Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“That is not true,” I refute, walking over to them and standing beside Jack, who puts his arm around my shoulders and slaps one.
“That’s going in a frame,” Denise declares. “Can we get the wives in there?” She looks around. “Soon-to-be wife anyway.”
We rearrange the group and now I’m standing beside Elizabeth, and she looks up at me and smiles at me. The same smile she gave me that night. It was that smile that made me forget everything, and all I wanted was to make sure the smile stayed on her face the whole time. I shake my head and put my arm around her shoulders and pull her to my side, like I’ve done many times when we were younger. She looks down at our feet and then reaches around, putting her hand around my waist and the other around her brother.
“Smile for the camera,” Denise says. “Everyone look here,” she says and I look down at Elizabeth for a second when she looks up at me and I wink at her, making her smile even bigger. “Elizabeth, look over here.” She calls her name, and she looks up at the camera. “This one is going to be blown up,” Denise announces to everyone. “Okay, now, everyone inside,” she says and then turns to hand the phone to one of the workers as the fifty or more people all crowd into the picture. Denise and Zack are in the middle as we crowd around them. I stand behind Elizabeth. One hand is on her shoulder, the other hand is hanging to the side when I have to squeeze in more, and her hand grabs my leg. Then, like it’s always meant to be, I slide my hand in hers. Our fingers intertwine like they were made to be held together. We take three pictures and then everyone moves away, including us. Her hand slides out of mine and our fingers try to hold on to each other, but then our hands fall to our respective sides.
I’m sitting at the table with her father and uncles when she comes over to us and looks at me. “When are you thinking about leaving?”
“Answer right now,” Matthew says under his breath, as he covers his mouth with his mug of hot chocolate.
“Now.” I take his advice and stand up, grabbing my jacket from the back of the chair. “I was waiting on you.”
“Oh, dude.” Zack shakes his head. “Just say sorry I kept you waiting.”
“Okay, well, sorry I kept you waiting while I was waiting for you to finish,” I state, knowing I can’t let her win. But also knowing it’ll probably piss her off.
“Well, I’m ready.” She doesn’t give me attitude, which should be my first sign to not poke the bear. “Bye, we’ll see you all tomorrow, I guess, for another round of Jumanji.”
“I think it’s called Groundhog Day at this point,” Matthew says. “I feel like I’ve been at this wedding for fifteen thousand years.”
We laugh as we say goodbye to everyone, Joshua giving Uncle Matthew the stink eye. We walk out with my jacket under my arm and my hat in my hand. I take out the keys to my truck and unlock the doors.
I open the back door, tossing my jacket and hat in the back seat, as she gets into the passenger seat and rubs her hands together. I start the truck and turn up the heat. “Should we order pizza?” she asks me as I pull out of the parking lot and head down the path heading to the main road. The lights on the trees are all sparkling and it looks almost magical.
“We can,” I reply, getting on the road and looking over at her as she is on her phone.
“It says it can be at your house in forty-five minutes,” she says and then looks over at me. “Is that enough time?”
“Why don’t you order it when we get home?” I look back at the road. “We still have to unload the tree.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She puts her phone away and for the whole ride she looks out the window.
We get home and then she reaches for the handle. “I’m going to order it now,” she says, “I’m starving.”
“That sounds good,” I tell her and get out of the truck and walk up the steps to the front door. Pressing in the code, I then open it up and see Whiskey coming out with his tail wagging behind him.
“Are the cats not going to run out?” she asks me and I shake my head.
“They tried that once,” I tell her, walking to the back of the truck. “Seems they are not cut out for living on the street. Baby Cat literally belly-crawled her way back in and Bean didn’t like the grass under her feet.” I open the back of the truck and see the tree is tied all the way around.