Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 517(@300wpm)
“I’ll clean up the mess while you figure out dinner,” she said, trying to slide off the counter.
“Stay there,” he barked.
“Why?”
“You can’t go walking around without any shoes on.”
She sighed. So overprotective. But even as she pretended to be irritated, a zing of pleasure ran through her.
“I’ll be fine. I won’t stand on any of the broken bits.”
“No. Stay.”
“Yes, Master.” She put her tongue out and pretended to pant.
Alarm filled his face. “What’s wrong? Are you having some sort of seizure? What do you need?”
“I’m not having a seizure. Sheesh. I was pretending to be a dog.”
“Um. Right.”
“I do good impressions. Here’s my impression of you.” She made herself frozen, puffing out her chest. “I’m Remy. I order. You obey.”
“That’s meant to be me?”
“Yes!” She smacked him on the chest. “Gosh, you’re rude. Also, are you made of concrete?” Because, damn, her hand was stinging now.
“Parts of me are,” he muttered.
“What?” He didn’t say what she thought he had, right?
He just shook his head. “I’ll clean this mess up. Then you can get down. Have you got a dustpan and broom?”
“Yeah, in that cupboard.” She pointed to the cupboard behind him as she swung her legs back and forth. “Can’t I help? It’s boring up here. And I’m hungry.”
He grabbed an apple from a bowl. Huh, when had those gotten there?
Well, obviously, he must’ve bought them and put them in a bowl. Which was super sweet of him.
“Snack on this. And if you’re bored, I have something you can do.”
“What’s that?”
“Tell me exactly what happened last night.”
13
Crap.
Her and her big mouth. Why hadn’t she just done as he’d said?
“Actually, I’m fine now with this apple to entertain me, thanks.”
“That wasn’t a request, baby.”
“Is anything you say actually a request?” she asked.
“Very little.”
“Sheesh. I already told you what happened last night, though. So I don’t know why we have to go through it again.”
“Perhaps you missed some details.” As he spoke, he swept up.
Shoot, she’d made the mess so she should have tidied it up.
“Maybe I could make dinner,” she suggested.
“I thought you said you can’t cook.”
“I make a mean toast with jam.”
“You have jam?” he asked.
“Um, perhaps not.” She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen any. “Make a mental note, Isa. Must buy jam.”
“How about you write an actual note?”
“Make a mental note, Isa. Must buy note paper.”
Remy stared at her for a long moment before sighing. But she saw his lips twitch. She was eighty-nine percent sure she did, anyway.
“Tell me about last night again.”
Isa stared down at her nails. She needed to get them redone. This time, she wanted pink and sparkly.
“Isabelle. You’re not getting off that counter until you talk to me.”
That was just rude.
“What if I have to pee?”
“Then I’ll carry you to the toilet, wait for you and carry you straight back here afterward.”
“Sheesh, why don’t you just get me a potty?”
“I could do that. If that’s what you want.”
Was he being serious? He wasn’t, right?
Damn it. Why did he have to have such a good poker face?
“I don’t want that.”
“Hmm. We’ll see. Well?” he asked as he cleaned up their ruined dinner. He was very good at all this domestic stuff.
She wasn’t. It wasn’t that she was a slob . . . just a bit untidy.
“I don’t know . . . I was driving along, and out of nowhere, these headlights appeared, coming up fast behind me. I thought the driver would pass me. But they just stayed behind me for a while before moving out beside me. I tried to get my phone out of my bag, but I knocked it off and everything went flying.
He chopped some vegetables and added them to the thinly cut-up chicken he’d already fried. “Then what happened?”
“Well, I thought they’d get past me, but when they cut in front of me, it was really sharp. They didn’t leave enough space, although I don’t know why since there was no-one else out there. So I yanked my steering wheel to the side and ended up crashing into that tree.”
“Fuck. What if there had been a ditch? Or you’d hit the tree faster? You could have flipped. You could have been seriously hurt.”
“Whoa, buddy, those veggies are about to go flying.”
He looked down at the pan as though he hadn’t seen it before. Then he sighed and eased up on his vicious stirring.
“I got out of the car to see how bad the damage was. And I needed to look for my phone. But I felt a bit off, so I sat down. That’s when the headlights started to approach.”
“Which was me.”
“Oh no, before you got there.”
A strange silence filled the room, and she studied him as he carefully turned off the stove and turned to her. “What? What headlights are you talking about? Did someone else stop first? Why didn’t they help you? I thought that you weren’t there long before I arrived.”