Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
I didn’t ask.
I expected dads and sons had secrets, and if he wanted to share his, he would.
I needed to hit some shops to find a cozy-country-cottage-chic dresser for him, but I’d find time to do that during the week.
For now, it was all good.
I knew it wouldn’t last. Mondays were Mondays for everybody, and Harry’s was probably destined to be less fun than most people experienced.
But he’d had a great weekend. The edginess had leaked out, he was relaxed, quick to smile, same for laughter.
So I felt like I’d done the best work I could to help him face the next day.
“Sleepy?” he asked after he’d collected me under the covers in the dark room.
“Mm,” I hummed in affirmative. “You?”
“Yeah, sweetheart.”
I cuddled closer, mumbling, “Trust you to make sex hot by taking care of yourself, and me, with no penetration the day after I got back on the pill.”
And yeah, we also swung by the pharmacy so I could take care of that, and Harry could ditch the condoms.
His chuckle was soft. “There was penetration this morning.”
“Mm,” I hummed again.
“And last night. Twice.”
“Oh right,” I muttered like I forgot (which I did not).
“I could delete what we just did from our catalogue.”
I pulled my head back. “Don’t you dare.”
The chuckle from him wasn’t soft as he cupped the back of my head and tucked my face in his throat.
“Okay, baby,” he murmured, humor still in his tone.
I so freaking loved that.
I closed my eyes and gave him a squeeze. “Goodnight, Harry.”
He returned the squeeze. “’Night, Lill.”
One of the dogs sighed.
And I fell asleep.
“Lilly.”
I blinked.
It was dark.
I felt my hair tucked behind my ear, then a finger slid down my jaw.
“Lillian.”
I opened my eyes.
I did not see what I expected to see.
Harry waking me for some midnight hanky-panky.
He was standing beside the bed, and the room was in shadow, but from what I could see, it seemed like he was fully clothed.
I got up on a forearm. “What’s happening?”
“Callout, Lill,” Harry told me. “I’ve got to go. Be back as soon as I can.”
Callout?
My groggy mind wasn’t computing.
It finally hit me, my man was the sheriff, and that wasn’t a nine to five, Monday through Friday job.
“Okay, honey,” I mumbled, then offered, “Do you want me to get up and make you a quick coffee?”
“Got one already in a travel mug. Just go back to sleep.”
I settled in to do as told.
He bent over me and kissed my temple.
“Is this dangerous?” I whispered.
“The threat is subdued,” he whispered back. “Just routine.”
I wasn’t all fired up about the threat is subdued part, so I focused on the last part.
“Okay, Harry, be safe.”
“Will do.”
Another kiss on my temple, and he was gone.
I didn’t know what routine meant, and I’d be finding that out as soon as Harry got home.
What I knew was, I woke up without Harry. I fed the dogs. I made some coffee. I took a shower.
And I was sitting at the kitchen table at a quarter to eight, when we were usually in line at Aromacobana.
This was when I heard the garage door go up.
The dogs got excited.
I got excited.
And we weren’t disappointed.
Harry, in faded jeans, boots, a walnut-colored sweater, over it, a shit-hot forest-green jacket with a yellow-stitched badge at the left breast and yellow shields on the arms just under his shoulders, his lustrous dark-brown hair windswept, walked in the side door.
“Hey,” I called.
“Hey, Lill,” he replied, bending to give his pups some love.
Totally liked Lill better than Lilly.
“That took a while,” I observed. “You want me to make you some breakfast?”
He went right to the coffee machine and put in a pod. “I’ve got to chat with you, shower and get to the station. Polly can run to the bakery and get a donut for me.”
My brows shot up at the donut mention, even if he couldn’t see them. He was pouring creamer in a mug he’d placed under the Nespresso spout.
He put the creamer back in the fridge before he came to me.
That was my first full look at his expression, and the first I realized he hadn’t given me his normal Harry greeting, which was kissing some part of my face (usually, he went for the lips).
He did that now, choosing my forehead.
Then he yanked a chair close and sat in it, our knees brushing.
Oh boy.
I didn’t take this as a good sign.
“I’m wondering if my guy told a fib with all that ‘routine’ business,” I remarked after he sat, and his searching eyes found mine.
“Caught,” he whispered.
Oh boy!
“I’m sorry, Lilly.” (Okay, maybe I did like Lilly better, even if he was using it while admitting a fib.) “I wanted you to sleep. I also wanted to know all that was going on before I told you.”
Great.
“So, what all was going on?” I prompted.
“Willie burned down the stables at my place last night.”