Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“You two are cheaters,” he grouches, gathering up the cards and putting them back in their box.
“Don’t be a sore loser.”
“Yeah, Dad, don’t be a sore loser,” Winter agrees, making me laugh.
Standing, I pick up the stack of plates we moved to the side after demolishing the large half-cheese, half-pepperoni pizza we ordered after we got everything into the apartment from my car and Miles’s SUV.
“Go pack up your stuff and get on your shoes, kid,” he tells Winter as I dump the crusts from our plates into the trash. I look up when he walks into the kitchen carrying the empty pizza box.
“Thanks for helping me out today,” I tell him while I begin standing the plates in the dishwasher.
“You’re welcome.” He rests his hip against the counter and crosses his arms over his chest. “I actually have a favor to ask.”
“Anything.” I glance up at him.
“Do you mind helping me out tomorrow with Winter? She’s at school all day but needs to be picked up by five from the afterschool program, and I’m not sure—”
“I can pick her up,” I cut him off before he can finish.
“Are you sure?”
“I wouldn’t agree to help if I couldn’t,” I say quietly, and he gives me a look that I don’t understand. “Do I need to do anything to be able to pick her up for you?”
“I’ll stop in the office in the morning and add you to her pick-up approval list. You’ll just show ID when you get to the school, and they’ll call her down to the office.”
“Okay.” I shut the door of the dishwasher. “Are you back to working that case again?”
“I’m not sure at this point, but we’re meeting with an officer from the state police in the morning, and I guess we will find out then.”
“It’s the two girls, right?” I ask quietly, and he jerks up his chin, confirming my assumption was correct. Yesterday, I saw the story on the news about the two girls found murdered and wondered if that’s the case he’s working but secretly hoped it wasn’t. “I hope you find who did that to them.”
“Me too,” he murmurs, then the two of us turn our attention to Winter when she comes into the kitchen.
“You ready to head home?” he asks her, and she shakes her head, walking to where I am and wrapping her arms around my hips.
“Can you come for dinner this week?” she asks, her head tipped back to look at me.
“I’ll do one better and pick you up from school tomorrow.” I smooth her hair back from her face.
“Really?” Her eyes light up.
“Really. We just need to figure out what we are going to make for dinner.”
“You don’t need to cook, Em. I can leave cash so you can pick something up.”
“I like cooking,” I tell him softly.
His eyes roam my face before he drops his gaze to his daughter when she asks, “Can we make tacos?”
“Absolutely.”
“Yay!” She grins, giving my waist a squeeze, and I squeeze her back, then follow the two of them to the living room, where Miles stops to put on his jacket.
When we reach the door, he lifts Winter off her feet, then turns to me and leans down. Pressing a soft kiss to my cheek, he catches the edge of my mouth before pulling back to look me in the eye.
“See you tomorrow, Em.”
“Yeah.” I clear my throat and fight the urge to touch where his lips just were. “See you guys tomorrow.”
“Bye, Emma.”
“Bye, honey.” I step out into the breezeway and smile when Winter waves at me from over her dad’s shoulder, then go back inside and lock the door behind me. What I don’t do, as I go back into the living room where all my boxes are stacked up, is think about Miles or my strange reaction to having his lips on me in a totally platonic way.
I also don’t start unpacking. Instead, I drag my suitcase down the hall to the master bedroom, dig through my clothes until I find a T-shirt to wear to bed, then head for the shower. When I get out, there’s a text waiting for me from Miles, and I ignore the knot in my stomach and open it up. It doesn’t say anything more than he and Winter made it home, so I give the message a friendly thumbs up so he’ll know I saw it and place the phone on the nightstand.
The last thing I need is to become weirdly fascinated with Miles, because he’s the only guy I’ve been around these last few months. Which means even if I’m not one hundred percent ready to start dating, I need to start dating.
CHAPTER 11
emma
With Winter tucked between me and the handlebar of the shopping cart, her weight resting against me as she rides standing on the metal bar beneath, I listen to her tell me about a boy she had an encounter with on the playground who wouldn’t leave her alone.