Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
I blinked and tried to focus, wrapping up that explanation and setting it beside my heart because otherwise I was about to get naked right then and there. “The forecast?” I croaked, trying to think. “You mean because of the storm?”
He nodded, apparently over paying me any more compliments that could make me feel like maybe, just maybe… he might love me.
Because the truth was, I was totally in love with him.
Just looking at him made me happy. Being close to him made me feel calm. Safe. There was nothing about this man that was hesitant or withdrawn. He was quiet, yeah, but it had nothing to do with him holding parts of himself back. I loved how serious he was. How deep his thoughts and actions went.
No one in my life, other than my mom, had made me feel the way he did. Like I could trust them completely. And it was when I’d accepted that—seen it for it what it was—that I’d understood the depth of my feelings.
I was in love with him.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, making sure my mouth was closed and scrubbing under my eyes even though I was pretty sure no tears had actually come out. They’d just hung out right at the rim. “Clara told me, and I looked too when I got home.”
He dipped that chin with its cute cleft. “Your flight is supposed to leave early, isn’t it?”
I confirmed it was, swallowing hard once to make sure I was keeping it together and not blubbering—much less telling him that I was stupid in love with him.
“It’s supposed to drop ten to twelve overnight,” he kept talking, his words careful.
“The plane is supposed to leave at six.”
He didn’t say anything, but those hard, blunt fingers went to my jaw, touching from right behind my ear to the center of my chin and back.
“You think it’s going to get canceled?” I managed to ask, mostly to distract him so that hopefully he’d keep touching my face. He hadn’t been shy about touching my shoulders or my wrist. Sometimes he’d touch my fingers, and I’d swear it was better than anything I did to myself at night in bed.
He did—keep up his touching that was. “I think you should be ready for the possibility it will,” he answered quietly, his lids heavy over his eyes.
“Oh, that would suck, but it’s not like I can do anything about it if it happens. I have—”
Those gray eyes met mine, and he dropped into a crouch at my side, bringing that handsome face and beautiful hair to basically eye level with me. “Come stay at the house with us.”
“Tonight?” I pretty much croaked.
The hand that had been on my throat for all of thirty seconds landed on my thigh. “I’ll drive you in the morning if your flight is still on. You won’t have to walk back and forth across the driveway,” he said, like it was a half-mile walk from the garage apartment to his house.
My own mouth twitched. “Sure.”
Rhodes stood and set that same palm on top of my shoulder. “Want to come over now? I’ll help you carry your things.”
“Sign me up.”
His warm expression fueled my spirit. I really was totally in love with him. But the most surprising part was that the knowledge and acceptance of it brought no terror into my heart. None. Not a fragment of fear. Not a whisper of it.
This knowledge, this feeling, reminded me of concrete in its endurance, in the strength of it. I had told myself a hundred times that I wasn’t afraid of love, that I was ready to move forward, but the future was scary.
But Rhodes had earned every inch of what I felt with his attention, with his patience and overprotectiveness and just… with everything that made him up in general.
Feeling pretty damn ballsy, I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek quickly and then started getting my stuff together. It didn’t take me long to get another change of clothes and pajamas together while Rhodes took the initiative and finished folding my laundry. When we were done, he carried my big suitcase down the stairs, not crying at all about how heavy it was even though I was only leaving for two days, as well as the grocery bag I’d stuffed with my extra clothes for tonight and tomorrow. I had already hidden their presents inside the hallway closet by Amos’s room yesterday when I’d gone over there before work. I had planned on calling them Christmas Day and telling them where to look for their gifts.
We were crossing the driveway when Rhodes carefully said, “This storm is going to be big, sweetheart. Don’t be too disappointed if your flight gets rescheduled, all right?”
“I won’t,” I assured him. Because I really wouldn’t be.
* * *