Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I screenshotted the text and sent it to the group text with my family, then closed the phone down completely.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go finish up your talk with the FBI agent, and then we can grab something to eat.”
That’s exactly what we did.
We went to the new diner right beside Maven’s new bakery.
Both locations worked great next to each other because one was closed when the other was supposed to be open.
Though, just sayin’, Maven had issues getting to work on time, so she might encroach on the diner a bit.
When I met the owners, however, they were the nicest people in the world. Oh, and they didn’t have a single sweet thing on their entire menu. Not even biscuits.
“John and I are diabetics,” the female owner, Cassidy, admitted. “You got any sugar-free, gluten-free things over there?”
That was directed at Maven.
Maven snorted. “No, but I’ll definitely start working on one. You can be my taste tester.”
Cassidy clapped. “Deal!”
Unsurprisingly, everybody showed up, even Keene, Ande, and their children.
Tex walked over to me and climbed into Maven’s lap. “You got any of that sweet stuff?”
Maven’s eyes glittered with laughter as she said, “Um, no. I’m sorry, Tex. Everything’s proofing right now for tomorrow’s baking.”
“That’s just awful.” Tex squirmed out of her lap.
“I see what I’m good for,” Maven teased, aiming that comment at Keene, who’d taken up the seat across from us.
“Boy thinks with his stomach, just like his mother,” Keene teased.
“I heard that!” Ande said as she browsed the menu.
“I didn’t try to hide it,” Keene countered.
“Children,” Mamasauce drawled. “Let’s talk about how I just got offered the assistant chief position.”
“What?” everyone asked at once.
“Your dad got offered the chief position.” Mom nodded.
“What are you going to do?” Quincy asked. “Because I just got offered my old job, as well as back pay, and a raise.”
“Take it for a while so we can settle the department down,” Dad admitted. “I love everyone there, and I’m not willing to throw anyone under the bus because of the poor decisions of another.”
Maven leaned forward. “I think that’s a great idea.”
I squeezed her thigh.
Her day had been horrible. She’d learned some news about a man she’d called her father for nearly her entire life, and she was worried about other people right now.
Fuck, but I loved her.
I loved the hell out of her to a point where just the thought of her moving into an apartment five minutes away was devastating to me.
“Fuck, I love you,” I told her.
The entire table stilled, but it was her reaction that had me leaning forward and kissing the gaping laugh off her face.
“Well, now that five of the eight are whipped as hell,” Atlas said. “Let’s order, because I’m starving.”
It was Maven’s narrowed eyes that had me leaning back in my seat, waiting for the fireworks that I knew were about to happen.
“So,” Maven said teasingly, “you’ll be happy to know that I took your brother up on the offer to move in with him. That leaves Pepper to stay in the apartment above the bakery. Great news is, you’ll see her all the time!”
Atlas’s eyes narrowed.
I leaned over and said, “You took me up on my offer?”
Her eyes were apologetic as she whispered back, “I didn’t like that smirk on his face.”
I raised my hand and squeezed the back of her neck. “No takebacks now. I’ll start moving your stuff over on my next day off.”
She was already shaking her head. “Auden…”
“No takebacks, baby,” I said, then gestured for Cassidy with my fingers. “Can we order, please, ma’am?”
“Sock it to me!” she called out from beside the counter.
We yelled our orders over the length of the diner.
Then we talked about our next steps.
My parents offered up their home for Maven’s siblings if she—and they—were comfortable with it.
Maven took them up on the offer, and when we finally made it into my house later that night, we took less than a step inside before I had her plastered against my front door.
“Well?” I teased, letting my nose run along the length of her racing pulse.
“Well what?” she gasped.
“Do you have some words in return? Or should I be patient?” I asked.
She smoothed her hands up my back, her fingernails digging into my flesh, and she said, “Show me how much you love me, and maybe I’ll feel the words.”
I did exactly that.
I took her against the front door of our home.
Then in the bed.
Followed by once more on the floor of the shower.
And when I was done, and we were lying in the bed, clean and exhausted, she said, “I don’t know how you could ever think that I didn’t love you, Auden Carter.”
That made my belly warm. “Good.”
I fell asleep that night with my woman at my side, and not a care in the world.