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)
“Perfection!” I screeched.
It was so much so, obviously, we all chimed in, dancing around Alexis and Jacob, singing the song, which of course meant Alexis started bawling. And that meant Jacob had to curl an arm around her and tuck her tight to his side, though he did this with a big, happy smile on his face.
God.
I just loved those two!
Naturally, during the “he knelt to the ground” part, we all knelt on the ground around them and belted out the last verse of the song.
Alexis was cry-sobbing at this point, and I was right there with her.
The song ended and my eyes flicked to where Javi, Cap and Eric were standing where we left them, in a row to the side of the chairs.
They all had their arms crossed on their chests and they all had versions of Javi’s adoring expression on their faces, but only Javi’s was aimed at me.
I grinned madly at him, so happy for Alexis and Jacob I could just die.
At this point, Jessie ordered anyone with apple schnaps or calvados, vodka and Cointreau to bring them to the cocktail table.
Folks raced to their units.
The first Oasis Square Residents Meeting agenda was tabled.
And the engagement party officially began.
TWELVE
“HALO”
(BEYONCÉ)
I pried open my eyes only to see the sea of gray sheets across Javi’s big bed.
I was sprawled on my stomach, and it felt like my mouth was stuffed with rags and my veins had been injected with lead.
There was also a hand gently rubbing circles into the small of my back.
“Baby,” I heard Javi call.
I turned my head on the pillow, my ponytail moving with me, these minor things causing major things to happen that weren’t all that great, so to be safe, I only shifted my eyeballs to look up at Javi who was sitting beside me on his bed, fully clothed, his hair still damp from a shower.
He was also grinning like a gorgeous lunatic, but when he caught my eyes, he burst out laughing.
The sound cracking through the room made me grimace in pain, and as my eyes were closed, all that had happened at Alexis and Jacob’s impromptu engagement party came crashing into my brain.
Jessie’s Fallen Angel cocktail was a little bitter, so I switched to the Appletini, which was not. They were delicious.
This was why I had a lot of them.
This led me to confessing my deep abiding love to Jessie, then to Eric, to Raye, then to Cap, to Luna, Willow, Shanti, Linda, Patsy, Bill and Zach, and even Martha.
At the time much later when I was gushing to Alexis and Jacob about how very happy I was for them, so drunk, I totally missed the social cues they were giving that they were done with the public party and wanted to start their private one, Javi came up to me. He then picked me up and tucked me under his arm like I was a human football and carried me to his truck.
This did not upset me.
Not in the slightest.
After babbling to him the entire way about how much I loved all my neighbors, I communicated how not upset I was to Javi by attacking him the minute he closed and locked the door to his townhouse.
Alternately kissing me back and stopping me from groping him as he led me up the stairs, eventually, standing by his bed, he set me at arms’ length, and considering Javi’s arms were very long, as I kept pawing at him, I missed by a good four inches.
At this point, he said, “Mi pequeña, I want this, like I really want it, but I promised you I’d slow us down, and no way in fuck am I gonna let our first time be when you’re shitfaced.”
It was like he was speaking Japanese.
Not one syllable made a lick of sense to me.
I was still attempting to cypher his words as he pulled me into the bathroom.
I stood there dumbly, like I’d never been there before and didn’t even know what a bathroom was.
This lasted so long, Javi had returned with a bunch of my toiletries and the T-shirt of his I’d worn the night before.
He closed the door on me.
By rote, I brushed my teeth, washed my face, moisturized and changed into his tee, leaving my clothes on the floor.
I then wandered into the bedroom and fell face first on the bed.
Which brought me to now, since I passed out.
Considering I was mortified beyond any measure of mortification there could be, with superhuman strength, I rolled away from him and pulled the covers over my head.
Or, I tried. But since Javi was sitting on them, it took a lot of tugging, and I eventually had to curl down in order to pull the covers over my head and hide from him.
“Babe,” he called.
Oh my God.