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)
“I hope not,” he said, watching me carefully. “You sure you’re all right?”
“Yeah, but I’m even better now,” I admitted, because it was 100 percent the truth. And that was exactly when I realized what I’d done. What I’d started and where we were. “I’m sorry I jumped you like that. I know we just talked about taking our time and being sure, but all I could think about was how lucky I am to have you guys, and you’re so handsome, and you make me feel safe, and you always believe in me and—”
That full mouth cracked into the slowest smile I’d ever seen, his eyebrows going up at the same time. But it wasn’t words that cut me off. It was the sweet press of his lips against mine once more. Slow and tender, his lips only lingered over mine for a moment, but it might have been the greatest moment of my life.
If I liked kissing him this much with my mouth closed, how much would I like his tongue?
I needed to calm the hell down, that was what I needed to do.
Rhodes pulled back, that lingering soft smile still taking over his mouth as he said, “Whenever you’re ready, you’ll tell me?”
I nodded, and that was when I whispered, “I don’t kiss just anybody.”
The way he said “good” was probably going to be etched into my soul for the rest of my life.
“Ora!” a yell came from the house, surprising us both.
I peeked over Rhodes’s shoulder to find Amos standing at the doorway, still in his pajamas and looking even more sleepy.
“You okay?” he asked, confirming exactly why I’d come here.
Because it was a place where a sixteen-year-old and a forty-two-year-old who I’d only known for about six months worried about me more than people I had known for over a decade.
It was my place of comfort. The place where my mom had wanted me to be. Somewhere that lifted me up and kept me up, even on the crappy days.
“I’m good!” I yelled back. “Are you?”
“Scarred for life watching you grab Dad’s butt like that, but I’ll get over it. Thanks for wondering!” he hollered sarcastically before shaking his head and closing the door.
Rhodes and I both froze. Our eyes met, and we both started cracking up.
Yeah, I was right where I wanted to be. Where I was happy. Thank you, Mom.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The next couple of weeks went by in an absolute blur. Mostly because we were so busy at the shop. Summer had been hectic, fall had been slow until hunting season had started, but everything had gotten kicked into high gear once the snow came and schools started closing down for holiday break.
We were slammed with rentals and sales, and Clara had given me a crash course in helping customers select skis and snowboards the day I’d gotten my own rental. Everything else I needed to know—questions that customers could or would ask—I made a list of and asked some of the locals I’d gotten to know since working at the shop. Amos, surprisingly, answered a lot of them on the nights we had dinner together. Fortunately, there was only one resort close by, so there weren’t too many things people could ask, except where they could take the tubes they rented for sledding.
With work being so busy, I was grateful that I’d bought all my Christmas presents in advance on my lunch breaks, shipping most of them straight to my aunt and uncle’s, and having a few sent to my PO box in town. If it hadn’t been for those presents I had sent to my box, I might have totally forgotten about the plane ticket I’d booked back in October to go to Florida for Christmas.
Even back then, I hadn’t wanted to leave Clara alone for too long, so I’d reserved my ticket to leave early in the morning on Christmas Eve and come back the twenty-sixth.
When everyone started talking about a big storm that was supposed to roll in the day before Christmas, I didn’t think much of it. We had been getting steady snowfall every few days for a while. I’d gotten more confident driving in it, even though any time he could, Rhodes came to the shop and followed me back home.
Just thinking about Rhodes made the funniest feeling fill up my chest.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I had been raised by people who believed in me too much or just weren’t the helicopter-parenting type, but his overprotectiveness just did something to me. Big-time. I swear it lit me up from the inside out like one of those Lite-Brites I used to have when I’d been a kid.
We hadn’t gotten to spend any time together by ourselves again, and there hadn’t been any more real kisses since the day I’d basically thrown myself at him after Mrs. Jones’s visit, but that was mostly because of how often he’d been working late. There were all kinds of issues he had to deal with that I had no idea were even a thing. From problems with snowmobilers, to ice-fishing issues, to illegal hunting. He’d explained to me one night, when he’d gotten home early enough and brought pizza with him, that after summer, winter was the busiest season he had.