Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I narrowed them at him.
“No,” I growled. “What would make you think that?”
He pressed right above my eye where it was now twitching.
I looked up at the massive thumb that was pressing the bone right under my eyebrow, then back to him.
“Your eye’s twitching.”
I sighed.
“I like your couch. I was just trying to flirt with you,” I informed him.
He grinned.
“I know. I just like giving you shit,” he provoked me.
I punched him in the belly and he moved out of my reach like a boxer anticipating the move.
“Sorry,” he chuckled. “It’s just nice to tease you. You’re a lot different than your brother.”
“I sure would hope so,” I muttered, twisting the cap off the bottle. “Although, my brother would be just as happy to hear that as I am.”
“Y’all don’t get along?” He questioned, leaning back into the cushions of the pretty couch, his eyes on my face.
I shrugged.
“We get along okay. I won’t be brokenhearted when he decides to move out,” I informed him.
“What makes you think he’s going to move out?” He took a sip of his water.
I sighed.
“Because the house is mine,” I semi-lied. “And he needs to get a life.”
He blinked.
“Why is he there then?”
I leaned forward.
“My brother doesn’t understand boundaries,” I began. “He doesn’t get that I don’t need him up my ass all day, every day.”
“So you move out,” Apple suggested.
I was shaking my head before he’d even gotten the words past his lips.
“It’s my house,” I informed him. “It should be my brother that moves.”
“What makes it yours over his?” He turned his head to study me. “From what I heard, it’s the house he shared with his wife.”
“Well, we all shared it,” I said. “Besides, my grandfather left it to me, even though we all love that house.”
“Seems to me that that house means something to him. Maybe it holds the only thing left of his wife?” He guessed. “And maybe he wants to live with you.”
Damn man logic.
I groaned.
“I don’t really want him to move. Unless it’s Sunday, and he decides he wants to stink the kitchen up with chorizo,” I amended. “I just wished he gave me a little bit of privacy.”
“You can come over here anytime you want. The code to get into the barn is 2-3-3-2,” he said. “That’ll open the doors. And if the top barn doors are closed, all you have to do is push them to the side and close it behind you.”
I smiled then, a full-out, light-up-your-face, cheek-hurting smile.
“Thank you,” I told him softly. “My brother can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.”
He gave me a look that clearly said that he knew exactly what I was talking about.
“If you ever get under my brother’s wing of protection,” I promised him. “He’ll move heaven and Earth for you.”
He looked at me like I’d just second guessed myself, and I suppose I had.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I snapped.
He snorted and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table.
“I can make a frozen pizza or tacos. Which one do you want?” He looked at me.
I turned on the couch to face him completely. “Is that even a legitimate question?”
He shrugged.
“I think my taco meat might have bits of onions in it,” he teased.
I stuck my tongue out at him.
“I want tacos,” I chirped. “I’ll take my chances with the onions.”
Turns out, his taco meat didn’t have any onions. None at all.
“This is good!” I told him forty-five minutes later. “You could totally make this for me every day, and I’d never complain.”
He snorted.
“What’s your favorite dessert?” He took another bite of his taco.
“I don’t have one specific favorite,” I informed him. “I have more like ten.”
His eyes lit with fascination as I told him my favorites and all of the individual qualities that made them great.
Then I told him about my schooling and my job.
He returned the favor, telling me about his.
We sat that way over the kitchen table, telling each other about our likes and dislikes, our wants and desires, for well over two hours.
It would’ve gone on even longer, but the late hour was starting to show on Apple’s tired shoulders.
So I made him take me home, even though he clearly let me know that he didn’t want me to go.
But one thing was for certain.
Over good food and lots of laughs, I fell deeply in love with Apple Drew.
I knew as he was walking me back to my house later that night that I’d never, ever, be able to get free of him. Not that I wanted to.
There was just something about the man that intrigued me.
The butterflies in my belly started to take flight as he stopped me at the bottom steps of my front porch.
“Your brother’s looking out the window,” he sighed.
I turned to see my brother doing just that.