Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
I pulled my head back to look at her, and our gazes caught. Val’s voice shook. “I love you, Ford.”
“I love you more.”
As I came, her body shook, and I mumbled her name over and over.
“Thank you, Ford. And if what we just did is the payment BJ Cummings wants, he’ll be getting plenty of those in the future.”
“BJ plans to collect every one of those payments—but this is a fifty-year mortgage.”
“Fifty years?” Her eyebrows raised. “I don’t even want to do the math on how old I’ll be by then.”
“Good. Because age is just a number to use to count all the years I’m going to love you.”
Epilogue
* * *
Valentina - Almost two years later
Go commando under my dress.
I peeled the sticky note off the coffee pot and smiled from ear to ear. Ford must’ve snuck in during the middle of the night to put this here. Considering the girls and I didn’t go to bed until after one in the morning, he had to have been up pretty late. I laughed to myself—Tom definitely didn’t keep him company next door. He conks out by nine. At least he had Ryan over there.
After a rocky start, my two guys had grown close. Lately, Ryan had even been talking about changing his major to architecture. He’d spent all last summer working with Ford on a building renovation, and it seemed to have given him some direction for his career path.
“Good morning, almost-Mrs. Donovan.” I turned to find my almost-sister-in-law rubbing the sandman from her eyes as she padded into the kitchen.
“You’re up early.” I reached up and took two mugs out of the cabinet over the coffee pot.
“My brother is still a pain in the ass.”
“What did he do now?”
Bella squinted and leaned in to read a sticky note on to the refrigerator. Her face twisted like she’d smelled something bad. “Ugh. Really? It’s too early to read that from my brother. ”
I hadn’t noticed the other one. I quickly snatched it down.
Bend over naked in mirror and send Ford an ass selfie.
I chuckled but then glanced around the room and swiped three other sticky notes. I couldn’t have my future husband’s sister going blind on our wedding day. Which she might have, considering the other to-do tasks included Sneak next door and blow my boyfriend one last time, and Insert butt plug to prepare for wedding night festivities. Though, the last one confused me a little: Get licked by wedding gift.
Bella poured half and half into our coffees and lifted a mug to her lips. “You guys are really gross. You’re going to make me toss my cookies.”
“Did someone say cookies?” Eve wandered into the kitchen.
She had on a T-shirt that barely covered half her round belly and a pair of sweatpants rolled underneath it. She scratched her very pregnant tummy.
I walked over and dipped my head to talk to my future goddaughter. “Good morning, my little princess.”
“Or prince.”
“There’s no way my goddaughter is a boy.”
Eve and Tom had been pretty shocked to discover they were pregnant eight months ago. When they first got together, they’d decided to leave having children up to fate. With Eve almost forty and nothing having happened, she’d pretty much concluded they wouldn’t have a family. So it was a shocker when Eve’s stomach virus had turned out to be that she was two months pregnant.
I myself had thought I might be pregnant last week, but I’d taken a test, and it was negative. The stress of the wedding and moving into Ford’s place must’ve just thrown off my cycle. Like Eve and Tom, Ford and I had agreed to leave adding more members to the family up to fate. Though, I’ll admit, I was a little sad when a minus sign appeared on the stick last week.
“Oh shit. I almost forgot. My brother woke me up for a reason.”
“What?”
“He called and said to go to the front door. Apparently he left a wedding gift for you there, and I’m supposed to bring it to you.”
My brows furrowed, and Eve and I followed Bella to the door.
I shrieked, finding a cage. “Oh my God! A puppy!”
The adorable little pug started to bark and jump up and down. He was so excited, he kept banging his head on the top of the plastic carrier. “Bring him in. Bring him in.” I laughed. “He’s going to get hurt doing that.”
Bella carried the cage inside, and I sat on the living room floor and unlatched the metal door. The little guy sprinted out and right onto my lap. He actually knocked me over and started to lick my face.
“Well, look at that,” Eve said. “He reminds me of your fiancé when he first saw you.”
Ah. That last sticky note makes more sense now.
I’d been bugging Ford about getting a puppy for a few months now—one of the last few items left on my My Turn list. At first, we’d put it off because of the year I taught in Rome. Then I’d gotten a new tenure-track position at my school, and Ford was busy getting the new temp office space building ready for the grand opening. Life had just been busy the last two years. But this summer, our plan was to slow down, and the timing was perfect to train this little guy. Our Memorial Day weekend clambake wedding was only the start of a long and lazy summer back in Montauk.