Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
But I bet I’d use it.
I again stopped blending. “Yeah, I thought you and Knox were down to do that.”
“We are. Just saying, when we’re done, my pans are better than yours, so we can pack yours up and put them in storage if you want to keep them.”
I could do nothing but stare.
Cap kept talking.
“I like your bed, and I have a king, so it’d be too big for your bedroom, so we can put that and my furniture in storage too,” he went on.
Was he…?
Was he…?
“Are you…asking…to move in with me?”
He finished pouring something that smelled divine over green beans he’d roasted to perfection, put the pot down and looked at me.
“No reason for me to pay rent at a pad I’m never at. And I’m not a big fan of using your water and electricity without paying my share. You’re not gonna leave the Oasis. We’ll get on the waiting list in case a two bedroom opens up. But in the meantime, I don’t need a lot of space, I like your space, you obviously like your space, you’re not gonna leave the Oasis until we’re ready to buy. So…yeah, I’m asking to move in with you.”
I abandoned blending altogether, dropped the brush, hopped off my stool, and Godiva raced into the bedroom, but Nala lost interest in the Container Store bags and pranced after me as I rounded the column and jumped on Cap.
With my arms and legs around him, his hands on my ass, I kissed him all over his face.
He was laughing and saying, “I’ll take this as a yes.”
I stopped kissing. “Damn straight it’s a yes.”
“You might have to move some of your summer clothes to the storage unit I rent so I can put away my shit.”
“We live in perpetual summer in Phoenix, Cap.”
“Please don’t try to convince me you don’t have different clothes for the different seasons.”
He was too shrewd.
Though, I wasn’t exactly secretive about being a clotheshorse.
“Whatever, okay. I’ll do a seasonal purge.”
He grinned. “Awesome, baby.”
He could say that again.
I kissed him again.
This time, I aimed at his mouth.
Cap didn’t laugh at that.
Not even a little bit.
Only twenty minutes late after our moving-in-together festivities (yeah, we did it, though Cap took it to the bedroom so we didn’t do it on the kitchen floor), we forged our way through the jungle and into Scott and Louise’s house, with me shouting, “We’re here!”
A black lab mixed with something (a pittie?) came and jumped on me.
Cap, balancing the tray of casserole in his other hand, pushed him off.
“We are too!” Louise called from the bowels of the house.
We hit the living room, were surrounded by other dogs, but that wasn’t why we stopped dead.
Tex was on the couch, his arms along the back, and Scott and Louise’s cats were crawling all over him, with one curled up, apparently asleep in his lap.
“Yo!” he boomed.
“Tex,” I cried, tossing my purse off, but still keeping hold on the trifle bowl while dashing to him.
Cats scattered as I juggled the bowl and hugged him, even though he didn’t move a muscle on the couch.
“Woman!” Another boom. “I don’t hug!”
I popped back, still smiling at him.
“Fuck the turkey,” he proclaimed. “I just want whatever’s in that bowl.”
My smile grew to a huge-ass grin.
Then, out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Shirleen come in, wearing one of Louise’s aprons around her waist to protect her gorgeous burnt-sienna sweater dress.
“That better be your green bean casserole, son,” she said to Cap.
I just caught the happy grin that spread on his face before I raced to her and gave her a hug.
She hugged me back, and when we broke, she looked me up and down. “My girl, Raye. Always turned out good.”
“Same to you,” I replied. “And what an amazing surprise! I’m so happy you’re here!”
She smiled at me and moved to her son.
Nancy and Louise came in, both also wearing aprons, and Deb followed up the rear.
I was giving Nancy a hug while Deb took the casserole from Cap, and Louise nabbed the pudding from me while talking.
“I told Scott no football in this house, so he set up a man cave on the back patio. I suspect they’ll file in to stuff their faces, then go right back out.”
I turned to Tex. “Why aren’t you out with the guys?”
He was pushing out of the couch. “Because I had a cat in my lap. There’s rules, woman. Now it’s gone, I’m gone.”
And he pushed through the crowd to get through the kitchen to the back patio just as Luna and Dad showed.
“Hey, sister,” Luna greeted.
But she didn’t come in for a hug, because Dad was doing it.
“Heya, darlin’,” he said in my ear.
“Hey, Dad.”
He hugged me tight, like he hadn’t seen me in months, even though we had dinner together in the courtyard after their flight landed yesterday.