Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Beck stared at him.
“Oh, you’re going to sleep in the chair. Got it. And you know you called her your wife, right?” Ezra pointed out. “She’s under the firm belief that you’re divorced.”
He wasn’t planning on sleeping in the chair at all. He was going to start winning his wife back, and he wasn’t about to do it by getting a crick in his neck. He was going to show her how good it was to have a partner she could truly count on. He was going to be Roman’s dad. “She’ll be my wife again at the end of this if I have any kind of say in it.”
“I thought you would be furious with her.”
“Yeah, that’s the general consensus.” Well, he’d known he had a reputation. “How about I try to repair my marriage and get my family back and I be furious with you.”
A ghost of a smile tugged his brother’s lips up. “I can handle that. But if you’re going to punch me, you need to understand that I took vows. I can’t punch you back. I’ll have to turn the other cheek.”
He wouldn’t let that stop him at all. “Good.”
“Seriously? You would punch a priest.”
“If he’s my brother, yes. What am I supposed to call you? Father Ezra? Not happening.”
“Father Kent,” Ezra admitted with a shrug. “That’s the name I’ve used. Ezra Kent.”
He snorted. At least they still thought along the same lines. “That’s a stupid name. You should have picked something cooler.”
“Says the man who literally used my name for decades.” Ezra sounded more like Ezra in that moment than he had the whole time. The whiny teen he’d been came out, and it pierced Beck through the heart that his brother was alive. Alive.
That didn’t mean he had to forgive him. “I was honoring you. I thought you’d died in battle.”
“I think you were trying to avoid being Mr. Black or whatever stupid color name the Agency wanted to pin on you. Mr. Vermilion or something.” Ezra followed him out into the hall and stopped at the sight of Kim and Roman cuddled up on the couch. He stared at them for a moment. “He’s a special kid.”
And he suspected Ezra had something to do with that. “Kim said something about you walking him to school.”
“Almost every day. It’s on my way to the hospital where I spend most of my time. Spent. I’m not sure what I’ll do now. Maybe go to jail. It’s okay. I can do good work there, too.”
“I’m not sending you to jail.” His brother was too invested in his own drama. “But you need to understand that she’s mine.”
Ezra cocked a brow. “She’s her own person.”
“Who’s going to be my wife. And I’ll be her husband. Don’t pull that ‘I’m trying to own her’ crap. She can be incredibly possessive, too.”
“That wasn’t the problem with our marriage.” Kim’s eyes opened. “Could you two keep it down? He’s tired.”
“Pick him up and take him to the bedroom, please,” he instructed his brother.
Ezra moved in and easily lifted Roman up. He arched a brow Beck’s way as though asking him why he couldn’t carry his own son.
“I can get him,” Kim said, starting to ease off the couch.
He couldn’t pick up his son because Kim should know she was important, too. She looked adorably disheveled as he reached down and picked her up, hauling her against his chest. “You’re tired, too. We’re taking the bed and my brother can suck it.”
Ezra groaned but disappeared into the bedroom with Roman.
“We’re taking the bed?” Kim asked. “You know I can walk, right?”
“Why should you? And yes, I meant we as in you and me and Roman. I don’t want the two of you alone.” He walked them through the doorway as Ezra was placing Roman in the middle of the only slightly larger than a double bed. “Even in a room. Don’t worry, baby. I won’t try to kiss you again until you ask me to.”
“Like that’s going to happen.” But she was relaxed in his arms as he settled her on the bed.
It would. She’d wanted him to kiss her tonight. Her head had tilted up and those gorgeous lips had parted the tiniest bit to welcome him home.
He grabbed a blanket and pulled it over Kim and Roman, making sure they would be warm and comfortable. “I promise when we get wherever we’re going I’ll make sure you both have proper PJs and toothbrushes and stuff.”
She yawned. “I used yours. Roman was thrilled to not have to brush his teeth.” She frowned. “I am tired. I wasn’t going to tell you I did that.”
He didn’t mind at all. She’d always used his toothbrush when she’d forgotten her own, and that had happened more than once. As he’d usually spent time with his tongue on every part of her body, he hadn’t seen it as a hygiene thing. They’d been married.