Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“It’s gonna be fine,” I reiterated slowly. “I was teasin’.”
“Okay.”
“Now, you wanna cuddle or do our own thing?”
“Does it matter?” she said dryly. “Even if we start out on our own edges, we keep ending up in the middle of the bed.”
My lips twitched. I thought she’d missed that since I’d been getting out of bed while she was still asleep in the mornings. I hadn’t even realized I was doing it, and I’d felt like shit the first morning, but then I’d realized that I hadn’t woken up on her side of the bed. We’d both gravitated toward the middle.
“Well,” I said, gesturing for her to move.
There was something about the way she turned her back and waited for me to move in that hit me straight in the gut. Wrapping my arm around her waist, I fitted my body against hers, pushing my top leg forward so that it rested in the bent angle of her knee. It was the first time I’d done it deliberately, and it felt like a shift.
“Good?” I asked quietly.
“Good,” she replied, her voice barely audible.
I kissed the back of her head and closed my eyes, but I didn’t find sleep for a long time.
Chapter 8
Teddy
“Jesse,” I called, racing out of the bathroom and through the bedroom, “Did you find your shorts—oof!” I slammed into Curtis’s chest as we met in the doorway.
“Mellow,” Curtis ordered, his hands that had caught me at my hips moved to the sides of my neck. “We can show up whenever. There’s no rush.”
“I haven’t unpacked everything yet,” I replied, looking past him at the empty hallway beyond. “Finn got his sneakers soaked yesterday, and I had to go through all his stuff before I found his other pair this morning. He put on two different outfits that didn’t match, and I had to make him change. We washed Jesse’s hair last night, but we’re out of their curl cream, and three different stores didn’t have it, so we had to order online, and it won’t get here until tomorrow, but I don’t have time to braid it so I have no idea what they’re going to do—”
“Mellow,” Curtis said again, running his thumbs up the sides of my throat. “Jesse’s hair looks good. Finn is wearing blue shorts and a striped shirt that match fine. Everyone has their shoes on, and they’re all hangin’ out downstairs for you to finish up.”
“Oh,” I said, letting out a long breath. “Okay.”
“You always get like this when you’re stressed out?”
I pulled my head back in surprise. “No.”
Normally, if things were going sideways, I got laser-focused. I was usually the calm in the center of the disorganized, tardy, messy storm. Someone had to be clearheaded, and since I was the grownup, that person was me.
“What do you still need to do?” he asked gently, looking me over.
“Find my black sandals and finish my makeup,” I replied. “Oh, and grab the pasta salad from the fridge.”
“Where are your sandals?”
“In the bottom of a box.”
“Show me which one,” he ordered, his hands sliding away. “I’ll grab them while you do your makeup.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Will it get us out the door quicker so you can stop runnin’ around like a chicken with your head cut off?” he asked.
I turned back toward the bathroom and pointed at a box near the dresser. “They’re in that one. I need the black ones, not the brown. Thank you.”
“Does it really matter which color they are?” he called as I went back to the bathroom counter and pulled out my makeup.
“Says the man who’s wearing motorcycle boots when it’s ninety degrees outside.”
“Shoes are shoes.”
“Incorrect,” I called, leaning forward to line my eyes. “I’m wearing a black and white tank top. I need the black ones.”
“You’re wearing blue shorts.”
“They’re denim, and it doesn’t count.”
“Jesus, how many shoes do you have?” he called.
“A lot less than every other woman you know,” I replied, adding mascara. “I have like three pairs of sneakers, one pair of heels, three pairs of sandals, and two pairs of work boots. That’s nothing.”
“Found ’em,” he replied, stepping into the doorway.
I looked at him in the mirror to find him dangling the sandals from his fingers and staring at my ass.
“Done,” I announced. His gaze rose slowly and unashamedly met mine in the mirror.
“There a reason these things are so heavy?” he asked as I turned around.
“They’re Docs,” I replied, taking them from his hand. “I’ve never found a light pair.”
“May as well be wearin’ the work boots,” he muttered as I slid my feet in and hurried past him.
“What’s the holdup?” I joked as I sailed out of the bedroom.
A few minutes later, I was staring at Curtis as he tried to hand me a helmet. The kids had already piled into Dylan’s truck and were waiting at the curb, which I wasn’t super stoked about. The kid had barely left his room since we’d been there, and he was only seventeen. I had no idea what kind of driver he was, and I generally didn’t let the kids ride with anyone under twenty-one, much to Jesse’s dismay.