. “I’m Addison. My mama is Ande.”
“The eldest?”
“The oldest,” she agreed. “This is Lola. She is Auden and Maven’s.”
I held out my hand and a tiny little one took it. “It’s nice to meet you, Lola.”
“You have pretty hair,” Lola whispered so quietly that I could barely hear it. “I want hair like yours.”
“No you don’t,” I teased. “You can’t brush it, and when you wash it, you have to use half a bottle of conditioner.”
“Amen to that,” Maven groaned. “Curls are such work!”
I felt the couch depress next to me and assumed she’d sat down.
I’d met them all over the last few weeks, and I knew most of them by name.
However, the triplets—Quincy, Quinn, and Quaid—all sounded exactly alike so it was hard for me to differentiate who I was talking to.
Gable sounded a lot like Garrett, too, but not enough to make me question who it was I was talking to—my fiancé or his twin brother.
“Oh my god!” I heard cried out. “These are fan-fucking-tastic!”
“You better not have eaten them all,” I heard called.
“What is he talking about?” I wondered.
“The sausage crinkles,” I heard my mom call from beside me somewhere. “You should give him the recipe. It’s easy and they’re fantastic.”
I shrugged. “I’ll give whoever wants it the recipe.”
“You came up with the recipe?” I heard Maven ask.
“Here, baby. I snagged you one,” I heard Auden say.
“Oh my god.” Maven groaned. “They are fan-fucking-tastic.”
“You should put these in your bakery,” Hollis, Quincy’s wife, called out. “They’d sell out every single day.”
“I’d have to pay to use the recipe,” Maven said. “Would you allow that?”
I snorted. “You can just use the recipe. I can’t gatekeep it. I mishmashed a few recipes together to come up with it.”
“Well, how about free cookies for life?”
“Deal!” Garrett called.
I giggled.
“Who’s ready to eat?” the matriarch of the Carter clan called out. “Because I’m starving, and there aren’t any more sausage crinkles!”
I felt a hand catch mine and got up.
“There’s a step,” Lola whispered.
I stepped up into what I assumed was the dining area.
“Whose bright idea was it to put the dining room up on a pedestal?” Garrett asked.
“The contractor who fucked our concrete up,” Quaid grumbled darkly. “They got all the kinks worked out, so everyone else’s house was normal.”
“I kind of like it,” I admitted as I was helped into a seat. “It differentiates one room from the other without me having to guess.”
“That’s true, I guess,” Ellodie agreed. “I guess I never really thought of it that way. Okay, everyone be quiet so I can tell Bindi what’s on the table.”
Everyone quieted down and I listened in shock as everything that was on the table was told to me.
“I don’t think I have a big enough plate,” I admitted.
“She’ll take this, this, and this.” Mom must’ve been pointing.
“Oh, and that one,” Garrett chimed in. “She loves sweet potatoes.”