Series: Paige Michaels
Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 45314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Valerie digested that bit of information before realizing they still stood in the doorway. “Hi! I’m sorry. Come in. I figured you weren’t coming.”
“I’m sorry I’m late, Cupcake. Did you get my text?”
“Your text?” Valerie parroted as she closed the door behind them.
“Let me set these down. Can I put them on the counter here?” he asked, carrying them to the kitchen.
“Of course.” Valerie followed him and found her phone abandoned on the counter. “I always lose my phone. I hadn’t looked at it for a while.”
Flipping it over to look at the screen, she read,
Hi, Cupcake. I’ve had to fill in for a sick guy at work. I’ll be late, but I’ll be there as soon as possible. Just turn off the porch light if it’s too late and I’ll know you’ve gone to bed.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t see this.”
“I bet you were worried. I’m sorry, Little girl. Do you leave the ringer on?” Grayson asked, stepping closer to run his hands down her arms.
“Always. Evan might need something. He always calls. Or sends a picture of something. I have a notification for that,” Valerie shared, looking up at his handsome face.
“I’ll remember that. Did you have some dinner?”
“Not yet. I made a cheeseball. I thought you might be hungry,” she blurted, and turned to point at the coffee table.
“You should have eaten before I got here. That’s not a very nutritious dinner for you, Cupcake.”
“It has dairy and protein and fiber and vegetables,” she defended herself. “And I wanted to wait for you,” she added.
“That does sound like a perfect meal. Could you be sweettalked into sharing?”
“Of course. Come on.” Taking his hand, she tugged him over to the couch and sat down to open the box of crackers. She arranged a few artfully on the platter before sitting down next to him. “I usually just scoop some up with a cracker.”
Carefully, keeping her fingers away, she gathered a dainty amount on her cracker and tasted it. Yum.
“Got it.” Grayson followed her example but scraped off a much larger portion.
She watched him chew, trying to decode his expression. When he smiled, she relaxed.
“This is amazing, Cupcake. You should open a cheeseball store.” He quickly helped himself to more before sitting back against the cushions. “Eat. You can’t resist that. It’s cheeseball crack.”
Giggling, she filled another cracker. “It is good.”
“How was your day, Valerie?” he asked before popping the entire cracker into his mouth and chewing with delight.
“Busy. Evan is gathering pictures for a new book, and that’s always a busy time. All sorts of people are sending him quotes for bindings and distribution. I felt like I was juggling all day long. It was good though. The day went fast.”
“I did some juggling myself,” he said, pantomiming carrying a bunch of packages and trying not to drop them.
“I bet it does get crazy with all the things people deliver. What’s the most number of packages you’ve delivered to one place in one day?” Valerie asked.
“To a residence, two hundred and seventy-three.”
“You didn’t have to think about that for long,” she remarked with a laugh.
“That one delivery took up the entire truck. A man who didn’t like to go out in public and furnished his whole house online. He had a bunch of things from one store that needed to be assembled. I bet he’s still there with his small wrench putting pieces together,” Grayson surmised.
“Wow. That had to be heavy stuff. Do you get hurt lifting enormous furniture boxes?”
“In that case, I had an assistant helping me get all that pulled out of the truck. We were even nice enough to put it inside the house for him.”
“You have a tough job.”
“It keeps me on the move and in shape. I like being out of an office. After being in the service, it would have been a hard adjustment to a desk job.”
“I can see that. I definitely couldn’t do your job. Directions are my nemesis. I always get lost,” she confessed.
“Then I’ll drive when we go out.”
“Okay.” Realizing that she’d just committed to going out with him, Valerie backtracked quickly. “I mean if we ever had any place to go—like, together.”
“I can think of a bunch of places for us to check out. Have you been to the zoo?”
“No.” She shook her head with regret. Valerie loved animals.
“To the park close to Little Cakes? It has the best swings.”
“You like to swing?” she asked in surprise.
“Of course. Daddies love everything Littles like.”
She looked at him sideways, trying to judge if he was telling her the truth. This wasn’t an elaborate way to fool her, was it? He looked honest but would untrustworthy people have a warning label?
“I don’t have any money,” she blurted.
“Okay,” he answered easily before studying her closely. “Valerie, I don’t mean you any harm. I’m not here to swindle you or take anything you have.”