Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
“What?” I drop my head into my hands. “Truth be told, guys, I’m so fucked in the head, I don’t even think I understand your question.”
“This might be worse than I thought,” Kline muses, taking out his phone to text his wife. “I’ll text Georgia and tell her I’m going to be a little while.”
Before I know it, all three other men are following suit.
And just like that, this investor meeting turns into me talking about Katy Dayton. I tell them everything.
How she used to hate me, our Destin trip and how she had to go to the ER, how we ended up having sex, and how I gave up my flight to drive her back to New York.
I tell them how we started a little fling once we got back from Florida, but how it’s turned into an almost nightly thing of us hanging out and having sleepovers, and how she’s the most beautiful, interesting, and amazing woman I’ve ever known. Our night with Gracie and the Career Day disaster. And how today, I ran over to her place to see if she was okay and she was acting weird, and somehow, everything went to shit.
Most importantly, I tell them that I’m ass over head in love with the woman, and there’s nothing more I want in the world than to spend the rest of my life with her.
By the time I’m done, all four men are staring at me with stupid grins on their faces.
“What?” I ask, and Thatch is the first to comment.
“The story of love never gets old.”
I don’t have a response to that, and Cap is the next to speak.
“And the male leads never get any quicker on the uptake either. Seems like you’ve been in love with her for a really long time, my guy.”
“Just so you know, now isn’t the time to avoid it,” Kline says. “Now is the time to face it head on.”
I look at him, and then I look down at my hands. I think about Katy and everything we’ve been through and how I’ve never felt this way about anyone. How I feel like I’d walk through fucking fire just to make her mine.
“I love her,” I admit out loud again. “I’m madly in love with her, and I’ll do anything to make her mine.”
“Bingo bango!” Thatch exclaims. “You need a plan, dude. A big romantic gesture kind of plan.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you need to show Katy that you’re not the impulsive, inconsiderate, anticommitment bastard she once thought you were,” he explains. “You need to show her that, when it comes to her, you’re all-motherfluffing-in. A man who wants to commit to the woman he loves.”
“Hell yeah, you do!” Cap exclaims. “Otherwise, Ms. Katy will continue to think you just want some kind of meaningless fling with her. Talk is cheap. You need to show her that she’s it for you. She’s the one. She’s your lady, and you are not only in love with her, but you see a future with her.”
I see a future with her, all right. This woman has become the one. The end game. The everything.
I don’t want to wake up without her lying beside me. And don’t want to go to bed without kissing her good night. I don’t want a future without her in it.
When I look around the table, all four men are looking at me like I’ve just told them I can make them one trillion dollars in the next five minutes.
“You’re on the right path,” Kline states. “It’s written all over your face.”
“Fluffing right, Special K,” Thatch agrees. “You just need to take one more giant leap forward and figure out how you’re going to show her how you feel.”
In an instant, like a crashing waterfall, it all comes together in my mind.
And there’s only one man who can help me pull it off.
Immediately, I pull my phone out of my pocket and type out a text—I need your help with something REALLY important. The most important thing of my life, actually.
An answer comes back immediately. And my plan is officially in motion.
Sunday, April 24th
Katy
The Staten Island Ferry crowd is bigger than I’d expect for a Sunday afternoon, and my mass-gathering claustrophobia is amped up to an eleven thanks to the hot flashes I’ve been having all morning.
But my role today is to be the dutiful daughter and granddaughter, so without complaint, I follow my parents and Gran down the stairs as she leads us toward the very spot on the bottom deck where she and my granddad first met.
As hard as today is for me, given my current—still secret—with-child condition, I can’t even imagine how hard it is for Gran.
She looks so small and fragile with the urn in her hands, and the emotion is almost too much for me to bear. Tears are already pricking my eyes, and we haven’t even started yet.