Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Mom had bought me the lemon tree in the corner, and I’d promised Ellie we’d get more flowers and plants by next spring.
“Food’s getting cold, honey. Come eat,” I said. I stuck a crispy spring roll in my mouth and opened the fourth and last container. Fuck yeah, the beef stir-fry with noodles.
West returned to the table with his favorite dish, this fantastic pork belly stew with fried rice and vegetables.
I could probably sleep out here tonight. It wasn’t too hot at this hour, the food was spectacular, and the company even better. Introspective and cautious, but better. He wasn’t as closed off, like he’d been earlier. He sat down next to me instead of across from me, for starters. That meant something in West’s language.
He let out a sigh of contentment and tucked into his food, and I side-eyed him. He looked more at ease now that the food had arrived. Not to mention sexy as fuck wearing only boxer briefs.
He had to become mine again. I would never find all-consuming happiness without him by my side.
“Good, huh?” I smiled knowingly. It was the one thing he missed out on in the suburbs. Late-night takeout.
“Very.” He nodded and reached for his soda. “It might actually be better than the place in LA.”
“Right? Although, their sweet chili…”
“I was just gonna say,” he chuckled. “We could inhale that.”
I smiled. This was great. Good memories to warm him up properly.
Next step was good-natured ribbing, and I had just the topic for it.
I shoveled more food into my pie hole as I thought of a nice segue, though that’d never been my forte. West was way smoother that way.
I chased down the food with my Coke. “So, are you ever gonna tell me why you went behind my back and offered Colby a place to live?”
He stopped with his fork in midair and shot me a quick scowl.
I smirked.
It’d come as a surprise, of course, except…in retrospect, it’d made more sense. West was a kindhearted man who wanted to be helpful. But yeah, when Colby had told me in the car, about ten minutes after we’d left West’s house, I’d almost turned around to demand answers.
“You’re not allowed to get mad about that,” he told me.
“I’m not mad,” I laughed. “I’m curious about why you’re inviting a li’l wiseguy to live with you. Am I next? Is there a line I could get in?”
“God, where do I begin,” he muttered, stuffing his face with food.
I waited him out while he took his time chewing and stalling.
He could be too fucking cute sometimes.
“First of all, he’s sixteen,” he said. “He’s not a mobster. He’s misguided and in desperate need of better role models than the Sons of Munster could ever offer. And second, I don’t know why you’d get in a line to a place you hate.”
I didn’t hate his house nearly as much as I loved him.
Was now a good time to tell him I loved him, by the way?
Maybe I’d wait another hour or so.
“I wouldn’t get in line to see the castle so much as the Prince Charming who lives there,” I replied and grabbed another spring roll. “But anyway. He’s considering it. Colby, I mean. He asked to stay with his cousin and his family this weekend to think it over.”
He watched me as he chewed another mouthful of food. “You’d be okay with it?”
“Well, yeah.” I shrugged. “Now that my house is set up like Fort Knox in terms of security, I won’t feel the need to sleep on the first floor when the kids are home, so I was gonna give him the guest room down there—”
“Slash office,” he interjected. “You mentioned it was a study too.”
Right. How that detail mattered, I had no idea.
“It is. But either way, this might work out better,” I went on. “For starters, he’ll get enough privacy in the garage apartment, which any teenager would want, and more importantly, I’ll have to pick him up every day before he gets his license. So I’ll be able to see you all the time. I’ll obviously be in the mood to arrive early from now on, and a cup of coffee while I wait for him to get ready will be much appreciated.”
It would give me time to dig a little. I hadn’t been lying earlier tonight when I’d admitted to thinking about offering to cut professional ties with the Sons if it meant I had the slightest chance with West. That said, I believed him when he’d said he wouldn’t want me to change for anyone. But there was a compromise to most things in life. Maybe there was a way to find a happy medium. I didn’t want to lose what I had now; it was just…at the end of the day, West mattered more.