Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
“Oh,” I told him with another sniff and then a nod. “I get it.”
He kept on looking straight into my eyes before dipping his chin a little. “Do you want to go back in?”
“No! I’m sorry I got emotional. Thank you so much. This means the world to me.”
He nodded, his hands briefly moving over my spine before he took a step away. Then he seemed to think twice about it because he was back and dabbing at my face with the sleeve of the sweater I hadn’t realized he’d thrown on at some point.
And before I could think twice about it, I dove forward and hugged him tight again, so tight he went “oof” for a second before I let him go just as quickly, sniffled, and gave him a big, watery smile. Picking the plates of pizza back off the ground where I’d set them, I held one out to him. “Well, let’s eat, if you’re hungry,” I nearly croaked.
He was watching me way too closely, the lines across his forehead prominent. “You’re still crying.”
“I know, and it’s your fault,” I said, clearing my throat and trying to keep it together. “This really is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you, Rhodes.”
His eyes flicked up toward the night sky as he said in that hoarse voice, “You’re welcome.”
We each took a seat, quietly, taking the wrapper off, going straight into eating our pizzas, the light of the lantern illuminating us both enough so we could see each other pretty clearly.
We finished up our pizzas in silence, and he reached over to take the plate from me, setting it down and then saying, “I found a pack of Chips Ahoy and some marshmallows I don’t remember buying, but they aren’t expired.”
My bottom lip started quivering, and in that moment, I hated that I thought of Kaden, and I hated even more that I hated him for not understanding me a fraction of as much as I thought he understood me.
He hadn’t. I saw that now. Saw it in a complete picture. Years ago, I would have killed for something like this. Not for the things he bought that took him three minutes to find online and even faster to order because he had his account information saved on his phone. I could remember the times I’d brought up just visiting Pagosa and how he’d change the subject, not listening. Not caring. Everything had always been about what he wanted. All that time I’d wasted . . .
“You good with the cookies and marshmallows?” Rhodes asked, oblivious.
My “yes” was the smallest yes in the world. But it got the point across because Rhodes shot me a long look before getting up and ducking into the tent, bringing out a plastic grocery bag. He pulled out what looked like a half-full container of chocolate chip cookies, a nearly demolished bag of marshmallows, a couple of the kind of things used for kebabs, an oven mitt, and a full-sized lighter.
I went over and we split the things up; he handed me the pokers and a marshmallow at a time and I loaded them. I put the mitt on, shooting him a smile as I did, and then held out the marshmallow sticks toward him, where he lit the flame and I slowly turned the marshmallows once before flipping them upside down and letting the flame swallow the rest of them. We did it twice for four total.
“Have you ever done this before?” I asked as I blew out the flame on the last set.
His face was even more handsome under the moonlight and the lantern; his bone structure was absolutely something else. “No, but I hoped it’d make sense—careful, don’t burn yourself.”
What a dad.
I loved it.
I was careful as we slowly dragged the marshmallows across their sticks and onto a cookie each, using the rods to smash them down as they cracked open with gooey goodness. He took two, and I kept the other two, unable to stop smiling and not caring.
“Okay?”
I wasn’t sure what he was referring to specifically, so I took it in general. “More than okay, this is awesome,” I admitted.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “The pizza, outside, the moon, the cookies.”
“Am’s got a couple movies downloaded on his tablet. I got it just in case you wanted to watch it in there,” he said, gesturing to the tent.
He was serious. What else was in the tent?
“Should I grab my sleeping bag since the ground is hard?”
“There’s a couple in there. They’re clean. We washed them after our last failed trip.”
“What happened?”
“Am got stung three times by a yellow jacket on the second day. He wasn’t very happy.”
I grimaced. “Did you leave?”
He snickered. “Second and last time we ever went.”
“That sucks. Hopefully there’s other things you both enjoy doing together.”