Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“You don’t like sweet potatoes,” I said before I had time to think.
Jeremiah nodded. “They’re the worst.”
“How’d you know he didn’t like them?” Neesha frowned.
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
How did I know?
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just knew.”
“Interesting.” Neesha smiled. “I can’t wait for you to meet Ginger and Noel.”
“Do you all have Christmas names?” I looked at Jeremiah. “Is Jeremiah Christmas?”
“No,” Chris said. “Jeremiah’s isn’t Christmas. I gave him so much shit about it that he started being a real dick to me. That’s why everyone calls him Dix now.”
I grinned. “Your whole family calls you Dix?”
“Yes,” he grumbled. “And there’s no amount of beatings that make it stop.”
I flashed him a saucy grin and said, “I’ll stick with Kermit then.”
“Kermit?” Chris asked with raised brows.
“The song Jeremiah was a Bullfrog, then changed to frog in my head. Then it went to Kermit.” I shrugged. “I have a weird way of remembering things. That’s why I still know the periodic table as well as I do because I’d correlated each symbol with a saying.”
“Interesting,” Chris and Neesha said at the same time.
For the next couple of hours, we talked and laughed as I learned about the man that I’d be moving in with—I still couldn’t believe that I was doing it.
Yet, again, something in my heart told me that this was the route for me.
This was my exit.
I needed that exit, too.
And Jeremiah was holding the key.
“If it’s still snowing tomorrow,” Neesha said as she got up, stretching her arms up high over her body. “Kyle’s going to drive everyone here in his truck.”
Kyle was a worker for the city and had access to the city’s one and only snowplow.
“That works,” Chris said. “It would be nice not to have to go to Noel’s place for once.”
“Ugh,” Neesha said. “You’re right. But then everyone’s coming over here and we’ll have to clean up after.” She paused. “I guess I’d have to clean up regardless, so maybe coming over here is more convenient. And I could sit down in my favorite chair when I’m done.”
“I’ll help,” I said as they walked back toward the hidden door from earlier. “Any way that I can.”
Neesha looked at me. “Do you know how to make pumpkin pie?”
I blinked. “Yeah.”
“Score.” She smiled. “I’ve been craving some like crazy, and no one else likes it enough to ever make it.”
“I love it.” I looked over at Anleigh that was still in Jeremiah’s arms. “And Anleigh adores it. If you allow it, she’ll eat the entire thing.”
Neesha fist pumped the air. “Woo!”
Ten minutes later, I was stepping into the shower with Anleigh, who was too weak to do much more than be held.
Fifteen minutes after that, I was laying her down in the guest bedroom, sound asleep.
I stared at her for long moments before the voice at my back said, “Are you going to stay in here with her?”
I backed away. “No.”
And I wouldn’t.
Anleigh liked her space.
We’d tried the co-sleeping thing once, but she got irrationally irritated when I touched her in the middle of the night accidentally.
Or, I might add, she crept onto my side and touched me.
“I can put some sheets on the other guest beds,” he offered. “Or you could stay in bed with me.”
My heart started to pound, and I turned around.
Chapter
Fourteen
Nice until proven naughty.
—Jeremiah to Merriam
JEREMIAH
The look on her face sent my heart racing.
“It’s my fault that she whispers,” she said quietly.
I reached forward and caught her hand, guiding her out of the bedroom.
“Should we leave the door open or closed?” I asked.
“Closed,” she said. “She’ll come looking for us when she wakes up. But I also set an alarm for a couple of hours from now so I can go check on her fever.”
“Good.” I paused. “I did, too.”
She smiled up at me and fell into step with me as I guided her back to the bedroom.
Her hair was still wet, and I had the insane urge to wrap my hands around it and braid it for her so it didn’t get crazy when it dried.
I imagined that she usually put some sort of product in it to keep it looking so good, but she’d only come in with the clothes on her back.
Tomorrow, I’d go downstairs and get all her shit from her car that my grandmother said she put in there, but for tonight…
“Can I braid your hair for you?” I asked.
She looked at me, startled.
“You know how to braid hair?” She blinked.
I grinned. “Not well.”
Her face split into a sweet smile as she said, “Sure.”
I walked to the bathroom and got the hair ties that I used for when the nieces stayed here and wanted their hair done, then came back to find her standing in front of the bed.
“I don’t know where you want me,” she admitted.