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)
She strokes her fingers over the stubble along my jaw. “You waited for me.”
“I did, and I always will.”
“You were lonely.”
“But knowing I’d have you one day was enough.”
Another tear slips down her cheek. I wipe it away, and so much love comes over her face. “I would have chosen you,” she whispers, and my heart explodes in my chest.
“Choose me, darlin’. Every day.”
Her tears fall even faster as she looks down at my lips. She pulls in a deep breath through her nose, and I don’t know why she still looks so unsure. “Kenni—”
She shakes her head, cutting off my words. “I need to throw up, so I’m gonna go do that. I need to think.”
My brows slam together. “About what?”
She shrugs. “Everything?” she asks with a hiccup. “I am so overwhelmed by this, and I don’t know what to think.”
I hold her gaze. “Know that I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know,” she says before throwing the door open and sliding off my lap. “I don’t want you to, but I’m scared I’m not good enough for you.”
“You’re too good for me,” I say without hesitation.
Her eyes flash with love, and I’m breathless. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
I hesitate. “Yeah, I don’t like this at all.”
She hiccups, then swallows. “Give me a few.”
Against my better judgment, I agree. “Only if you promise to sleep in our bed.”
She burps and then sends me a smirk. “Our bed?”
“Our,” I vow, and she nods. I go to follow her, to make sure she gets settled and maybe hold her hair as she pukes, but then the radio sounds.
“Cap, we have a situation out at Reindeer Rumpus Ranch. Sebastian has fallen and is asking for you.”
Fuck. I look over at her just as she smiles. “I’m okay. Go.”
“You sure? I can act like I didn’t hear it,” I say with a wink. Both of us know I wouldn’t do that, no matter how badly I want to.
“Go.”
“You sure you’re okay?”
She shrugs. “It’s a lot to process, Dean August Moore.” My lips turn up sheepishly, and she says, “Text me when you get back so I know Big Seb and you are okay. If I don’t answer, it’s ’cause I passed out.” I scoff and she smiles. “Goodnight, baby.”
Fuck, should I say it? I hold her gaze, but I feel like I can’t. Not yet. She has to know—I mean, I admitted it—but I can’t say it now. Not when she’s drunk and confused. “Sweet dreams, darlin’.”
I watch Kenni go toward the house as I tell dispatch I’m on my way. When she gets to the door, she turns to look at me and sends me a weak little smile. Emotion burns in my chest, and I wish I had said those three words.
I’ve been so damn scared to tell her how I feel. I finally owned up to it, yet I held back the three words I want to say to her for the rest of my life.
CHAPTER
FORTY
Kenni
“Darlin’, I’ve been in love with you since before you ever asked if I was going to kiss you or not.”
Dean’s words crash into me with the force I used on my white plate on the first day I got to Thistlebrook. One thing is for sure, Dean’s name was nowhere on that plate. My eyes burn as I rage-clean the living area. It was one thing to hear the truth from my sister—as her blood, I wanted to be mad that Dean embarrassed her like that. But then, the girl who has always been so utterly obsessed with him preened. He thought of me, he wanted me, and I was wasting my life with a man who couldn’t even love me with an ounce of what Dean felt.
I was so upset that he hadn’t told me, but when did I tell him? When did I admit that kissing him was the best moment of my life? When did I admit that I’d watched his games and imagined being the one he kissed after a damn good game and even the bad ones? Did I admit that I’d watched him when I knew he wasn’t looking just so I could memorize the sharp angles of his jaw? Or that I cried when he got Missy pregnant, or that I almost named one of the boys Dean just to keep him close?
No, I never admitted any of that. Nor did I admit that I have fallen so fucking in love with him that I can’t picture a day without him. That in the last nineteen years, I’ve only focused on the big moments. Making sure my boys were loved and taken care of. The house always clean and presentable. Along with myself. I never had a hair out of place, and I always wore makeup. When Stratford claimed it didn’t feel good to fuck me, I sucked his cock like it was the best thing in the world. I made sure the big things consumed me, but with Dean, it’s all the little things instead.