Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72669 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
The bed jolted as Mia jackknifed to a sitting position.
“You what?” She shrieked.
I nodded miserably.
“We had sex. Loud, awesome sex on his parents’ counter. Then continued in the pantry when they came home unexpectedly,” I groaned miserably, burying my face into my hands.
My hurt finger throbbed, reminding me that I’d punched him last night, too.
“I also punched him in the face,” I added through my hands.
When nothing came from the peanut gallery, I looked over at her.
She was staring at me like I’d grown horns.
“You are such a liar!” She said. “Do you remember all those nights I stayed up with you to hear you crying about that stupid man? You told me, over and over again, that you’d never go back to him, even if he was crawling on his knees!”
I wanted to say she was wrong…but she was right.
So hideously right I wanted to smack her.
“Shut up,” I sighed miserably.
“No,” she bared her teeth. “And what’d you do to already hate him?”
What’d I do?
“I didn’t do anything! It’s what he did!” I said, standing up and walking to my chest of drawers.
Picking up the stupid pink compact, I opened it and popped today’s pill out, then walked with purpose to the kitchen for a glass of water.
But before I could get there, I tripped over the rug and bit the dust.
Literally.
My hands caught me, but they slipped underneath the couch, reminding me that I seriously needed to clean more than I did.
“Gross,” I said, seeing a shirt there on the floor.
I picked it up and stared at it, memories flowing through me.
***
9 years before
“Wear this one,” I said. “No one will see what you have on underneath it.”
He looked at the white shirt, then shrugged.
“True,” he said, slipping it on over his head.
I smiled, looking at the white shirt with The Punisher symbol in gray directly in the middle of this chest.
“You look beautiful, you know,” he said, looking down at me.
I smiled, looking down at my pink sequined dress.
Tonight was the night of my first Marine Ball.
It’d be Booth’s second.
His first he’d taken his high school girlfriend, Maisy.
And Maisy pulled off the whole ‘dress up’ thing better than I did.
I always tried to look my best, but having Dillard’s taste on a Wal-Mart budget wasn’t easy.
Booth would never know that I couldn’t afford the dress I was wearing.
He would never know that I’d pinched and scraped the pennies together for four long months to be able to buy it at the second hand shop in town for seventy dollars.
Lucky for me that the lady that worked the counter put it away for me, allowing me to pay it out as needed.
Now I was pretty in pink, last season’s pink, but pink nonetheless.
My makeup was done by Mia.
My hair was done by Mia’s mother.
My bra was my mother’s.
My shoes were Mia’s mother’s.
I was literally wearing everything used, and I was sure that Maisy would never be caught dead in the things I was wearing.
But I felt pretty, and it was obvious that Booth thought I was, too.
I could feel the evidence in his pants when he pressed his penis against me.
“Would you stop,” I teased playfully when he did it once again.
“I’m sorry,” he lied. “It’s like I can’t help it. You look so fucking hot. And that slit goes all the way up your leg,” he trailed his fingers to the joint where my leg met my hip.
It did have a slit.
“Stop,” I slapped his hand away and turned to grab his dress uniform top off the bed where it’d been laying on plastic. “Put this on already, or we’re going to be late.”
Booth rolled his eyes, but continued to get dressed.
“I’ll meet you out in the living room, okay?” I called when he went to head towards the bathroom.
“10-4,” he replied.
I smiled and walked out into the living room, laughing when I saw Aaron.
“You need help?” I asked.
He handed me the lint roller.
“Fucking dog,” he grumbled.
I rolled my eyes.
Blitzen was a beauty, but he sure got rambunctious when he saw someone he loved.
He was a little over seven weeks old, and even though he was a Flat Coated Retriever, and would get bigger eventually, he was all of about a foot tall right now.
“You had to have picked him up to get it up here,” I raised my brow with a smile.
Aaron didn’t say anything as I finished rolling him off, getting every single black hair I could.
“Thanks,” he muttered as two strong arms encircled my waist.
I smiled happily as I leaned my head against Booth’s muscled arm.
“Hey,” I said to Aaron. “Would you mind taking a picture and sending it to Daniela?”
Aaron pulled his phone out of his pocket, snapped a few pictures of Booth and I, and then most likely sent them off without another word.