Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Foster grabbed my face with both hands, crushing our mouths together in a bruising kiss. I threw my arms around him and held on as tightly as I could.
“What can I do to make this good for you?” he asked, pulling back and meeting my eyes. “I don’t want you to have any regrets.”
“Mmm, let’s see,” I said, tapping my finger to my chin. “I was considering some cost-cutting measures.”
His eyes caught the light as he laughed. “What did you have in mind, Dr. Marian?”
“I figured I’d need to find a roommate. Someone who knows the area. Someone who’s good with his hands and doesn’t mind sharing a bed.”
Foster’s lip quirked up in a smile. “I thought room and board were included at SERA. But maybe if we agree to continue sharing, the program will save on housing, and they’ll be able to use that to bump your salary a little,” he teased.
“Ahhh, see there? You’re solving my problems already.” I clutched the front of his shirt and yanked him until his nose brushed mine. “You, sir, are awfully convenient to have around.”
“Tommy.” Foster’s voice was serious now. “I need you to understand something. I’m not going anywhere. Not anymore. If you stay, if we do this, it’s not a summer fling or a temporary thing. It’s forever. I’m talking about building a life together. A real life.”
“Are you threatening me with a good time, Sheriff? What does this life look like, exactly?”
“It looks like coming home to each other every night. It looks like planning SERA’s programs together and arguing about curriculum and probably driving Trace crazy with our bickering. It looks like weekends at your family’s lodge and holidays in Majestic with mine.” He paused. “It looks like maybe getting a house together when we’re ready. Maybe getting married. Maybe adopting a whole pack of rescue dogs because I know you’re going to fall in love with every single one and give them all ridiculous names.”
My heart felt like it might explode. “That sounds perfect. But you forgot something.”
“What?”
I gestured toward the dartboard. “It looks like you taking down that photo and burning it.”
Foster laughed, the sound rich and warm. “Nah, I think I’m having it mounted on a real dartboard because surely there’ll be times I’ll need it again in the future.”
I squinted at it again. “Those are very precise holes, Foster.”
“I was imagining them as acupuncture points.” He grinned. “Trying to cure myself of wanting you.”
“I was just as obsessed,” I admitted softly. “I’ve never jacked off quite that much before. You weren’t the only one who found a photo online. Only, I used yours for good, not evil.”
He hooted. “Meaning you jerked off to it?”
I shrugged and tried to look unaffected. “So I have a thing for men in uniform, sue me.”
His eyes darkened. “And you’re taking a job where you’ll be surrounded by cops, EMTs, firefighters, pilots…”
“I might have joined SERA for you, but I didn’t say there weren’t other perks,” I teased.
He growled and kissed me again, rough and wild, just the way I liked it.
“I love you,” I breathed.
Foster cradled my face in his hands. “I meant what I said. I fell for you, head over heels, that first night. I’m sorry it took me so long to admit it, but I will love you until the end of time. You’re it for me, Tommy. I’m yours.”
I couldn’t believe this was my life, that I was on the cusp of stepping into a new chapter, one in which I would get to live authentically, pursuing my dream job next to the man of my dreams.
“And I’m yours. Always.”
Foster’s shoulders dropped, as if he’d somehow been worried about my response. “Damned right you are.”
“Now what?” I asked with a watery laugh.
I looked around his office—at the neat desk with his resignation letter, at the dartboard, at this man who’d just turned his entire life upside down for me.
“Now I introduce you to my friends and family,” he said. “Because it’s time you learned the Marians aren’t the only… colorful family around.”
I let out a laugh. “Shall we place bets? On whose family gives us the most trouble in the years to come?”
Foster’s own laugh rang out in the nearly empty office. “Nah. I’ll still give that to your side. I don’t have a Tilly.”
As we walked out of the sheriff’s office together, Foster’s hand warm in mine, I caught a glimpse of our reflection in the glass door. We looked like what we were—two men who’d found their way to each other despite every obstacle, every misunderstanding, every dart thrown in frustration.
We looked nothing like the future of ticked boxes and empty accomplishments I’d planned for myself—the future Foster Blake had rescued me from.
We looked like everything I’d never known I wanted.
And more than I ever imagined.