Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 104151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104151 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Family and a puppy. It was a lot.
“Surprise indeed,” I said, slipping off my shoes then squatting to pet the yellow Labrador puppy.
“His name is Clifford,” Josh said, hugging him.
“He’s not red,” I replied.
And he wasn’t staying.
When I stood, Fred and Anne took turns hugging me.
“We decided to get away for our anniversary, a little road trip. Thought we’d stay a few days with you and Josh,” Fred said. “Hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” I said. Josh loved his aunt and uncle, so I wasn’t about to spoil his fun. They’d be a good distraction when Clifford got sent back.
“Eve offered to make everyone dinner. I told your dad that Austin could use a nice girl like Eve.” Anne shared a look with Eve’s mom as though they were in cahoots to fix Eve up with my twenty-one-year-old nephew.
Austin was painfully shy. Smart, but more nerdy than a math teacher. Eve would eat him for lunch.
“Dad, look!” Josh pulled my hand to show me the rows of caramel apples on the cookie sheet.
“Did you help make them?” I asked.
He nodded with a big smile. Eve curled her hair behind her ear and snuck a peek at us, locking gazes with me for a second.
“When we arrived,” her mom said, “they were eating one of the caramel apples before dinner. I fear Eve needs to be a better influence on Josh.”
“Eve took a big bite!” Josh opened his mouth like a shark.
“Yeah, she can fit a lot into her mouth,” I said.
Eve stiffened, eyes bulging as she looked at me and then glanced at her mom.
I smirked. “I’ve seen her stuff huge handfuls of Ruffles into it.”
Her mom laughed, but Eve scowled.
She had no right to scowl. There was a fucking dog in my kitchen.
“Let me run upstairs and take a quick shower.” I ruffled Josh’s hair and headed down the hall and up the stairs.
After a quick shower, I stepped into my bedroom, rubbing the towel through my hair, but my motions stopped when I saw Eve sitting cross-legged on my bed, holding a ladle. I glanced toward the stairs before closing the door.
“What are you doing?”
“Running to my house to get a ladle because you didn’t have one.”
“I have one.”
Her gaze drifted to my bare chest and jeans that I hadn’t yet zipped and buttoned. “I know.” She held up my ladle. “But they don’t. So you’re up here, but I’m at my house.” She winked before setting the ladle aside and leaning forward on her hands and knees.
“Take the ladle downstairs. I’ll be down in a minute. And that dog is not staying. You do not buy pets for kids that aren’t yours.” I pulled a shirt out of my dresser drawer.
She wrinkled her nose and sat back on her heels. “He needed a home. He’ll be an excellent hunting dog. And all young kids should have a dog. Also, what’s up with your attitude?”
“My quarterback let it slip that you were sneaking around with him last year.” I turned toward her, tucking in my shirt and buttoning my jeans.
She rolled her lips between her teeth, brown eyes extra wide.
“I don’t care, Eve. But if you screwed my QB, I’d like to know since I have to listen to him and his friends talk about you. If I punish them for being disrespectful, I need to know if it’s justified.”
After a few seconds, she nodded slowly. “We messed around, but we didn’t have sex. My older sister told me to lose my virginity to someone who knew what they were doing. Drew was sixteen when we were first a thing. If you want to know what we did—”
“I don’t.” I ran my hands through my hair.
“Are you mad?”
“No. Get downstairs before they start asking questions, and make sure that dog doesn’t pee everywhere.”
“You sound upset.” She slid off the bed. “If you must know, I was with Drew because his dad owns a distillery outside of town.” She shrugged. “He never noticed when a few bottles of alcohol went missing from his bar.”
I rested a hand on my hip and stared at the ceiling. “You let a guy touch you because you wanted booze?”
“When you say it like that, it sounds bad. Drew is nice. And he’s fun.” She pulled my hand from my hip and guided it around her, placing it on her ass while she pressed her chest to mine and stared up at me.
I didn’t want to look at her because she was a massive weakness of mine, but I did anyway.
“Kiss me,” she whispered.
It was a bad idea since my emotions teetered somewhere between brooding and insanity, but I kissed her, squeezing her ass. She moaned into my mouth, so I released her because I was getting an erection.
“Go,” I said.
She frowned and turned, but something in my brain short-circuited. I slid my hand around her waist to bring her back to my chest. My other hand pulled her hair away from her neck, and I kissed below her ear. She smelled sweet like apples and sugar.