Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27900 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
“Good,” he says with a grin. “I like a girl with an appetite.”
I have an appetite… for him.
“You look stunning,” he says as he looks me over slowly from head to toe.
“I’m wearing quadruple XL clothes and my hair looks like a bird’s nest in January. I’m hardly stunning.”
He shakes his head as he skewers me with a heated look. “You’re stunning.”
His dominant voice leaves no room for argument. He says it like it’s a fact and that’s that. It’s not open for discussion.
I smile shyly as I feel my cheeks start to blush. For once in my life, I do feel stunning. He’s making me feel that way.
“Come sit,” he says as he points to the granite island.
I walk over and sit on one of the barstools as I watch him move. “I’d offer to help, but it looks like I’d just get in your way.”
“I love to cook,” he says as he pulls some delicious smelling salmon out of the oven. “When the crew gets together at the station, I’m always the one to cook.”
“So, what’s on the menu today?”
He smiles as he shows me. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I made a few things. Maple salmon or grilled veggie sandwiches for the main course. Sweet potato, arugula, and wild rice salad with ginger dressing for the side, and of course...” I wait in anticipation as he opens the cupboard and pulls out a bag of potato chips. “…chips.”
My mouth is hanging open in shock. I’ve never eaten like this before. Ever.
“You made all of this while I was sleeping?”
“It was either that or pace up and down the hallway, driving myself insane while I waited for you to wake up.”
I laugh. “I’m glad you chose the food.”
He grins as he takes out two plates.
I’m supposed to be at work right now. I have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich under my desk. Did I fall into some sort of an alternate reality or something? How did I get here, but more importantly, how can I stay?
“The sandwich looks incredible with some salad,” I say with my mouth already watering.
He makes me a plate and adds some of the salmon with it. “You have to try some of the salmon too. I caught it myself.”
“You like to fish?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Then how did you catch it?”
A flash of panic crosses his face. “I meant at the grocery store. So, Chloe. Are you from Montana?”
I start to tell him about myself. I’m usually pretty candid with personal details, but for some reason, everything comes flooding out when I talk to him. I tell him all about how I left home when I was seventeen.
My mother was always drunk and I got into a huge fight with her druggie boyfriend. He slammed me against the wall—I leave that part out since I think he might storm out of here and run to Atlanta to break Roger’s skull if I tell him—and I knew that it wasn’t a good place for me to be anymore. I left the next day and got on a bus to Montana. I didn’t even know what Montana was, just that it was the next bus leaving.
I rented a small room over a nice couple’s garage for three hundred bucks a month and got a job working for Aylwin Kirk. It was all going okay until he tried to kill me.
He listens so closely, absorbing every word that comes out of my mouth with interest. He asks questions and I can tell that he wants to know everything about me. Kinda like I want to know everything about him.
I watch in awe as he devours the huge helping of salmon and polishes off three sandwiches, the big bowl of salad, and the bag of chips. This man has a giant appetite and not a lick of fat on him. He’s all big shredded muscle.
“What about you?” I ask him after I finish my bite of the delicious food. “Were you born in Blackcloud Point?”
“No,” he says as he scoops another heaping helping of salmon onto his plate. “I moved here three years ago, and before that, I was traveling the country for ten years. Just drifting from place to place.”
“Were you trying to find yourself?”
“Yeah,” he says softly. “Kind of like that. I was trying to find the rest of me.”
I smile shyly. “Did you find it?”
He stares right at me with such intensity that it makes my toes curl. “I did now. Yeah.”
He tells me about his parents back east and how he got the job at the fire station. I can tell that this stoic and reserved man doesn’t open up to just anyone like this. I feel honored and special that he’s opening up to me.
By the time we’re finished lunch, my crush on him has intensified significantly. I can’t keep my eyes off him.