Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Eric kept his hand on my neck, his lips to my hair as I allowed the tears to come.
When I started to pull my shit together, I felt Henny jump up beside me, start kneading my thigh with his paws, and that was when Eric moved away.
It was also when I watched him open his nightstand again to commence giving me my last Christmas gift.
He took out a beautiful silver frame.
At this point, he slid the photo from my fingers, and I watched him put it in the frame. I then watched him walk around the bed and rest the frame on the nightstand at my side.
He came back around, gently removed Henny from my thigh, took my hand, pulled me off the bed and into the bathroom.
He made me brush my teeth standing beside him at his basin.
After I changed into a nightie, and Eric had put on his sleep pants, when we were about to get into bed, I put my hand on his abs.
“Stop looking for him,” I requested.
“Sweetheart,” he murmured.
“I don’t want him to feel hunted,” I said.
His curled a hand around the side of my neck. “We aren’t doing it that way.”
“I know. But he might feel it’s that way.” I leaned into him. “If he needs me, he knows where to find me.”
Eric gazed into my eyes a beat.
Then he nodded.
And when we were in bed, he tucked me close, and Henny tucked himself close to my back.
In the dark, I whispered, “I love my pendant.”
“I know,” Eric whispered back.
“But weirdly, Homer’s present was the best one I’ve ever got.”
Eric pulled me closer, and Henny adjusted so he didn’t lose contact.
“I know,” Eric said.
“Merry Christmas, baby.”
“Best one I’ve had for thirty years.”
Fuck!
Seriously!
Why was everyone making me cry?
“I take what I just said back, that was the best present I ever got,” I husked.
Eric pulled me even closer.
And Henny adjusted.
So neither of my boys lost contact.
TWENTY-EIGHT
CURVED COUCH
Three months later…
We were in Tweety, Raye’s bright yellow Juke, on our way to the storage units, and I was getting the third degree from Harlow.
“So, are you moving in with Eric?” she asked.
Move from the Oasis?
Not until there was a ring on my finger.
“No, we’re a dual household family,” I answered.
“You’re at his more than you’re at yours,” she accused.
I looked to her. “That isn’t true.” And it wasn’t.
“Yes, it is,” she retorted.
“No, it isn’t,” I replied.
“Yes. It. Is!” she cried.
Whoa.
At the drama, I narrowed my eyes on my bestie.
“Oh my God, bitch, dial down the sexual frustration already,” Luna ordered from the front seat. “Jess isn’t at Eric’s more, but even if she was, who cares? Get over yourself and jump on Javi, for all of our sakes.”
And…
Yeah.
Three months and that hadn’t gone anywhere except to make Harlow be very un-Harlow on occasion.
That was my nice way of saying she could act like a bitch.
As in…now.
“Pot, say hello to kettle,” Raye said under her breath.
Oh shit.
Luna’s head snapped to Raye behind the wheel. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Harlow is in a game of hide and seek with Javi, but every time he finds where she’s hiding, she hides somewhere else. We all got that down since we’ve been watching it for three months. But I don’t know what you and Knox are playing at,” Raye returned.
“Mortal Kombat?” I suggested.
“Nothing is playing between Knox and me,” Luna asserted (or more accurately, lied). “We’re just friends.”
“You two fight a lot for just being friends,” Harlow pointed out. “You act like Luke and Ava, except without the marriage and babies, but with the sexual tension.”
It must be said, Luke and Ava could bicker.
It was cute.
Knox and Luna?
It would be, if they were jumping each other’s bones after, which they weren’t.
So…
Not so cute.
“That’s because he can be annoying,” Luna fired back. “And there is no sexual tension.”
“He’s almost as mellow as Eric,” I stated. “And we pretty much choke on the tension anytime you two are around each other.” I turned again to Harlow. “It’s suffocating if you and Javi are there too.”
Harlow crossed her arms on her chest and pouted, “It’s the man’s job to make the moves.”
“Oh my God, are you serious?” I asked.
“How many moves does he have to make before he gets himself some?” Raye asked right after me.
Harlow looked out the side window, which meant this conversation was over.
Okay then.
Moving on.
“All right, does anyone know why Arthur told us to go to the storage units?” I asked.
“I don’t,” Raye answered. “Clarice just dropped a key at SC this morning and said we needed to hit unit number fourteen. Tonight, and together.”
Number fourteen meant our cache of units had grown by one.
“I hope it’s a pink Hummer,” Harlow mumbled.
I wouldn’t pick pink, but even so, a pink Hummer for the Angels would also kinda kick ass.
“Do you have any idea how much of a gas guzzler a Hummer is?” Luna asked, clearly not over her attitude.