Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
“What is it?” Matthieu ran into the room and stared around. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“This guy is what’s wrong! Oh my God, please tell me you can see him.”
“Of course I can see him. This is Captain. He’s part of our tech team at Callahan Security. He’s going to design and put in your system with some help from Brody.”
“Right.” She put her hand to her chest to try and still her racing heart. “Well, I didn’t know that there was anyone else here.” She glanced at Captain. Why was he just staring at her like that?
“Cap, you good?” Matthieu asked.
The other guy grunted. He didn’t look like a tech guy. He looked like the sort of guy that if you met him in a dark alley you’d pee yourself. Actually, she’d nearly peed herself meeting him in her kitchen, so she really didn’t need the dark alley.
“Good. Remember about the dog and pig in the spare room. And don’t let the chickens out. The small dog is protective of them and the one with googly eyes is kind of blind. Oh, and the hamster farts. And the cat . . . anything about the cat?” Matthieu turned to her.
She gaped at him. He’d just . . . he’d just rattled off information about her pets that her own family wouldn’t know. Well, maybe her sister.
But she’d only met Matthieu yesterday.
“Maya? Maya, you paying attention?” He turned to Captain. “She gets like this sometimes. Will you be here until three?”
Captain grunted.
“Good, we’ll be back soon after. You can let the small dogs out if you want. Just keep away from the bedrooms. Maya, I made you some breakfast.” He moved past her.
He’d made her breakfast?
Seriously? With what?
“I don’t have any food,” she said as Captain disappeared. He moved so quietly. And it was like there was a void where he’d been standing. Had the room grown colder?
“I also got groceries delivered.”
“I don’t have time to eat,” she told him.
“You’re not teaching yoga on an empty stomach.” He held up a glass with some black seeds sitting in a white mix and fresh strawberries and raspberries on top. “You can eat this on the way.”
She took it and the spoon he handed her, staring at it suspiciously. “What is it?”
“Chia seed pudding. Tastes better when left overnight, but it will do. Let’s go. You’re going to be late if you don’t get a move on.”
Was he serious?
Wasn’t that what she’d been saying all day? She peeked into the spare bedroom to find Big B standing guard in front of Tank. A sigh of sadness left her. Maybe she wasn’t helping Tank. Perhaps he needed an owner who was around more often.
She just didn’t know. But she closed the door. As she left the house, Captain was walking back up the footpath. He grunted at her, his face disgruntled.
Was he upset?
Did he not like her?
What did that grunt even mean? Was it one grunt for yes? Two for no?
Instead of asking him, knowing that she risked insulting him, she scuttled down to where Matthieu was waiting on her. They entered her garage.
“I have someone coming to paint over those words,” he told her as he opened the passenger door. “Captain knows they’re coming.”
He closed the door before she could say anything, moving to the driver’s side.
When he got in and started the car, he turned to place his arm behind her seat so he could look behind him to back up.
Why was that so sexy?
“I can see I’ve got zombie Maya again. She’s very different from spitfire Maya.”
She blinked at that. “Spitfire Maya?”
“Hmm.”
“I’m not a spitfire!”
“Sure you’re not.”
Maya let out a huff of breath. Rude.
“Put your seatbelt on,” he commanded.
Huh? Oh, right. She glanced down at her chia pudding.
“And eat.”
Jeez.
“You’re bossy in the morning,” she told him as she held the glass between her legs and put on her seatbelt.
He backed up and onto the street. “I’m bossy all the time.”
“That’s not a good thing,” she informed him. “You shouldn’t be so bossy. Some people might find it rude.”
“Glad to see that zombie Maya is gone. Eat.”
He was impossible.
She noticed that her car was sitting on the side of the road. Someone must have driven it back last night.
“When did my car get there?”
“Last night. Your keys are on your bench.”
Huh.
She glanced down at the chia pudding.
You’re going to have to try it.
He might get insulted otherwise. And he did take the time to make it. That was nice. And Maya wasn’t really used to people being nice to her.
But there was something she needed to know first.
“Um, so, Captain . . .”
“Yes?” he questioned.
“Is he . . . um . . . is he . . . all right?”
“All right?”
Sheesh. He really wasn’t making this easy on her, was he?
“He doesn’t talk!”