Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“I’d do anything for you. Anything.” I answered vehemently.
He didn’t respond. We stayed silent for some time. Almost so long that I thought he’d fallen asleep. His breathing was steady, as if his body was in a deep sleep. I stayed on my side of the bed, watching the numbers on the clock change from eleven thirty, to twelve.
“I want to get married. This weekend.” James suddenly said.
“We can’t. You’re screwed. I want a big, beautiful wedding. I want a winter one. So you’re going to have to wait till next year, because big weddings like that take time to plan. I want to wear a big dress that has a train that flows ten feet behind me. I want my dad to walk me down the aisle. I want tons and tons of flowers. I want it all.” I described my dream wedding.
“Do I have to wear a tux?” He asked, sounding pained.
“Yes, because that would just look absolutely silly if you didn’t.” I told him.
“Fuck me,” he growled.
I smiled, and felt myself slip into sleep.
Chapter 23
If you think 7 years of bad luck is too much for breaking a mirror, try breaking a condom.
-E-card
James
“Is it possible?” I asked my sister.
“Well, not by this weekend, that’s for sure. She can’t make anything easy, can she?” She grumbled as she started sending texts on her phone.
“I don’t know who all she’d want to invite, but do your best. Maybe ask her brother? He’d know.” I instructed her.
She glared at me. “I’m perfectly capable of this. Did she say what kind of dress she would want?”
I nodded, and explained what Shiloh had told me last night about the train. “She didn’t say much else about that.”
“Okay, you’re free to go.” She said, flicking her hand in a shooing motion.
I did just that, leaving Cheyenne’s place, and following the sounds of kids playing towards the side of the garage. There, I found Gabe, Max, and Jack sitting on the benches while the kids played on the jungle gym we’d built during the summer.
Then I saw what Gabe was doing, and laughed. “Wh-what the hell are you doing?”
He smiled brightly at me, took a sip of his beer, and tugged on the length of the rope in his hand. The rope itself was about a hundred feet in length connected to a swing that had his son, Luca, sitting in it, hunched forward sleeping.
“Ember needed a nap, and Luca here wasn’t cooperating. Works every time.” He nodded at the swing.
“Why are you tugging on it with the rope?” I asked curiously.
“If I stop pushing him, he wakes back up. I was tired of standing.” He said simply.
I nodded in understanding. We’d all been there. Who was I to judge? Hell, I remembered when Janie was a tiny baby, all of three weeks old, and she’d wake up in the middle of the night for the fortieth time, I’d prop the bottle on my chest, and snuggle her in close, falling asleep while she ate as slow as a tortoise.
Max stood when Harleigh started to scream in the baby swing behind us and popped her pacifier back in before coming and sitting back down.
“Zander was a bucket of information last night. He’s currently in police custody. Luke loved the video, by the way.” Max grinned.
“Oh, yeah. It was something to see all right. I was scared shitless for her, then turn around to see her beating the man to death with that huge dildo. It was the highlight of my life. Aside from having Janie, that is.” I laughed.
“Where’d she get it?” Jack asked.
My eyes flicked to his, noting that he looked much more relaxed. Much more happy than I’d ever seen him. “Some chick threw it at Shiloh when she yanked my pants away from her. I was wondering why she’d kept it, but I’m glad she did.”
Silence. “So you really stripped?”
“It was a bet. You know I don’t go back on my word.”
“Sadly, we do. Just don’t let it happen again. I don’t want my wife seeing you in your tighty whities again.” Max murmured.
“Where’s Cat?” I asked Jack as I took a seat beside him.
I had about five minutes before I needed to leave, and I decided to take a load off. My body was exhausted. I’d had a tough two months, and it didn’t look like it was going to get any better anytime soon.
“My brother has her. He took her to the fire station for a show and tell.” Jack rumbled, sucking down another swallow of beer.
“What?” Was echoed by Gabe and myself.
“They got some new equipment for infants or some shit. Winter volunteered Cat to test the fit on a few of them.” Jack informed us.
“Oh, well why do they need to test them out beforehand?” I wondered.
“You don’t want to find out in the middle of restraining an infant after a car accident that your backboard doesn’t work on a two month old, or a one week old. Nor do you want to find out that a blood pressure cuff is too big, therefore not giving you reliable readings, making you not give a needed medication en route that could’ve saved a kid’s life.” Gabe explained.
I shuddered. It was hard to think about a two month old like Cat needing any sort of medical treatment for any reason. Just to think of Janie on a backboard gave me heart palpitations.
“Yeah, that’s about what Winter said.” Jack agreed.
“All right. Well I have a training exercise. I’ll catch you guys later.” I said shaking each of their hands.
The ride to the police station had me looking over my shoulder the entire way. I knew someone was following me. When I stopped at the only stop light in between Free and the training facility, I sent a quick message to Sam, who was watching over Shiloh today.
Sam and I had decided after the last incident, that it was best to have one of our own guys on Shiloh. It wasn’t that we didn’t have confidence in Sebastian’s MC; it was that when one of our own was in trouble, we made sure that we were the ones doing what was needed. When it came down to it, we knew each other well, and we knew that we’d protect with our lives. Each and every one of us had done nothing less for each other, time after time. We knew without a doubt that the same would be extended to our significant others and our children.