Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 98736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
“I’ll stay.” Roman’s deep voice leaves no room for negotiation. Not that I want to, but I have to put up a fight, so I sigh and roll my eyes.
“Thanks for taking care of this, Emerson.” Maddox comes up to me and wraps me in a hug.
“Stop hogging her.” Lachlan pushes Maddox out of the way and lifts me in his arms and jumps, making us both laugh.
“Oh, my turn.” Legend pulls me from Lachlan into his arms and dances me around the break room.
“Can I have my turn with my sister?” Forrest pretends to be annoyed, but he’s laughing with the rest of them.
“So greedy.” Legend grins, as he twirls me into my big brother’s arms.
“Thanks, kid, you saved us a lot of work. You’ve saved our asses this summer. I’m not looking forward to you going back to school.”
“One more year, and I’ll be home for good.”
“Yeah?” Forrest's eyes light up. “You’re coming home to Ashby?”
I don’t look at Roman, and that takes effort. “There is no other place I’d rather be.”
“Love you, kid.”
“Love you too, Forty. Now go on, all of you. I need quiet to develop a training schedule and call your new hires. Work must be done.”
They filter out of the room. As does Roman. I clean up the break room, which really only consists of combining the leftover pizza into one box and placing it into the fridge. When I look up, Roman is standing in the doorway, his shoulder leaning against the frame. His arms are crossed over his chest, and he’s watching me intently.
“Do you know how difficult it was to watch them manhandle you?”
“They were just showing their appreciation.”
“Come here, baby girl.”
I don’t hesitate to walk toward him. Once I’m close enough, he lifts me into his arms, and I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He kisses me. With the hunger that I saw reflecting in his eyes, I expected it to be a primal kiss, much like last night, but it’s tender and slow.
“Been wanting to do that all damn day,” he says, when he finally releases my lips. He rests his forehead against mine, and I soak up every moment of being in his arms. “Are you really leaving the week after next?” he asks.
“Yeah. We go back a week from Monday.”
“That’s not even two weeks.”
“I have to go back.”
“I know.”
“I’ll be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, then spring break, and then next summer I’ll be home for good.”
“I want to see you every day until then.”
“Okay.” My heart is so full at his admission it could burst wide open. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah,” he agrees. Slowly, he places me back on my feet. “Grab what you need and we can work together in my office. I need to make use of all the time I can get before you leave.”
“All right.” I go up on my tiptoes and kiss the corner of his mouth, before moving to make sure the front door is locked, which it is. I gather what I need to make a schedule, and all three résumés, since Cleo deserves a call as well. I settle at his desk while he’s at his drafting table. Every so often, Roman rolls over to where I’m sitting and kisses me, but then gets right back to work. Together, we work in silence, but it’s not uncomfortable. How could it be when we’re together?
Chapter
Eleven
Roman
* * *
Days. I’m down to mere days before she heads off to college. I was up all night last night thinking about the consequences of what I’ve done. I kissed my best friend’s little sister. I didn’t just kiss her; I claimed her mouth like it was my own. We agreed we’re not kissing or fucking other people.
That’s a big deal.
I tossed every scenario around in my head, and I kept coming back to the same conclusion. I’m too weak to stay away from her. She’s right: she’s an adult who can make her own choices, and all I can do is hope and pray that when Forrest finds out, because I’m certain he’s going to find out, that he finds a way to be okay with whatever this is.
I don’t see a time in which I’ll be ready, willing, or able to let her go.
Now, here I am on a Friday night, pacing my living room floor. I walked her to her car, mindful of the parking lot cameras, and my hands twitched to touch her. To pull her into me and kiss her goodbye, even though I’d already done so in the shop.
Which reminds me…
I pull up the shop cameras on my phone and erase the videos of me kissing her inside the shop. Thankfully, they are motion censored, and I tried to keep the PDA this time to my office. Well, outside of that kiss in the break room. I erase every trace of us together. Thankfully, it’s not so much that the other guys will notice. Hell, they never look at the cameras. None of us do unless there is an issue. Either way, it’s not a chance I’m willing to take.