Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Thinking about you, little sea monster.
All my love,
Your husband
The note he’d left for Ty on the fishing stuff must’ve been some inside joke. Something about half a steak. I didn’t know. What I did know was that these flowers would look lovely right here on the bar.
“So what brings you into town? I was just gonna bring the fishing gear to dinner tonight.” The four of us had reservations at a place at seven thirty. “Hi, by the way.” I rested my forearms on the bartop.
“Hey, pet.” He leaned in and kissed me.
Much better.
“I’m takin’ Marina to her doctor’s appointment,” he elaborated. “She’s just parkin’ the car. I can’t watch that shit.”
“Wait—she’s here?” I was surprised. I’d never met her. Walker had met her briefly the day after the Mclean House Academy event, when he’d had coffee with Ty in Alexandria. Marina had stopped by to grab spare keys or something. Lane had only seen her in passing; it’d lasted about five seconds. She was leaving the house, and Lane was arriving. He’d somehow rambled about it for twenty minutes and had come to the conclusion that he’d been the awkward one. But given their history, I would’ve been nervous too. However, the Madisons were evidently complete strangers to embarrassment.
“Yeah. She insisted on drivin’, and that’s fine. She’s probably a better driver than me, but parking?” Ty shook his head and returned to the snack menu. “What’s good around here? Lane’s been obsessing over some kind of lobster thing.”
I nodded. “The lobster tartlets. Like a mini pie with a lobster tail and a buttery filling with—”
“I’ll have that,” he told me.
I grinned. “I can make you a lunch plate too, Sir. I know what you like.”
He closed the menu and smirked like a dope. “I was hopin’ you’d say that. Walker said you would.”
I laughed. Of course he had.
A short, beautiful woman walked in, looking mildly flustered and a lot sassy, and even before she landed her stare on Ty, I had a feeling it was Marina.
“Dad, I only scratched your car a little.”
I liked her already.
Ty glanced back at her. “I expected nothin’ less, doll. Come meet Lane’s side piece. Marina, Macklin. Macklin, my offspring.”
I grinned a lot around that man. He’d unlocked a new level of his humor since he and Lane had become solid.
Once she was seated next to her dad, I extended my hand. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Marina. Ty talks about you all the time.”
“I complain about her all the time,” Ty corrected.
That’s what he wanted people to think, jokingly, but no one bought it, least of all Marina. She shook my hand and smiled right back. “It’s great to meet you too, Macklin. Now I just need to meet Lane properly—again.” She threw Ty a pointed look.
“Don’t put that on me—y’all have insane schedules sometimes,” he said in his defense. “With Lane’s deadline and your online classes, I only see you in PJs and unwashed hair.”
I had a feeling they could be at it for a while, so I said I’d go prepare a platter for them. I had a fairly good idea what pregnant women could eat, and we had plenty of leftovers.
In the kitchen, I got cracking. Ty was right—Lane had the mother of all deadlines, and it was finally coming to an end tonight. Some new project he and Corey were working on. It was why we were going out tonight, to celebrate.
I put together a few sliders, filled a bowl with our salad of the month, prepared two lobster tartlets for Ty, and loaded two small dishes with chicken soup and a vegetarian lasagna. Everything went onto a large platter, and I added some bread and my garlic butter as a final touch.
When I returned to the Madisons, they’d taken off their jackets and seemed to be arguing over names.
“I’m not naming my child after a weapons system—for chrissakes,” Marina grated out.
“Stop fighting, children. Here’s food.” I slid the platter to them and informed Marina of the ingredients.
Ty eye-fucked the food and brought out his phone. “This looks fantastic. Wait—take your pregnant paws off the bread. I wanna send a photo to Lane so he’ll be jealous and miss me. I haven’t seen him in probably thirty-six hours.”
I shook my head in amusement and faced Marina. “What can I get you to drink, hon?”
“Ice water would be great, thank you,” she chuckled. “Dad? Drink?”
“Yeah, water’s great,” he answered distractedly. “How do I apply a filter? I wanna be hip.”
Oh my God. I was so telling Lane about this tonight.
Sidenote, Ty was highly skilled using Photoshop and the like, but he didn’t have an editing app on his phone?
“You can start by not usin’ the word hip,” Marina drawled.
Ty sucked his teeth and scowled. “You’re just no support, are you?”
“I’m the most supportive person in the world,” Marina argued. “That’s why I’m gonna do you a favor and change the topic to Florida. Tell Macklin about your plan to kidnap Walker.”