Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70558 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70558 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
Addison
“I can do this. It’s just like pulling a bandage off. One quick bit of awkward and then I can feel proud of myself.”
And never think about doing it again.
No. This would be the one and only time I’d make myself look stupid and then I could die an old maid with lots of cats…or maybe something nicer like more stuffed animals. Yes, that sounded like a much better plan.
I’d look very cute in a grandma nightgown.
I looked cute in all kinds of fun clothes that weren’t necessarily masculine.
“I’ll just make sure I can afford a big house with lots of shelves for books and toys and stuffed animals and—” Oh dear. “He’s early.”
I hadn’t mentally prepared enough yet.
I was supposed to have at least another half an hour before he came. He always kept to the same schedule…and he was trying to beat me to the door!
Hurrying down from the attic where I’d been trying to decide what to get rid of, I refused to think about looking silly and managed to make it to the front door of the small cottage-style house I’d been renting to beat him there before he rang the bell.
It was a silly game but he humored me and always paused just before pressing the button, grinning like he was going to get it first. I threw open the door forgetting all about being worried as he stood there grinning, holding the big clear plastic bag that held all my goodies. “You cheated. You’re early.”
I was lucky I’d been looking out the tiny window upstairs and had seen the yellow truck coming down the street.
He laughed, shrugging and not looking contrite at all. “I can’t help it. I go where I’m told.”
Scoffing, I folded my arms and pretended to glare at him. “I don’t believe that at all. You were hoping to win this time.”
A tiny voice in the back of my head raised an eyebrow and asked if I really thought I was being subtle about my little side, but I told him to mind his own business. Tate had always been very nice to me, and he might be my delivery man but he never made me feel silly or like an imposition.
Unlike the FedEx guy.
He was so rude.
But Tate brought me pizzas and cookie dough and all kinds of fun things, and he never minded talking to me for a minute before he went back to his delivery route. It was probably because a big part of his job was customer service, but I didn’t think that was all of it.
I hoped it wasn’t all of it.
But the FedEx guy never mentioned that he was single and I had no idea what the mailman’s name was…and I couldn’t have said what either of their favorite cookie flavors were, but I knew what Tate liked.
That had to be a good sign, right?
Shoot. What had I been thinking?
Tate was trying to still look smiley as he held up my goodies, but his brows pulled together. “You doing, okay? You only got a few things this time. What are you going to do without your Friday night pizza?”
Hmm, maybe I’d talked to him too much?
“I…” Taking the bag from him, I looked down at the small amount of goodies and sighed. I hadn’t even gotten cookie dough. It was very sad. “I’m moving in a few months and I need to make sure I don’t have too much in the freezer.”
There. That was the first hard part.
As I peeked back up at Tate, he was frowning. “I wasn’t expecting that. I thought you might be going on a trip and I was looking forward to hearing about it.”
He was so nice.
Oh, I hoped he wasn’t just nice.
“New experiences can be fun.” He stood taller, looking thoughtful as he started to give me what seemed like a canned speech. “If you go online, you can change your address and—”
Shaking my head, I interrupted him. “I’m probably not going to have a kitchen. I’m going back to college starting next semester, so dorms and all. This is going to be my last order and I have enough cookie dough to last me until I leave as long as I’m careful.”
The problem was I wasn’t always careful.
The cookies were so good.
But a full freezer would be bad.
It would also help me save money…which wasn’t any fun at all.
Tate nodded slowly but it took him a moment to give me a peek at what he was thinking. “I’m proud of you for going back to school but I’m also feeling slightly selfish to be sad about losing my favorite customer.”
That shouldn’t have made me blush but I was ridiculous enough that I couldn’t stop it. “Me too. I mean, not my favorite customer, but you’re my favorite delivery man.”