Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 78340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78340 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 313(@250wpm)___ 261(@300wpm)
“Everyone except the Wilsons,” I reminded him. “To them, I’ll never be anything besides a young, unemployed college drop-out.”
“The only accurate part of that is the word ‘young,’ since you have a job, and you’ve also re-enrolled at UCLA.”
“But it’ll take me two or three years to finish my degree, since I’ll only be taking one class at a time through their distance learning program.”
“It still shows you’re finishing what you started,” he said.
“True. And hopefully the judge will be impressed by the job you fabricated for me.”
“That’s a real job! You’re Suarez Global’s west coast division IT consultant.”
“Thank you again for thinking of that, although my huge salary is absurd for the two or three hours I help out each week.”
“That’s what IT consultants actually make. I looked it up.” When I shot him an incredulous look, he admitted, “Okay, so it’s at the high end of the scale, but still. And you really have been invaluable in setting up our home office.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course.” He kissed my bare shoulder and asked, “Have I mentioned how proud I am of you? Your plate’s been so full, between reregistering for school, helping with the office, and preparing for the custody hearing, but you always manage to give Owen the time and attention he needs.”
“You deserve a lot of the credit, since you’ve been helping me every step of the way. It’s meant so much to me that you’ve been my cheerleader, my safety net, my muse—”
“Oh, I like that last one! Tell me I inspire you to write really sexy code.”
I laughed at that, and then I told him, “You inspire me in all kinds of ways.”
His dark eyes sparkled as he ran a hand down my chest and stomach. “Think I can inspire you to come for the third time in three hours?”
I grinned and said, “Let’s find out.”
It was about two a.m. when we slipped through the Victorian’s front door as quietly as we could. Hal was wide awake on the couch though, and reading something on his tablet. He raised a brow as he said, “I’ll never understand why you two don’t just spend the night at the garage. Owen’s fine. There are nine competent adults in this house to look after him if he happens to wake up, which he never does.”
I perked up at that and asked, “Nine? Does that mean both Hudson and Noah are spending the night with Kel?”
“No, sorry to disappoint you, but that throuple thing you keep imagining for them has yet to materialize. The ninth person is that guy Eliot’s been dating, who finally decided to spend the night.”
“Oh, good for El. Did you meet his mystery man?”
“Just briefly. I’ll try to gather some more intel in the morning and report back.” He held out the baby monitor and said, “Here’s this, by the way. I took over for Lark and Dylan so they could go to bed early.”
“Thanks.” As I took it from him, I asked, “Are they okay?”
“Lark was feeling nauseous, so Dylan thought it was best for him to lie down.”
Even though I was feeling confident about the upcoming court date, my poor brother had been literally worrying himself sick. Yet another reason why we all just needed the custody hearing to be over with.
After we said good night to Hal, Lucky and I went upstairs and checked on Owen, who was sleeping peacefully. We really could have easily spent the night at the garage and slipped back in before he woke up in the morning, but I’d accepted the fact that I was a bit of a mother hen and liked knowing my son was close by while I slept.
We got ready for bed and crawled under the covers, and then Lucky grinned and said, “I was so busy worshipping your gorgeous naked body when we were at the garage that I forgot to show you my new treasure.”
“That rusted hunk of metal in the middle of the room? I saw it.”
“I know you did, but I wanted to bore you senseless by describing it in vivid detail. In short, it’s most of a 1955 Harley-Davidson Panhead, and I can’t wait to get started restoring it.” He’d visited a junkyard with our friend Skye the day before and had been buzzing with excitement about his find.
“I’m so glad you’re getting back to doing what you love. It was depressing when you gave away all your spare parts and works in progress.”
As he slid his hand under the hem of my T-shirt and lightly caressed my lower back, he said, “If only I’d talked to my dad sooner. I could have avoided all of that and a lot more unhappiness.”
“I get why that was tough, though.”
“You know, one of the best things that’s come from working with him is that we relate to each other like adults now, instead of like a parent and child. Since I moved away when I was pretty young, I think that froze our relationship at a certain point in time. Now that it’s had a chance to evolve, it’s so much easier to talk to him.”