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)
The living room was just as cozy as the kitchen. One part seating area with two cushy couches, the fireplace in the corner, a big flat-screen, a rustic-looking coffee table—and one part library and…whatever I was supposed to call the corner with a tank or terrarium. Built-in shelves packed with books and old records shared that side with Ty’s lizard.
Impossible not to feel at ease here.
Ty had brought his love for nature indoors with its muted green walls, bookcases and shelves in a dark wood, matching floorboards, and plants. I found more pictures on the walls here too.
“I’m ridiculously fond of your home,” I said.
Ty looked at me over his shoulder and smiled faintly, then came over to grab the fixings for coffee from me. “It’s an upgrade from how we used to live. Our place in Arlington was a mess, and I was always bitching with the landlord who loved to charge rent but never fix anything that was broken.”
That’d been my experience with rentals too.
I didn’t need the flashlight anymore, so I pocketed my phone and trailed over to the seating area. The fire was already spreading its warmth throughout the living room, and this next part was going to make things even better. I stepped onto the soft, thick rug just seconds before I plopped down on one of the cushiest couches I’d ever sat on.
“Jesus, Ty. I might never leave.” I was bold—and cold—enough to reach for one of the blankets too.
“You’ll change your mind when I tell you this house will be filled with baby screams and shitty diapers in about five months.”
I grinned tiredly and fanned out the blanket over me. “How’s Marina handling the pregnancy?”
“A little too well,” he muttered. Squatting down in front of the fire, he filled what looked like a cast-iron coffeepot with water. The mantel had a whole collection of pots and mugs, and they were evidently not just decorative. “I get daily reports of zero vomiting, zero nausea, and a healthy appetite, while she lives on some beach in Mexico and spends her days studying turtles. And that’s just wrong. Savannah—her mother—couldn’t hold anything down the first four months.”
I winced. All of that was a world away from anything I’d gone through, but my own mother had helped many women over the years by opening up our home. I’d actually witnessed a birth once—in our living room, with an ambulance on the way. Such memories were…difficult…to forget. I could still picture the pain on the girl’s face when the contractions became too much to bear.
“May I ask how you lost Savannah?” I only knew she was dead.
“Yeah, sure—it’s not a sore subject.” Ty rose from the floor after preparing the water to heat up, and he joined me on the couch and grabbed his own blanket. “She was very sick as a child, and when I met her in high school, she’d already survived cancer twice. But shortly before Marina turned two, she went in for a checkup, and…” He shook his head slowly. “Shit was just everywhere. They gave her—I don’t remember exactly, but we’re talking weeks. We’d lose her fast. But she managed to hold on for six months.” He smiled wistfully, visibly lost in thought. “Crazy girl. The kindest soul I ever met—but the temper on her…?” He let out a whistle. “She’d wave her fist and be all, ‘I ain’t dying before I’m ready.’ Then she proceeded to write a to-do list.”
I chuckled quietly. Kind of reminded me of my ma. She’d been a force to be reckoned with too.
Ty snorted softly. “She guilted me into comin’ out to my mother. I swear—it was right up there at the top of her list.”
“You’re kiddin’,” I laughed.
“Nope.” He grinned and shook his head. “I was okay with being in the bisexual closet, to be honest. I was with Savannah anyway, but she was like, ‘but I won’t be around much longer, and I know you prefer guys. Go fuckin’ do it so I can comfort you in case Noreen reacts badly.’”
I assumed Noreen was Ty’s mom.
Ty sighed and leaned back against the cushions, and he planted his feet on the coffee table. “Turned out my ma already knew, so there was no drama. In fact, she’d been surprised when I’d come home with a girlfriend ’cause she’d found a gay porno magazine under my bed once.”
I couldn’t help but laugh again, because that was pretty close to how Dean had come out. Ma had found his porn stash. Or our stash, I should say.
“Savannah and I were never meant to last,” Ty murmured, his amusement fading. “We were supposed to be best friends forever or somethin’ like that—because God, I loved her to pieces. But once the teenage crushes simmered down and the hormones stopped ragin’, the love we shared was different. But by then, she was already pregnant, so…” He shrugged. “We made a good team, though. I was damn lost after she passed.”