Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“I swear, Adalynn, that mouth of yours is—”
Cash runs right into my back, his hands going to my hips before he notices Chase standing right in front of us.
My cheeks have got to be as red as my hair.
“Fu-freak,” Cash says. Just when I think I can’t get any more embarrassed, Cash finishes buckling his belt right in front of Chase. “I’ll umm… see you later.”
This may be the first time in years that Cash walks away from me without pressing his lips to my forehead or temple. It’s crazy that I realize it with everything that has happened this morning.
I do my best to straighten my spine, but the action tugs on my lower parts, reminding me what I was doing a few moments ago.
“I’m not explaining myself to you, Chase Woodson.”
“I didn’t say a word,” he returns.
The silence is heavy between the two of us.
“If you tell Madison, I’ll hate you forever.”
“You might want to get a jump on that, Ads. I don’t keep secrets from her.”
I pull in an irritated breath, but honestly, I’d expect nothing less from a man who claims he’s had the love of his life right next door his entire life.
“Well, that’s a sign of a healthy relationship, I guess.”
“It’s no big deal,” he says in a tone that tells me he still isn’t letting me off the hook with what he walked in and discovered. “We’ve known you guys were going to end up together for a while now.”
I clear my throat, refusing to even let thoughts like that settle inside of me. They’re dangerous and have the power to make me want things I could never have.
I straighten my back once again.
“We aren’t together. But if you can’t ask your best friend to get you pregnant, then who can you ask?”
A slow smile spreads across his face, and he stays silent for the longest time before asking for Madison’s cupcakes.
He tells me it only takes him seven minutes to get home, but he’ll take the long way around so it gives me ten minutes.
It only takes me four to decide to make the call, but I’m still on the phone with her, listening to her cackle about my bad sex ordeal then the good sex ordeal, when Chase gets back home with her cupcakes.
I finally hang up with her when a car pulls up outside of the bakery. Relaying the stories left me so flustered and embarrassed that I feel the need to repent for my sins when Reverend Holloway steps inside and asks me if I’m ill.
Chapter 15
Cash
Have I ever in my entire life had better sex?
There isn’t a time I can recall that even comes close.
What happened earlier today was how the other night was supposed to go. It was the realization of every fantasy I’ve let run through my head. Even more so if I’m being honest with myself.
I knew the risk. I knew that she could’ve easily called me a pervert and told me to never darken her door again, but luck was on my side this time. For once, things seem to be looking up.
God, the clench of her pussy, the way her lips quivered against mine when we kissed. The way she clung to me as if she couldn’t imagine ever having to let me go.
I’m on cloud nine right up until the call I get from the sheriff.
“Hey, Mike,” I say, answering the phone with a chipperness I’ve never felt before.
“Chief,” he says, and I sober immediately.
If this were a personal call or just one where he wants to shoot the shit, he’d call me Cash.
Addressing me by my title tells me that it’s not only work related, it’s not good news. It’s never good news though. Sheriff Hodson is a no-nonsense kind of guy. He doesn’t call when he’s bored, and more often than not, he’s the type of man who would spend half a day figuring something out on his own rather than making a phone call that would cut his workload in half.
I gear up to argue for Old Man Prichard because, honestly, he’s probably getting senile, and there’s a very unlikely chance he’ll stop calling 911 about that damned peacock. Peahen, I mentally correct.
“We’ve got a fatality MVC out on the highway. I’m hoping you could assist.”
“East or west?” I ask, already standing from my desk and reaching into the small footlocker against the wall for the go-bag I keep there for such occasions.
“East,” he says. “Cash, it’s bad, man.”
“I’m on my way.”
There’s a certain amount of grief that comes along with showing up on the scene of an accident and not knowing who’s involved. Your mind races with flashes of every person you know and care for.
There’s also a certain amount of shame that comes along with the relief I feel when I realize that the family of four that didn’t make it aren’t from Lindell.