Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 85484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 427(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
But there’s a problem. He doesn’t exist.
The bigger problem? I have to produce him to save my job.
This is where you come in.
I’m seeking someone to play a smitten ex-husband for two weeks. You’ll need to remember our love story—details matter when it comes to romance! I need you to be prepared to travel in-state at a moment’s notice. We may be in close proximity; sharing a bed may be required.
One more thing—kisses are essential for optics as necessary.
If this sounds interesting or, at the very least, entertaining, let me know.
Signed,
Your Future Ex-Wife
I hit send.
10
JESS
“Are you still here?” Dad’s voice makes me jump.
“Fucking hell. You scared the shit out of me.”
Dad chuckles as he moseys through the house that I’ve been working on all day.
The three-bedroom, three-bathroom home is one of my parents’ best finds. It’s barely outside of the city limits and is surrounded by vegetation, so you can’t see it from the road. But once you turn onto the driveway and pull through the row of bushes and trees, the lawn opens, and the neatest little house sits in the middle of half an acre.
Moss and I each run a team of construction workers and a designer that completely transforms properties for Laguna Homes. Mom and Dad buy them, we fix them up, and then our parents work with Maddox to sell for a profit.
It’s a nice thing we have going. And through the years, Moss and I have never argued over who gets to work on a project. But I would’ve fought him over this one.
I grab a broom and sweep up the dust and debris from today’s work on the floor.
“Yeah, I’m about done,” I say. “I didn’t have anything else to do, so I thought I’d get a jump start on this. At least get some of the kitchen gutted so we can see what we’re working with on Monday.”
Dad stops next to the window and takes in the open space. “There’s a lot of potential here.”
“I know. I’m really excited to see what we can do with this.” I brush the dust into a pan and then dump it in a trash bag I stretched over an empty box. “Now that I’ve spent a little time in here, I think we consider taking the laundry room out of the hallway and using that for storage. And I don’t think it would be that expensive or difficult to build out a butler’s pantry thing here leading into the dining room.”
“Where are you going to put the laundry?”
“Garage. We can fashion a mudroom out there. There’s plenty of space in the back because the bays are so deep.”
Dad mulls it over.
“What are you doing today, anyway?” I ask him.
“The truth?”
I grin.
“Staying the hell away from your mom and Banks,” he says.
I’m amused. “Banks is fun and games until he’s at your house, huh?”
“For fuck’s sake, Jess. The boy is relentless. I don’t know what time he got there this morning, but I come out of the bathroom with a towel on. It’s supposed to just be your mom and me there at eight o’clock, so I didn’t bother to really hide my junk behind the fabric, you know? And I round the corner into the kitchen and he’s sitting at the counter eating a bowl of cereal.”
I don’t even try to hide my laughter.
“It’s not funny,” Dad says, chuckling. “Dammit. What did I do wrong with that one?”
“You weren’t hard enough on him. Foxx and Moss and I had rules. Curfews. You had expectations of us. Maddox and Banks drank straight from the milk jugs.”
Dad grimaces.
I lean against a drawer-less cabinet. “What’s Mom up to today?”
He puts a foot on a low rung of a ladder and sighs. “Honestly? Nothing. She hasn’t done a damn thing to get on my nerves. But sometimes in marriage you just need space. You gotta get the hell away from the other person for a while.”
“Fair.”
“You’ll find out someday. Just remember that you’re not as great as you probably think you are, and your wife will get sick of you just like you’re sick of her. Space is your friend.”
“I hope you’re telling this to Maddox. He’s your married son.”
Dad shakes his head, but I see the pride in his eyes.
All Dad wanted out of us kids was for us to grow up and be good people. Your word meant something around our house. Making the right decisions didn’t mean choosing the easiest route. We didn’t have to do anything perfectly, nor were we expected to be angels—which is a good thing or most of us would’ve failed big time—but we must be respectful and polite, or we’d come to regret it.
They wanted us all to grow up and live a good life and be happy. And, so far, we all are. But I know that when Dad looks at Maddox and Moss and sees them settling down with women who are good and kind, that makes him proud. It’s validation, I imagine.