Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“So, you’re just Max with a lot of money.”
“Yep.”
“That’s not why I’m here.” Her face is serious now. “I don’t care about the money, Max. I’m proud of you, and happy for you, but that’s not—”
“I know,” I say, squeezing her hand, then letting go so we can eat. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re here tonight.”
“How are your parents?” she asks. “I didn’t get to talk to them much at Brad’s wedding.”
“You probably know that they live most of the year down in Arizona now,” I begin. Willa nods, and we spend the next half hour enjoying our food and talking about our families. Our businesses.
Alex.
“He’s started drawing pictures of puppies and sticking them on the fridge. He thinks he’s being nonchalant,” Willa says with a laugh. “Like I don’t notice the new pictures every couple of days.”
“He’s campaigning for what he wants,” I say with a smile. “He’s smart. Is it working?”
“It’s all in vain,” she says with a laugh. “I chose a puppy weeks ago. We’re going to go pick it up tomorrow after his party.”
“He’ll be over the moon,” I say. “You’re an excellent mom, Willa.”
Her eyes suddenly fill with tears.
“Shit, what did I say?”
“Nothing bad,” she says, dabbing at her eyes. “Thank you. Being a mom is hard. Harder than I ever thought it would be, and there are days that I don’t think I’m very good at it.”
“Have you seen Alex?” I ask. “He’s great. A lot of that is because you’ve done your job.”
“I’m lucky,” she says, her eyes drying up. Thank God. I never could stand to see her cry. “Alex was an easy baby. So laid-back and sweet. He wasn’t colicky or high-maintenance. It was like the universe knew that I was already a wreck, and it cut me some slack.”
“I’m glad,” I murmur. “Should we get out of here?”
“Sure.” She stands, reaches for her purse, and I follow her out to my car.
“Can I take you somewhere else?” I ask.
“Of course. Where do you want to go?”
“Paris.”
I watch as she goes pale, and her mouth drops, making me laugh.
“Just kidding. We’ll save that for another time. I’d like to take you to the movies.”
She laughs and reaches over to smack my shoulder.
“Ouch. I don’t remember you being this violent.”
“I don’t even have a passport.”
“Oh, sweetheart, we need to change that.”
She doesn’t say anything as we pull away from the diner and head toward my house. I know this is a lot, and moving fast, but I don’t know any other way to be with Willa.
I stayed away for so long, it’s like I feel as if I have to make up for lost time.
I pull into my garage and cut the engine.
“Uh, I thought we were going to the movies?”
“We are.” I grin and hop out of the vehicle, then open the door for her and lead her inside. “You’ve been here before with Jenna.”
“True, I have,” she says with a nod. “You’ve never been here.”
“Well, now I can give you a proper tour.”
It takes us a half hour to make our way through the big house on the lake. The last room is the theater room with a popcorn machine, candy, and soda. It’s decorated with movie posters, including one of the show we’re going to see tonight.
I did that on purpose, too.
“Do you want popcorn?”
“Of course,” she says. “And Milk Duds.”
Just like that first date.
“Coming right up.” I toss her the Duds, put in some fresh popcorn to pop, and cue the Blu-ray disk.
“What are we watching?” she asks.
“You don’t remember what we saw on our first date?”
She frowns. “It’s been about fifteen years, Max. I don’t remember.”
“Pirates of the Caribbean,” I reply as I pass her some popcorn and a soda. I hit play on the remote, and the lights go down, the curtain goes up, and the screen comes to life.
“Leave it to you to have a real movie theater in your house,” she says playfully.
“It’s handy,” I say. “Besides, we could have watched this in my car on my iPad. We went to the drive-in on that first date.”
“It’s a bit cold for that,” she concedes and snuggles up against me on the soft red loveseat in the middle of the room. “And this way, we can snuggle.”
Or, I could lay her back, strip her bare, and fuck her right here in my theater.
Instead, I shove some popcorn into my mouth and watch as Captain Jack Sparrow slurs his way through the movie.
After Willa sets her empty popcorn bucket aside, I yawn, stretch my arm high over my head, then drop it over her shoulders.
She gives me the side-eye, but her lips are tipped up in a grin.
My fingers play against the soft skin of her bare shoulder before moving up into her silky hair. Her chest rises and falls in a deep sigh, and I know she’s as turned on as I am.