Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“Good?” he asked.
“Great,” I answered.
“Kiss, mi pequeña,” he ordered.
I stretched up to press my lips against his.
I stayed stretched up when he tucked my hair behind my ear.
His gaze was sated, but still alert as it moved over my face.
“Stop worrying,” I assured. “I’m fine.”
“Your brother is a massive dick.”
I could not deny that, so I didn’t.
Instead, I said, “That wasn’t fun, and I’m sure some part of me will miss them, but day-to-day?” I tipped my head to the side. “Peace of mind.”
“Yeah,” he murmured.
“Again, stop worrying about me, sweetheart,” I urged.
“Okay, baby,” he gave in.
I decided to take us out of this and asked, “You know where Gabe and Knox were today? Oh, and Jeff and Cody?”
“Jeff and Cody are in the control room, seeing to business,” Javi explained. “Gabe and Knox were probably at a gym, working out. Or in a cold shower, sorting their shit.”
That was telling.
Just not telling enough.
Thus, I wanted more.
“Say what?” I asked.
“Think you know, Knox has it bad for Luna.”
I did know that, so I nodded and asked, “Why isn’t he going for it?”
“You gotta ask that?”
As I suspected.
They didn’t want to upset the AA/HS applecart.
“Is that it?” I pushed.
“Knox has some…shit he has to deal with.”
Hmm.
I didn’t press further with that. Although I was dying to know, it wasn’t cool for me to push Javi to share personal stuff about his friend.
This made me switch gears. “And Gabe with Willow?”
“That’s new,” he said. “Don’t got a lock on that. Though, do know, when we were questioning Kev, Roam and Brady had to lock him down and get him out of the room.”
Ooooo!
Interesting!
“He lost it?” I breathed excitedly.
“Totally. This gets sorted, don’t think that clown is going to get anywhere near Willow. Gabe scared the fuck out of him.”
Although it probably wasn’t appropriate, this made me smile a happy smile.
Which made Javi smile an I-love-it-when-Harlow-is-happy smile.
Of course, that made me smile bigger.
His phone went on my (yes, pink) nightstand.
He turned to it, looked at it, then said, “My grandparents are FaceTiming.”
Oh no!
We were naked in bed after sex!
Immediately, I flew into a flurry of motion, and Javi didn’t mess around pulling on his jeans and T-shirt.
He also didn’t miss the call.
I was dashing to the bathroom with my clothes in my arms when I heard him say, “Hola, Abuelita.”
For our lunch out, I’d chosen a cute dress made of creamy white lace with a high halter top, spaghetti straps and a swing skirt. I had it on and had semi tamed my sex hair when Javi called from the living room, “Babe?”
Okay, as I suspected, I was just about to meet the beloved grandparents on a FaceTime.
Oh God.
I took one last look at my hair in the mirror and moved to the living room.
Javi was lounged on my seafoam-green couch (hot). He did the crooking finger thing at me (also hot). And after I nervously ran my hands down the front of my skirt, I went to sit beside him.
There were two older Latino people with their heads shoved together on his screen. They both wore expressions of extreme interest.
They were cute.
“Esta es Harlow. Mi novia,” Javi said.
An explosion of Spanish came from his screen from two people wreathed in smiles.
“Hola,” I said. “Es un placer conocerlos.”
Another explosion of Spanish backed by even bigger smiles.
I caught about a sixteenth of what they were saying, none of it I could be sure I actually understood, so I just smiled back and nodded a lot.
Though, I figured it was all good considering Javi chuckled often, and since he’d wrapped his arm around me, the longer we chattered (or they did), the tighter his hold got.
I sensed I’d passed inspection.
Phew!
This went on for a while, and I adored that it did. It said, even if these people had never met, they were close. They were a family. And they didn’t hide how much they practically idolized Javi.
Obviously, I loved that last part most of all.
There was a knock on the door.
Javi gave me a squeeze and a nod to let me know I could leave our three-sided, four-person conversation and go answer it.
“Me gustó hablar con ustedes,” I said to his grandparents.
“Nosotros tambien, Harlow,” they replied in unison, and man, my name sounded pretty with a Nicaraguan accent.
I went to the door, looked out the peephole and saw Luna standing there.
I opened it. “Hey.”
“Arthur got in,” she said as greeting.
She was talking about the laptop.
Yippee!
“Oh my goodness,” I replied.
She looked at Javi still talking to his grandparents on the couch, then to me. “Come to my place for a briefing?”
I nodded, turned to Javi and made hand motions to explain what I was doing. He studied me while I did so, alert and wary, and before he could say anything, I ducked out of my apartment and walked with Luna to hers.