Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
“Awesome!” My smile widened as I pulled a children’s book out of my bag. “Hopefully they’re all fans of dragons because this is what I planned to read today.”
“I’m sure they’ll love it.”
With that reassurance, I headed toward the back of the library, my eyes widening when I saw the crowd waiting for me. Normally, I had ten to fifteen kids attend my story time, but there were twenty today. But it wasn’t the number of children that surprised me—it was the adults with them. And the fact that the man with his back to me was wearing a leather vest with the Iron Rogues MC patch on the back.
Having a dad or two at my reading circle wasn't unusual, but the moms accompanied most of the children. And as far as I was aware, none of the dads who had shown up in the past had been bikers. Until now.
As my gaze skimmed over the group, I recognized the pretty blonde with blue eyes. Elise and I had chatted for a little bit when she was here last week. Judging by the arm slung around her shoulders, my guess was that the man standing next to her was her husband. He wore a vest similar to the other guy in their little group, but I couldn’t read the smaller patches on the front from this far away. I assumed he was a biker too, which was kind of surprising since she had mentioned that she was married to a doctor. I guessed it just went to show how little I knew about motorcycle clubs.
When I got closer, Elise grinned at me and waved. My cheeks filled with heat as I returned the gesture, hoping my expression didn’t give away my thoughts about how out of place her husband and his friend looked in my reading nook.
To cover my awkwardness, I shifted my focus to the children sitting in a circle on the bright blue carpet. “Ready for reading time?”
Timmy bounced on his bottom, clapping his hands as he smiled up at me. “Miss Ellery is finally here!”
“Yay!” Sally cheered.
My heart melted at the warm welcome I received from the group of kids who had come to hear me read. But that didn’t stop me from teasing Timmy, who’d been coming to my reading time since the very first time.
“Finally, huh?” I tapped my finger against the face of the watch strapped to my wrist. “It looks to me like I’m right on time.”
“Nuh-uh, I been waitin’ foreverrrr,” he protested with a firm shake of his head.
His mom shot me an apologetic smile, but I waved off her concern. I was used to Timmy’s boisterous personality. It was part of why he was one of my favorites.
I was an only child, but that hadn’t stopped me from loving kids. According to my mom, it was part of the reason I enjoyed being around babies so much—because I was trying to make up for the fact that they never gave me the little brother or sister I had wanted so much when I was younger.
Whatever the reason, I just really hoped that I’d be able to find another job working with kids because I found them to be so much easier to deal with than most adults. I appreciated how you never had to guess what children were thinking since they tended to be open books. Like the way Timmy was currently twisted around to glare up at his mom.
Crossing his arms against his thin chest, he muttered, “How come we been here for a whole hour then, Mommy?”
She shook her head with a laugh. “Nice try, kiddo. But we only got here fifteen minutes ago.”
“It felt like forever,” he grumbled, heaving a deep sigh.
“I guess I better get reading so time will start flying because we’ll be having lots of fun,” I suggested as I carefully moved through the circle of kids to drop my stuff on the floor next to the big chair I always used. Once I got settled, I glanced up and struggled to keep the smile on my face.
The other man standing near her stared at me with a wicked gleam in his whiskey-brown eyes that was at odds with the baby in the carrier in front of his broad chest. Dressed in a frilly pink outfit, she looked tiny compared to him. Probably because she was since he looked to be about six and a half feet of pure muscle while she was a dainty, weeks-old infant.
His thick, black hair looked as though he had just rolled out of bed, and a beard covered the lower half of his handsome face. The black ink on his neck and hands added to his rough look…and made him even sexier.
I felt drawn to him in a way I had never experienced before, which made no sense since he was well out of my league. A guy who looked like he did, was about a decade older than me, and a member of a motorcycle club had to have women throwing themselves at him on a daily basis. And judging by his beautiful baby girl, he’d already claimed one of them as his own.