Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Instead of a meaty fist to the face, arms wrap all the way around me. Right on the sidewalk, Donnie Tate, the grumpiest man I’ve ever met, hugs me.
“I approve,” he says, only loud enough for me to hear, before clapping me on the back hard enough to remind me just how much damage he could do if he wanted to, then stepping back. I get a half-grin, and I know that’s a victory of epic proportions coming from him.
Emotions clog my throat as I look past him to see Ronnie standing outside of their truck with a wide grin on his face.
“Not twenty minutes ago you warned me away from her,” I remind the towering brute.
“Donald Tate!” Adalynn snaps.
“Look, if the man wasn’t willing to go against what I said, then he didn’t love you enough,” the man says without apology. “He nutted up just the way I fully expected him to.”
Adalynn scrunches her nose with his choice of words.
“What I won’t tolerate is the two of you making out and dry humping each other on the street, so you need to take that mess somewhere private,” Donnie says, his eyes locking on me.
“We weren’t dry nothing each other,” Adalynn says, but even she doesn’t sound like she believes her words. When Madison whispers that she’s a liar, she rolls her lips between her teeth to hide her smile.
I can’t stop looking at her, can’t stop the millions of questions rolling around in my head.
“Can we go somewhere and talk?” I ask.
Adalynn is quick to nod, but before she walks away with me, she shoves her car keys into Donnie’s hand.
“Take my car to my house,” she tells her older brother before reaching down and taking my hand.
I shift the straps of the small bag Madison handed me in order to hold her hand, and it draws Donnie’s attention. I feel Adalynn stiffen beside me. She hasn’t told her family yet.
“What’s in the bag?” Donnie asks, as if no one around him is allowed to have secrets, which I guess isn’t true because he clearly knew how I felt about his sister for years and never once brought it up.
“Lingerie,” Madison says. “A red lace, silky little number with bows on the—”
“Ick,” the man says, scrunching his nose. “That’s my little sister you’re talking about.”
“Then quit being so damned nosy,” Madison snaps.
Donnie narrows his eyes as he looks at her. “You better be glad I respect Chase, because a mouth like that would get that cute little ass of yours spanked.”
A choking noise comes from Adalynn, but Madison just narrows her eyes at the man.
“I think that’s our cue to go,” I say, pulling Adalynn away.
Madison and Donnie continue to stand on the sidewalk, arguing like they don’t care who sees them.
“I used sixty-four ninety-two,” Adalynn says when I open the passenger side of my truck so she can climb inside.
I lock eyes with her.
“That’s what Madison was saying.”
“My baby,” I say.
She nods. “I didn’t think I’d ever have you, but I knew I couldn’t go through life without a part of you.”
“It seems we have a lot of talking to do.”
Her chin quivers, and I know her well enough that she thinks something is wrong.
I cup her cheek and step in closer to her, pinning her to the side of my truck, but I think better of taking things any further while out in public.
Nerves has her reaching for the locket at her throat.
“I never knew I wanted kids until I found those brochures at your bakery. I knew then that if I had kids, it was going to be with you or nothing,” I confess, my fingers trailing along her skin until I meat the clasp of the necklace.
“You’re not mad?”
I give her a soft smile as I shake my head.
“This,” I say. “Has always been my confession.”
I run my thumbnail through the super glue I applied to it so many years ago.
“It opens?” she asks, sounding astonished.
When the glue releases, I turn the locket around so she can read the inscription.
“I never knew how to tell you. I didn’t want to risk losing you with my own selfishness.”
“You’re my ever after,” she reads out loud, her eyes beginning to glisten with tears. “Cash, you gave me this necklace years ago.”
“I need to get you home,” I tell her, my body responding in a way that might bring in those camera crews Madison mentioned, now that I understand the look in her pretty eyes.
I clench my hands into fists when she climbs up into my truck, wondering if I’ll ever stop watching her thighs with a hunger inside of me that I can barely contain.
God, I sure as hell hope I never do.
Chapter 40
Adalynn
Nerves make my hands tremble, but even pushing them between my knees on the drive back to his house doesn’t help.