Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I knocked, knowing damn well and good she wouldn’t answer or unlock it.
I texted Cannel for the code, then let myself in after I got it.
Gracelynn was on the couch glaring at me.
I closed and locked the door behind myself, then kicked my boots off so I wouldn’t track mud through the shiny clean cabin.
I glanced around, admiring all the work that’d gone into it, then finally scrounged up the courage and looked back at Gracie.
“I love you.”
Her mouth fell open.
“You what?” she all but shrieked.
“I love you,” I repeated.
She opened and closed her mouth like a fish, then narrowed her eyes. “Saying that doesn’t forgive ignoring me for five days and acting like I have a flesh-eating virus today around your ex-wife.”
She was so damn cute.
“I didn’t think you did,” I replied apologetically. “But my ex is a terrible person. The moment that I showed you affection, she would’ve found a way to make your life a living hell.”
Gracie frowned. Then sighed.
“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted. “This last week and a half has been terrible.”
“You could tell me you love me back,” I suggested.
“It’s only been like twelve days,” she hedged. “There’s no way you could know if you love me or not based solely on the fact that you don’t know me at all. You can’t love me. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know that you lost a baby when you were young,” I started, leaning my shoulder against the wall right beside the front door. “I know that your parents, if I ever meet them, will be meeting the sole of my boot when I kick their asses. I know that your sisters are assholes, and left you to suffer. I know that your grandfather tries to make up for his assholeness by sending you random food as if that’s somehow going to make it okay that he raised a shithole of a child. I know that you love to bake and read. I know that you love reading romances, but you try to hide it because you think that somehow makes it bad. Which it doesn’t, by the way.” I watched as her breath caught. “And I know that you love your truck, you’ve worked your ass off for everything that you have in life, and that you’re the best goddamn person I’ve ever met, bar none. So yes, I know you. No, we haven’t known each other long. Yes, I do know what I feel. And yes, you do feel the same way back, even if you’ll have trouble saying the words back to me. I’ll tear those walls down eventually, though.”
She snorted. “Good luck.”
That’s when I took her challenge and went with it.
There was no way in hell that I would ever, ever let her get away with not saying it back.
Because she needed to say it back. Not because I needed to hear it, but because she needed to know that not every man in her life was a piece of shit.
I’d get her there.
But first…
“Come here,” I urged.
She didn’t get up.
Instead, she crossed her arms across her chest and said, “No.”
My lips twitched at her disobedience.
“Come here,” I repeated. “Please.”
She sighed and got up, coming to me slowly. “I don’t like this weird shit about you and hotel rooms and massage therapists. That’s fuckin’ weird and you know it.”
I did know it.
I also knew that that’d been my last time seeing her.
Not because I didn’t need a damn massage, because I did, but because I didn’t like the way the girl’s hands felt on my body.
“Next time, you can be there,” I suggested. “Or you could just take over the duty yourself.”
She stopped right in front of me and said, “I do have strong hands.”
She did.
It was from working with all that dough.
I had the same.
Speaking of hands, my own snuck around her waist and pulled her in close, tucking her in so tight that there would be no doubt in her mind about what I was thinking about.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked.
“Because I spent five days being a dumbass and thinking with my head instead of my heart, then spent the next five thinking how stupid I was to lose those five days. Then berating myself for doing something that before I met you, would’ve been totally innocent, but turned into something that wasn’t. At least not in your eyes. And then I realized when that bullet nearly tore your body apart today, that I wanted to do a whole lot more with you than what I’ve been able to do so far.” I hesitated. “And, I hate to tell you this, but you’re going to have to meet my ex-wife. Not to mention, you’re going to have to stay with me for the next few days as we figure out what in the fuck Erich has gotten himself into, and whether you being nearly hit was by accident like we think, or on purpose.”