Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Turning, looking a bit wary, Tierney just stood there.
“You got into college?” Kola asked, assuming, as I did, that was the news that Maura had been about to share.
“Yeah.”
“Where ya goin’?”
“Dartmouth.”
“Congratulations,” Kola said sincerely. “Ivy League. Impressive.”
“Thank you.”
When Sam Kage arrived moments later, walking in through the front door, his glare could have split wood.
“Sandy, why is everyone crying in your goddamn vestibule?”
He meant me and Maura and Sandy, as we were the three who were weeping and his question was much louder than that. When I glanced at him, Maura gasped as he advanced on us, and I understood why. He was breathing fire, and he was still dressed for work. Tall, with his broad shoulders, the scowl that made his eyes glint, both ferocious and protective, the chiseled jaw, the bulging muscles…he was definitely the hero. He looked the part.
“Maura, this is my husband, Chief Deputy Sam Kage.”
“Oh,” Eddie said brightly, moving fast to intercept my husband, having been talking to his father, missing Sam when he first arrived moments before. “Hello again, sir.”
“Mr. Sloan,” Sam greeted him, offering the young man his hand, which Eddie took quickly. “Did you fill out all your forms so we can stay in touch with you?”
“Yessir,” he said with a sigh, his gaze never moving from my husband until he had to turn his head and look at his father. “Dad, this is the marshal you wanted to talk to that day.”
Mr. Sloan, Edward, rushed forward, hand out for Sam. “Thank you for saving my son, Chief Deputy. Wrong place, wrong time, could have been life changing for our family.”
Sam nodded and then grinned, taking the hand just as he had Eddie’s. “You know he wants to be a marshal now, right? No more learning the family business. That will be for your second child here to take care of.”
“And I’m thrilled,” Edward assured him.
“Excellent,” Sam said, putting his stamp of approval on that.
“I’m going to study business so I can help my dad,” Tierney volunteered.
“That’s all a father can ask for.”
Tierney looked up at my husband like they were looking at the sun, and not squinty, but like they were loving the warmth on their face.
“Nice suit, kid.”
Tierney nodded. “Kola said he wouldn’t be caught dead in it.”
“No, me neither, but I’m betting your mom here bought it, and I’m sure my daughter, who knows about fashion, will love it when she gets here.”
Tierney was clearly very pleased with my husband.
Both Maura and I turned to him. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. “How ya doin’ there, Mom, you all right?”
She nodded quickly. “Thank you so much for getting my idiot son––”
“Mom!” Eddie howled, horrified.
“––and his stupid friends out of that terrifying apartment building where those DEA agents were prepared to let them be killed.”
“Not killed,” Sam amended. “Probably.”
I let her go so she could turn and fall into my husband, wrapping her arms around his waist and heaving out a sob.
Checking his face, I saw him grimace like possibly things had been out of hand.
“When was all this?” I asked the hero in our midst who wasn’t hiding anything, instead grinning at me because yes, he’d just been caught not giving me the whole story on something.
“Maybe a week ago,” he confessed.
“There were people shooting, and they hit a gas line or something because half the building blew up and the chief deputy had to protect me and my buddy Colin,” Eddie explained. “I was scared, and I won’t even lie about that to try and make myself look good. But once he was there, saving us from the—what did you call them, Chief?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Sam told him.
Maura laughed, Edward pressed his lips together so he wouldn’t, and Sam stepped up beside me and draped an arm around my shoulders.
“Thank you again for saving my son, Chief––”
“Just Sam,” he corrected Maura. “The title is for your son.”
“Sam,” she breathed out his name. “They just—I mean, he and his three friends just opened the wrong door after getting off the elevator on the wrong floor and––”
“It happens to the best of us,” Sam said kindly, tucking me into his side as I let go of Maura’s hands.
I turned into him, pressed my face into his chest, and closed my eyes.
“He’s been worried about ancient history,” Kola told his father.
“As you do,” Sam rumbled. “C’mere.”
“Oh, not you too,” Kola groaned. “Nothing bad even hap—oh.”
Sam yanked him in close, and I knew that because both of us were suddenly clutched tight as I heard my daughter.
“What is happening right now? Aunt Sandy, why is everyone crying in your vestibule?”
Like father like daughter.
Later, Michael came into the dining room where we were all getting dinner at the buffet set up there and charged up to his brother.
“Did you make Sandy cry?” he barked at my husband.