Total pages in book: 13
Estimated words: 12781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 64(@200wpm)___ 51(@250wpm)___ 43(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 12781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 64(@200wpm)___ 51(@250wpm)___ 43(@300wpm)
She looks between the food and back to me. “Don’t you want to show me the work you want me to do first?”
“Nope, let’s eat first. Then we’ll work.”
7
Lilly
I seem to be shoveling the food in as quickly as I can. I force myself to slow down. Keeper is hiding a smile behind his fist holding a fork up to his mouth.
“What?” I ask him defensively. “This is so good.”
I take another bite and barely hold back my groan.
My mouth is full when he drops a bombshell on me. “I thought you had a boyfriend. Is he coming into town too?”
I swallow my food and take a drink of water. “Boyfriend?”
“Yeah, uh, Sniper mentioned you were hanging out with some guy.”
“Who, Mack? How does Sniper know about him? You know what, forget it. I don’t want to know.” I laugh and take another bite.
“So, uh, is he coming to see you?” he asks, looking down at his plate.
I wish he was looking at me so I could see his eyes. It sounds like he’s jealous but I’m not going to get my hopes up. He had his chance. I waited months for him to come get me, thinking he would change his mind about me, about us. When he never showed up, I gave up on the notion that we could have forever.
“Sure, Mack and his boyfriend will probably come visit me. I told them to give me a few weeks to get settled,” I tell him honestly, stirring the pasta on my plate.
I raise my eyes, and barely catch the smile on his face before it disappears.
The rest of the meal is in silence and then we clean up the table and put away the rest of the food.
He claps his hands together. “You want to see the shop?”
“Wait, you have a shop?” I ask him, still confused about everything.
He opens the back door and a huge metal building is sitting a hundred yards from the house. “Yep.”
We walk toward the building. There’s a moment where our hands brush and I freeze, waiting and watching to see what he does. But he doesn’t do anything. It must not affect him like it does me.
He pushes a code in the building and the doors slide open. I gasp when I see what’s inside.
There are beautiful, intricate wood creations everywhere. Beds, desks, tables, everything imaginable set up in various degrees of being finished. One thing they all have in common is that each piece is breathtaking. I walk up to a big rectangle wood table and run my hand along the top of it. “Oh my God, Keeper, did you do this? Did you make these?”
He’s watching me walk around the room and when he doesn’t answer, I take my eyes off the beautiful piece in front of me and look at him.
He’s standing there, his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, a secret smile on his face, and simply nods at me.
His phone rings and he frowns at it before answering, “Hey Sniper. What’s up?”
* * *
Keeper
I’m enjoying watching Lilly’s reaction as she walks around the room, stroking every piece of furniture with her hand. When Sniper calls, it brings me back to reality and it’s like a swift kick in the gut that Lilly’s still off limits.
“Where’re you at?” Sniper asks me.
I stroke my fingers across my temple. “At my shop.”
Sniper is quiet and then he asks me, “How did it go today?”
“Good. It went good. She’ll do fine, I think,” I answer while watching Lilly still enthralled with the furniture.
She’s getting awful close to the separate section of the building and I start walking toward her. “Wait, Lilly, don’t go in there,” I holler at her while simultaneously telling Sniper, “Look, I have to go.”
I pull the phone away from my ear to hang up when I hear Sniper say, “Don’t hurt her, Keeper.”
The deadly turn of his voice catches my attention and I bring the phone back up to my ear. “What did you just say?”
“I said don’t hurt her.”
“I won’t,” I answer him. Lilly has now walked into the other room and she’s standing there with her back to me. I don’t know what she thinks, what she’s feeling; hell, I don’t know anything right now.
“I have to go,” I say and hang up the phone before walking into the next room.
“Lilly,” I say to her.
She turns to face me and her eyes are bright and red rimmed. “What is this, Keeper?”
“It’s furniture… I made,” I tell her.
“Why is it back here?” She walks closer and touches the bed post before leaning in to get a closer look at the design.
“This stuff… well, it’s not for sale.”
“Keeper, these say Lilly. It’s engraved into every piece of furniture in here. Even the crib.” I look around the room and try to see it through her eyes. Every piece in here is hand made. The ten pieces are for a bedroom and a nursery. But every piece was created with her in mind.