Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Malachi’s brow dipped. “What does that—”
“I thought I saw a plastic tote on the back, too,” she interjected.
One of those big ones that people had to use both hands to get a good grip.
Malachi leaned forward with his arms over his knees and his hands clasped. “It wasn’t just the bike that I sold.”
“No?”
“No. Chip cut me a cheque last week to cover my wages for the next six months, and because I couldn’t find even one reason why I wanted to stay in the Miramichi for another day, I ended up cleaning out my place in the time between coming here,” he explained.
Gracen stuffed her hands in the pockets of her shorts. “You quit your job?”
“On paper, Chip let me go with severance—called it respect.”
He didn’t say it with the same appreciation, and practically no fondness. What did she miss?
“What happened?” Gracen asked.
Malachi let out a gusty sigh. “It doesn’t matter.”
“I think it does,” she pushed.
He had been on good terms with his boss not very long ago. She couldn’t wrap her mind around what would have changed so fast. Not for a second did she believe Malachi would quit just for her.
“Everybody’s got a line,” Malachi said, shrugging almost indifferently. “Chip wanted to take things in a direction I couldn’t go—not without sacrificing a part of me that I wasn’t willing to lose. In the end, we weren’t looking for the same things.”
Fair enough. People grew up and away from stuff they had once held close.
“Are we?” she asked.
Malachi raised a brow high in a silent question.
“Looking for the same things,” Gracen clarified.
His smile stretched wide. “I wouldn’t be here if we weren’t, gorgeous. Shit, I told myself I wasn’t coming back here until my sister was gone—”
Gracen flinched, remembering Sonny’s descriptions of a young woman’s private abuse. “Do you think she’ll reach out—after they’re married and gone?”
Malachi cleared his throat, but still managed a smile through the nervous energy. “I guess I wait and see, sweetheart. I mean, it worked out with you.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“Say it without pet names, and maybe make sure you mean it.”
He stood from the cuddle couch, lumbering up straight with a cocky grin that had her belly tightening with anticipation as he stepped forward. “Maybe?”
“Well,” she started to squeak out.
He stopped right in front of her. Leaned in close enough that their lips almost touched.
“Well, what?” he asked.
Gracen’s heart spoke for her. “Mean it.”
“I love you, Gracen Briggs,” he declared.
Her whole world stopped for a second. He said it like it was easy. Natural. As if he’d already done it a hundred times and couldn’t wait to do it a hundred more. She instantly wanted him to do exactly that, too—say it again.
Until it was just as easy for her to say it back.
“I love you enough that I’m basically homeless because everything I own is in the back of a truck I bought on a whim to carry all of it back to you,” he said as he slid both arms around her waist and pulled her close. “It’s fine, though. I’ll figure the place-to-live thing, and work bullshit, out; I always do. I love you enough that the people I’d rather never see or speak to again are unimportant factors that no longer control how I’m moving with you because you’re what really matters to me. I didn’t ever want to come back here, and trust me, there’s a few people who’ve given me enough reasons to stay away, but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be if you’re not going to be there, too.”
“You have a home if you have me,” she said, needing him to know it was true. “If you keep coming back to me ... if you stay.”
Malachi nodded, still hugging her close. “It was a long road home, and I didn’t think it’d take this long in my life to find you, but here I am. It’s me and you, girl, if you want me, too.”
She let him hold her weight, swaying them on the spot. Their silence stretched on, but Gracen was too content to study the planes of his handsome face that haunted her every waking dream to break the moment.
If only for a second ...
“It’s easy not to believe in things,” she told him, voice soft like the emotions pouring from her heart. “God never cared; he wasn’t there. Today’s easier to live if I don’t have to think about tomorrow. Love’s a lie because it wouldn’t stay. It’s easier for me to tell myself these things, Malachi.”
“Not with me,” he murmured.
She shook her head, echoing, “Not with you.”
His kiss came fast, and bruising. Her laugh muffled into the kiss, but it melted into a happy sigh the longer he held her there.
“I love you,” she mumbled against his lips.
Exactly the words he wanted to hear. The two of them turned and fell into the cuddle couch together. That innocent kiss turned much hotter when she was straddling him, and his hands disappeared under her hoodie to get more skin on skin. And then, the softest meow came from the other side of the room.