Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Was he asking me . . . ? I kept my face neutral. “I’ve been hanging out with Clara at their house. I went horseback riding with one of my customers and his wife last week. Other than that . . .”
He took another sip, attention still totally on me.
“Hanging out at home after work with your boy. Same old. I like my quiet life.”
He pressed his lips together and nodded slowly.
“What about you?” I asked, ignoring the strange feeling in my stomach that was way too similar to the one I’d experienced coming out to see the woman talking to Rhodes. “What are you doing when you’re not working?”
The leg beside me shifted, rubbing against my own through my pants. “Sleeping. They got me a rental house that’s too quiet, but there’s a gym close by I can go to easily. I’ve gotten to see my brother and his family a couple of times. That’s about it.”
“How long are you staying today?”
“I have to leave tonight,” he said just as the music I’d been ignoring changed.
A song I recognized too well came on. I let it go in one ear and out the other, keeping my face about as even as possible. “Some time is better than no time,” I told him, feeling the strain in my cheeks before I managed to push the faint resentment away.
“But I’ve got another seven, eight hours before I have to head back.” His thigh brushed mine again, and his expression went thoughtful. “You don’t like this song? I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it.”
I should tell him. I really should. But I didn’t want to. Not yet. “I like the song, but I’m not a fan of the guy singing it."
His mouth made a funny shape, and his voice was dry as he said, “It’s only 90s pop groups you like then?”
I blinked. “What makes you say that?”
“You forget the windows are open and we hear you shouting Spice Girls lyrics.”
I dropped my voice. “How do you know it’s Spice Girls?”
Rhodes’s smile was so quick I almost missed it. “We looked up the lyrics.”
I couldn’t help but laugh and blurt out the first thing I thought of. “You know . . . I’ve kind of missed you.”
I hadn’t seen that coming. Was it the truth? Yes, but I was still surprised by how sensitive saying the words out loud made me feel.
But that sensation only lasted for about a second.
Because he hadn’t seen that coming either from the slow way his eyebrows rose in sheer surprise even as his facial features simultaneously softened. And he said quietly, looking right at me in what felt like pleased shock, “Kind of missed you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Ora, are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”
I finished marking off the jackets I’d been inventorying and glanced over at Clara, who was on the other side of the rental counter with Jackie beside her. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and honestly, it had snuck right up on me. I’d never been big on the holiday. Until I’d moved in with my aunt and uncle, I had never actually celebrated it.
“No, it’s okay,” I insisted for the second time since she’d brought up me accompanying them to Montrose to spend the night with her dad’s sister.
Honestly, if they had decided to stay in Pagosa, I would have gone over to their house, but I didn’t want to intrude on the whole family.
I wasn’t heartbroken at all over the idea of staying in the garage apartment all nice and toasty. I had hot cocoa, marshmallows, movies, snacks, a new puzzle, and a couple books. Maybe if one day I ended up with a family of my own, I’d go all out and ask my mom for forgiveness for celebrating a holiday she had raised me to boycott, but . . . I’d worry about that some other day.
Jackie leaned over the counter. “Are you going with Mr. Rhodes and Am to his aunt’s house?” she asked.
They were going to his aunt’s house? I had no idea. I had just seen them both last night when we’d had dinner together, and neither one of them had mentioned anything. Rhodes had just gotten back from Colorado Springs for good a week ago, and I’d spent every night except for two of them eating dinner at their house. Those two nights I hadn’t were because Rhodes had worked late. “No, I wasn’t invited,” I told her honestly. “But I’m good. I don’t even like turkey all that much anyway.”
Jackie frowned. “They didn’t invite you? Am said he did.”
I shook my head and then glanced down to make sure the rest of the inventory form was done. It was. This was my fourth time doing it, and I was glad it was done right.