Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57908 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
And I was always looking.
“I want that.”
“Good.”
We walked home, enjoying the fresh air and empty streets.
“It’s so nice here,” she observed. “So much quieter than Toronto. Even at night, I hear traffic.”
“You ever thought of leaving Toronto?”
“That’s where my job is.”
“People in Lomand and other little towns have hair too.”
She laughed. “It’s harder to find a job at my age. They want younger, less-experienced staff to train. I have thought about it—I even looked into getting a job closer to Hannah. So far, no luck.” She sighed. “And I’ll admit, there are times I wonder if I should do something else. It gets harder to be on my feet all day. And my shoulders and hands ache more than they used to.”
“What would you do?” I asked, curious.
She shrugged. “I ran my own business. I know paperwork, inventory, all sorts of things. I could manage an office, work for a business, do bookkeeping or other things. But again, no one is hiring people my age.” She stopped. “Oh, look at that pretty house!”
I followed her gaze to the two-story house. Large and rambling, it had ivy growing up one side and a large bay window. A fence surrounded the huge yard, and it had a double-car garage.
“Nice,” I agreed, studying the lines.
“It’s the sort of house I used to dream of,” she mused. “Not many like that in Toronto unless you’re a millionaire.”
“You want a house?”
She shrugged. “I can’t afford one. And I wouldn’t want all that space on my own. I would love a garden and a porch to sit on, but I can come and live vicariously through Hannah.”
I smiled and stored that little bit of information away for later. I kept lots of tidbits about Cherry G in my head.
We kept walking, arriving back to my house in a short time. She changed into a T-shirt and shorts I gave her, both too big but looking adorable on her. I turned on the TV, loving how she snuggled beside me on the sofa while we watched the news and caught up on the world. It felt natural to have her with me. After a while, she fell quiet, and her head became heavier on my shoulder. I glanced down, seeing that she had fallen asleep. I wasn’t surprised. She’d worked all day, driven here to see me, and I had kept her up late last night and woken her once in the dark to have her again. She had to be tired.
I shut off the TV and carefully maneuvered her into my arms, carrying her to the bed. I slid her under the blanket and joined her a few moments later. She nestled against me with a sigh, and I relaxed beside her, amazed at how much I liked having her there. Her soft presence was a balm to my soul. I had never experienced such a contented feeling as I did from simply having someone this close.
But then again, I had never met Cherry G before.
I pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and closed my eyes, letting sleep find me.
With her there, it came quickly.
I woke in the morning with Cherry curled around me, her head on my chest. I carefully pushed her hair off her face, studying her in the early morning light. Her long lashes rested on her cheeks, and her lips pursed as she slumbered. I loved the freckles on her skin—they were lighter than Hannah’s and mostly scattered across the bridge of her nose and over the tops of her cheeks. I thought they were sexy and alluring. She’d informed me they were a pain in her butt when I had expressed my opinion. At the moment, with her still asleep, they were charming and sweet. Much like she was. Quiet, still, and not telling me off or flipping her gorgeous hair at me—all actions that I actually loved. Her spunk was a turn-on for me.
I glanced at the clock and then regretfully pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Hey, sleepyhead, time to wake up.”
She frowned, stretching her toes and shivering, then burrowing back into me. “No,” she muttered. “Not yet.”
“Baby, it’s seven. I know you have to drive in this morning, and I want to have breakfast with you first.”
She huffed a little sigh of air and opened her beautiful eyes, meeting my gaze. “Breakfast? As in coffee?”
I chuckled. “Coffee and a breakfast sandwich if you let me up.”
She looked around. “How did we get in the bed?”
“You fell asleep, and I carried you.”
“You didn’t wake me up to, ah…” She trailed off.
I stroked her warm cheek. “You were tired. So was I. I wanted to stay close. It’s not all about sex for me, you know.”
“Oh.”
“Sleeping beside you makes me exceedingly happy.”
“Oh,” she repeated.
I gripped the back of her neck. “And horny, but that is beside the point.”