Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Nyle’s gaze cuts to Dean. “I don’t know what you’ve been told—”
“The truth,” Dean snaps, his eyes narrowing. “But don’t worry. I’ll make sure she’s very welcome at my place.”
Jesus, it’s getting really hard to breathe.
Nyle looks affronted by that, while Missy’s brows pinch. Skyye is beaming, but before anyone can say a word, the town sheriff’s SUV pulls up.
I groan inwardly as Nyle makes an excuse to head inside. Coward.
Dad gets out of his SUV and stretches before adjusting his gun belt. He looks at the lot of us. “Heard my baby has to move ’cause your shithead husband is obsessed with you.”
Missy lets out a groan as I hold back my laughter. “Shouldn’t he be obsessed, Daddy?”
“Yeah, but not while making my girl feel like she isn’t welcome in your home. I’ll let this slide, but if he makes my Sky baby feel any way like that, I’m coming back.”
The warning from my dad is no laughing matter. Especially when Dean nods in agreement. “Same.”
Dad looks at Dean, and Dean holds out his hand. “Sheriff.”
Now, Dad hates Nyle, but he despises Dean.
My dad sighs, and then he takes Dean’s hand. “Dean, thanks for taking in this hellion.”
I glare. “Daddy, really?”
He looks at me, confused. “What? You are.”
I jerk a thumb to Dean. “You’re really going to just call him Dean when he’s the fire chief of this town?” I lean in. “You taught us all to respect titles, but you won’t in front of not only him, but his very impressionable and malleable daughter? Who is also your granddaughter?”
Missy knocks her elbow into my ribs. “Abort. Abort. Abort.”
I feel even Skyye’s eyes burning into my face, but I ignore them both as my dad sets me with a glare. He takes a deep breath, his lungs filling up along with his gut before he lets it out in a long whoosh. “Fine.” He turns to Dean, still shaking his hand. “Chief-got-arrested-with-my-baby-twice-and-knocked-up-my-other-daughter, how you doin’?”
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter as I smack his arm. “Real mature.”
I look over at Dean as he covers his mouth to hide his laugh. “Just fine, sir.”
“Who’s watching the house?” Dad asks, meaning the firehouse.
“Wagner came in so I could get Kenni settled.”
Dad slaps him hard on the back. “Let’s try to get her settled in the house, not the back of a cop car.”
Everyone lets out a tense laugh except me. I glare. “Aren’t you the only one on duty, Daddy?”
“Yup,” he says, damn sure of himself.
“And you’d arrest me?”
“Not you, my baby,” he says, squeezing my wrist, but then he points to Dean. “But him, yup.”
“Grandpa!” Skyye complains, and he lets out a hearty laugh.
“Oh, Sky baby, I’m just joshin’. Right, Dean?”
“Yes, sir.” Dean doesn’t look sure.
“I’m leaving,” I say, shaking my head. “You’re insane, Dad.”
“Happened from raising you two.” He lets out another gut-blasting laugh, his eyes crinkling with mischief. “Good thing you’re like your daddy, Sky baby.”
“Yet, you’ll arrest him for—” I call over my shoulder, but my words cut off when I get to the car. Dean is there, reaching past me to open my door. I look into his face, and he flashes me a small grin before nodding toward the car. “What are you doing?”
“Making sure you’ve got everything.”
I blink. “I do.”
He fights back a grin, rubbing his forefinger and thumb along that naughty little stache of his. “Keys, purse?”
I arch a brow. “Yes, I’ve got it all.”
He chuckles softly. “Just making sure.”
“You know my daddy is right over there.”
That has him smirking, the tips of his ears turning red. “I know. And trust, I’m not trying to be your daddy.”
It should be illegal the way his voice dropped as he said daddy. Winded, I murmur, “Oh, good.”
“At least, not in the streets.”
My jaw actually drops. I blink up at him, and he eats it up. His chuckle is rough and dirty before it tapers off. He licks his lips before biting just on the edge of his bottom one. Dean’s eyes heat as I fall into my car like a real-life swooning heroine.
Shit, am I?
With the way he’s looking at me, I think I just might be.
“All right, darlin’. Let’s go on home.”
Home.
I’m moving in with Dean.
With his tight ass and slutty mustache.
He taps the top of my car, pulling me from my internal monologue, before pushing off and heading to his truck.
Do I watch his ass in my side mirror?
I absolutely do.
Then I wipe the corners of my mouth like a fucking lady.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
Kenni
Dean inherited his grandparents’ cabin when they passed. I remember it being quaint and very old-ladyish when I was younger, but nothing could have prepared me for the place that Dean has made a home. Dean refurbished the whole house, making it his own. He kept a lot of the original elements of the home, which offers a stunning mix of old and new. He replaced the standard windows with floor-to-ceiling ones, the natural light making all the rooms glow. He used the same old bricks that Sadie used on her home to accent the front stoop. The inside is all exposed wood, along with accent walls made with the bricks from the old homes on his great-uncle’s ranch. He even swapped some of the doors with doors from the houses where he got the bricks. Along the frames are little marks for kids I don’t know growing up, but then I notice a DM and SM for Dean and Sadie. How sweet. It’s even sweeter when I notice that Skyye also has her growing marks on her door.