Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 69096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
I close my eyes briefly. “I’ll tell you everything, but I need coffee first.”
“You’ll tell me everything?” Her eyes dance with excitement. “All of the juicy details?”
“No.” I shake my head. “You know I don’t kiss and tell.”
“You did a lot more than kiss, didn’t you?”
Carrie and I don’t have secrets from each other, but I’m not about to confess everything I did with Declan Wells last night. I want to treasure those memories forever as my own.
“I had fun,” I offer as a compromise, hoping it will be enough to satisfy her.
“Good.” She sighs. “You need to have more fun.”
“That’s ironic coming from you.”
Her cheeks blush pink. “I have plenty of time for that kind of fun when I’m thirty.”
I drop my gaze to the watch on my wrist. “You have plenty of time for that kind of fun today. I told you I’d get you set up on that new hookup app.”
“No!” she practically screams the word. “I’m too busy for that.”
I know Carrie isn’t looking for a random hookup. I wasn’t either, yet I fell right into Declan’s grasp last night.
I’m forever grateful that I did.
“I’ll make coffee, and you can tell me more about the mystery man you spent the night with.” She glances toward the shoes again. “You can also explain why you stole his very expensive sneakers.”
“My feet were swollen this morning, and my glass slippers were too tight. I couldn’t get them on.”
As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s the truth.
Carrie nods. “I get it.”
Of course, she does. She’s the one who helped me zip up the gown last night. Before I left our apartment, she adjusted the tiara on my head.
My fingers skim my neck to find the choker still in place.
I laugh at the realization that while Declan was fucking me, I still had it wrapped around my neck.
“He has big feet.” Carrie glances at the sneakers again. “They must have looked like clown shoes on you.”
Still laughing, I nod. “I had to shuffle my feet out of his apartment to the Uber and then up here. I was dead tired. It’s a miracle I didn’t trip and land on my face.”
Her gaze is still pinned to the shoes. “Is it true that big feet mean a big…you know what?”
“Dick?” I say because I know her blush will only deepen.
It does.
She nods. “Is it true?”
“In his case, it is.” I wink. “I’m surprised I can walk right now.”
Her hand leaps to cover her mouth. “Abigail!”
“That’s all I’m saying about him.” I smile. “I guess I need to return the sneakers.”
“You do,” she adds. “Maybe your one night of passion will have a replay.”
“It won’t,” I say with a hint of regret in my tone. “I think one night is all he was looking for.”
“Maybe that was true before he met you.”
If I ever need an ego boost, my stepsister is ready to supply that.
“A leopard doesn’t change his spots,” I point out. “Let’s get that coffee brewing.”
She falls in step behind me as I start walking toward the kitchen. “I think a leopard can change his spots when he meets his match, Abby.”
I glance over my shoulder. “Not the leopard I was with last night. Besides, you know how important my career is to me. The last thing I need is a man who wears big shoes to distract me from that.”
CHAPTER NINE
Declan
“Sundays are meant to be a day of rest, Declan.”
I glance up from my desk to see one of my closest friends standing in the doorway of my office.
Holden Sheppard has been an integral part of my life since we met in middle school. Holden’s best friend at the time decided it was a good idea to challenge my buddy to a fistfight after school.
Neither of them knew how to throw a punch, so while they circled each other with their fists in the air, Holden and I started talking.
Our friendship was born from our mutual love of the New York Mets, but it was solidified when we headed upstate to the prestigious Buchanan School.
That’s where we met Rook Thorsen.
We raised hell in our teens, went to college together, and while Rook and I tackled law school, Holden took a position with his late grandparents’ candy empire. Eventually, Rook landed at his family’s law firm, and I gave up my law career to partner in business with my brother.
We’ve managed to maintain a close friendship that includes monthly poker games and frequent trips to a beach house that Holden has recently inherited.
“Rest?” I cock a brow. “What’s that?”
Holden lets out a laugh. “Tell me about it. I may not look the part, but I spent the last three hours at my office.”
I glance at the jeans and sweater he’s wearing. As my gaze drops to his bare left hand, I ask the question that is always on the tip of my tongue when I see him. “How are you doing?”