Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Heading back into the living room, I plopped onto the plush dark gray couch. I nearly jumped out of my skin and sloshed the wine over the rim when my phone suddenly rang.
A massive grin slid to my face when I saw Paisley’s name lighting the screen, and I quickly answered, speaking before she got the chance.
“Oh, you do remember me after all. Someone has been too busy getting herself loved up by their man to remember their bestie even exists.” I feigned a pout.
Laughter rippled from the other end of the line. “As if I’d ever forget you, but since you gave me explicit instructions to never call you when I was getting loved up again, it’s been hard to fit it in.”
My best friend had gone and fallen hard for her new man, Caleb. Caleb was Ryder’s cousin who’d been living in Seattle and had bought a giant ranch here on the outskirts of Time River. He was crazy rich, and Paisley had been hired to train his little girl how to ride her horse.
Sparks had flown the moment they’d met each other, even though at first, they’d been mistaken for fiery darts of unmitigated hate.
I guess it was true that sometimes enemies made the best lovers.
It hadn’t taken long for it to turn into so much more than that.
“I might love you and Caleb together and all, but I don’t need to be present for your sex-capades.” I let the tease wind into my words.
She’d tried to play it off that day, answering when I’d called, pretending like she could barely talk and mewling like a cat in heat because she was out working with the horses, but I knew better.
The two of them were insatiable.
Paisley laughed again, though it was throaty and low, even deeper now after the injuries she’d sustained with everything that had gone down at the ranch at the beginning of the summer. “Caleb’s a little on the adventurous side, but I can promise you, we aren’t going there. I don’t share my man.”
“Eww,” I told her, grinning as I took a sip of my wine. “Don’t even make my poor brain go there.”
“Well, your poor brain needs to go somewhere and find yourself some action. I know you’re sitting over there by yourself in the dark, drinking a giant glass of wine.”
I pulled the glass away from my lips, frowning at it in the lapping shadows of the room.
Damn, she totally had me pegged.
“I have plenty of action,” I argued. With my hand and vibrator, but sometimes that’s all a girl needed. “And sitting here in the dark with my wine is called relaxing. You should try it sometime.”
“I can tell you what really relaxes you…” She drawled out the innuendo.
“Shut it,” I said, fighting the amusement that wanted to come flooding out.
“Fine, fine, I’ll quit pestering you. For now. But pretty soon, we’re going dick-hunting.”
I nearly choked on the sip I’d just taken. “Dick-hunting?”
“That’s right. Dick-hunting. When one embarks into the wild jungle called dating.”
“Eww,” I said again. “The visual, Paisley.”
“If your response is eww, you’ve obviously been looking at the wrong ones. Caleb’s is drool worthy.”
“Stop right there,” I said through the snickering that wouldn’t stop coming.
Anytime I talked to her, she left me a giggling mess.
“Oh, Dakota, we know you are missing out, my poor, dear friend. It’s high time we found someone to love you up. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you haven’t gone out once with a man since I moved back from Arizona.”
I blew out a strained breath. “I know. I’ve just been…busy.”
It wasn’t like I didn’t want to find someone, but I guessed I didn’t know how to start. How to truly move on the way I’d been trying to do.
How to trust I would find someone who loved me the way I wanted to be.
How to find someone who would choose me.
“Sitting on your couch at night alone?” It overflowed with disbelief. A nudging beyond the playfulness.
Soberness took over. “I think I’m almost ready.”
I could hear her warring thoughts. Not even she knew about Kayden’s father, and the one time she’d asked, I’d flat out told her I didn’t want to talk about it. I figured most people thought I’d gotten my heart broken, but the truth was, I’d barely even caught his name.
It was the circumstances that had driven me to it that still lingered like old wounds.
“You know the only thing I want is for you to be happy, and I’d leave you alone about it if I didn’t know you really well. And I know you’re missing something.”
Before I could respond, she cracked, “Like some of the good D.”
“Did you actually call because you wanted something?” I tossed the question out like I was actually mad.
She chuckled. “Oh, right yes.”
She lowered her voice to keep her words a secret. “I want to plan a big surprise birthday party here at the ranch for Caleb. He’s been showering me with so much love and attention, and I want to make sure he knows how much he’s loved, too.”