Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“Um,” I stammered, not sure what to say. Of course he walked up at the exact worst moment, I groused to myself. My mouth snapped shut. I wisely chose the cowards way out and said nothing.
“Why don’t you two go for a walk?” Kaylie offered smoothly. I stood woodenly and nodded. Becky thrust her full drink into my hand and whispered into my ear.
“Drink this. You need it.”
And lord help me, I did.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Drake
“A walk?” I asked stupidly. I was staring at Dana and trying not to drool. Alone with Dana… a walk… Fuck yeah, my mind was saying. But my ‘Spidey Senses’ were telling me something else was up.
“Do you want something to eat first?” I asked when Dana stood. “That’s why I was coming over here…”
The girls were all looking at me. I frowned. Dana gave me a wan smile. She always looked gorgeous but that smile was a pale imitation of her usual dazzling smile.
“I would like some food in a little bit,” she said politely. “If that’s alright with you.”
“Of course, it’s alright. Anything you want. I’m not going to force feed you,” I added in a lame attempt at a joke.
But it didn’t land.
Sunshine just nodded and took a tiny step closer. I took her hand and she gave me a look of sweet surprise. I squeezed her sweet little fingers reassuringly.
I had a feeling of foreboding, but I had no idea why. My mind started spinning. I forced myself to focus. I had no idea what she had to talk to me about. I only knew that she was my girl, and if something was bothering her, besides the obvious, I wanted to kill it.
Don’t think about that fucker, Drake. Be in the moment. He’s not here. She is.
I led her to the side of the deck and down the stairs that led down to the path that followed the shoreline. It made a perfect circle around the lake, with paths to the individual houses, including Mac and Suzanna’s place that was high on a cliff overlooking the lake.
Come to think of it, Lucky and Christine’s place was up pretty high, too.
If a zombie apocalypse ever broke out, either of their places was the best spot to hunker down in. Thankfully they’d put in enough rooms for all of us to crash if that ever came to pass.
And since Suzanna had the best green thumb I’d ever seen, we’d have plenty of food at their place, too. Especially with the excellent hunting and fishing out here. We could live off the land indefinitely. That was why Dev’s granddaddy had bought the land a gazillion years ago to begin with.
So yeah, Devil’s Lake was our survival plan. We joked about it all the time. But I wasn’t entirely sure if all of us were joking. Callaway for example spent an awful lot of time watching zombie movies.
I sure as shit wanted a place out here with Dana someday, assuming she’d have me. That was a big leap. But so far, things were going very, very well.
Despite the current circumstances, with me pent up and worried about my lady, I had never been happier.
And wasn’t that a kick in the pants?
“Pretty, right?” I asked, threading my fingers through hers. She nodded and looked out at the water as we walked. But I could tell she was distracted.
“Hey,” I said, pausing near a small sandy area that we called ‘little beach’. There was a couple of bigger stretches of sandy beach along the shore towards the other end where we hung out with the kids some days. But this spot was my favorite.
It was secluded and picturesque. But the water was deeper over here. It was deceptively calm and clear, but it was treacherous. The lake was big enough to have a strong current on windy days. The kids weren’t allowed to swim in this spot because of it. It wasn’t safe for the little ones.
But it was beautiful. The water was particularly clear, which was unusual for a lake. There was a cool blue green color to the gently rippling surface that deepened to pure black just a few feet past the water line.
I didn’t even look at the natural beauty surrounding me, just the small woman whose beauty surpassed it all. I only had eyes for her. I reached out and took her shoulder, turning her towards me.
“Hey,” she said, looking up at me as I cupped her cheek. Our eyes met and that crazy chemical reaction took over. Just like it always did. There was something about her. Something beyond the normal physical plain of basic human existence.
To me, she was perfect.
My eyes drifted lower, staring at her gorgeous pink lips. It took me a second to realize her eyes were doing the same. And then we were kissing. Wildly. Passionately. And for the first time ever, without any possibility of an audience. All our other kisses had been in the parking lot at the hospital where she worked, or the few chaste kisses we’d shared on the porch of her aunties house. This kiss was something else altogether.