Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I laugh again, enjoying the easiness of this conversation. Thank God things aren’t weird between us.
Banks: Do you have any plans today?
Me: Aren’t you supposed to be working?
Banks:
Me:
Banks: Really—it didn’t.
My stomach burns so hot that I shift on the bed.
Me: Seemed like it did … in a couple of different ways.
I’m poking the bear. I’m doing it, and I’m not even sure I want to take it there—to why he essentially walked away from me.
Banks: So I take it you’re pissy about last night?
Me: Pissy? No.
Banks:
Me: I’m just making damn sure I don’t put us in that situation again. Your shirt will be washed, dried, and in the laundry room when you get home.
Banks: That’s a shame.
What?
I type furiously.
Me: I thought you said you don’t play games, Mr. Carmichael?
Banks: I don’t.
Me:
Banks: If I were playing games with you, you would’ve lost that shirt and been on your back in the hallway.
Me: Sounds like a fun game.
Banks: It would be. It could be.
Me: It should be.
Banks: Except you would’ve woken up this morning thinking I’m just like the other guys you hang out with.
Me: So?
Banks: So that’s offensive.
“Offensive?” I mutter, typing my response three times before I get it right.
Me: I wasn’t pissy about last night, but now I am.
Banks: Good for you. My mom might stop by today. She threatened to go through all my cabinets if I didn’t return her yellow bowl. But I don’t have it. So if she comes and starts poking around, laugh at her.
“Ugh,” I groan.
Me: WHY DO YOU HATE ME?
Banks: WHY ARE YOU SO DRAMATIC?
Me: My dramatics are not new information.
Banks: I gotta go. I have work to do.
Me: I thought you weren’t feeling work-y.
Banks: I wasn’t. See you tonight.
Me: I might not be here.
Banks: Yeah, you will be.
“You are such a …”
The front door opening catches my attention. I get up slowly and poke my head around the corner. Damaris waves as she comes toward me. Thank God I’m dressed.
“Hi, Sara. Good morning,” she says.
“Hi. Good morning to you, too.”
“I hope you don’t judge my parenting by the state of this house.” She looks around and shakes her head. “This child has many strengths, but tidiness is not one of them.”
The pride in her eyes over her son despite the state of his house warms my heart. What a good mom.
“I’ve been picking up all morning,” I say. “I know you probably can’t tell. But Banks put me on a strict list of rules, and I’m not allowed to throw anything away. I can’t go in his room. I can’t move anything to a place that he can’t see it immediately if he looks where it was. Even if there’s a transmission in the kitchen.”
She laughs. “Oh, that boy. He gets it from his father. Don’t tell Kixx I ever told you this, but the man is a disaster on legs. He’s gotten better as the years have gone on, but he wasn’t that far off from Banks when we first got married.”
I go into my room, and she follows me.
“You all have the neatest names,” I say. “How did you come up with them?”
She sits on the arm of a chair in the corner. “Well, Foxx was my grandfather’s name—but it only had one x at the end. I wanted to name my first little boy that since I was a little girl, and luckily, Kixx agreed. And because his mother put two x’s at the end for reasons I’ll never know, we put two at the end of Foxx’s.”
“That’s kind of cool.”
She beams. “Moss was named after Kixx’s grandfather. And then we got pregnant with Jess and realized that our names had the same ending sound—x’s and s’s. So we wanted to keep that trend.”
“I love that,” I say, grinning. “I never noticed that about your names, but it’s a fun little fact.”
“So then we had Jess. He was named after my brother. And then we had Maddox—who only got one x because someone at the health department screwed it up on his birth certificate and forgot the other x at the end. But I didn’t want to go to all the trouble of having it changed, so we just left it.” She sighs. “And then we had Banks. Our sweet, little cherub baby Banks.”
I giggle at the smile on her face.
“He was a handful from the start. And poor Maddox—Banks attached himself to his brother the first time he ever saw him. It was really adorable, to be honest. And then we brought Paige home and those two …” She laughs. “Banks got into more fights over his sister than he did on his own accord. Always defending her, even when she probably didn’t need defending.”