Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80391 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
One, I was marrying Adeline.
Two, I was having kids with her. Soon.
Three, it was time to talk with my parents. Have a relationship with my mom. My dad, I couldn’t give a rip about, but I’d seen the longing in my mother’s eyes. I knew she’d wanted to hug me. Talk to me.
If I was truthful with myself, I wanted the same. I missed her.
“This is a beautiful place,” Adeline said softly.
I looked at my place through her eyes. Eyes that only saw beauty in the world. Or had until tonight.
“Yeah, Shannon loved it out here. She’d come and tan on the dock in a vain attempt to get Sebastian to pay attention to her.” I laughed.
It still felt raw inside, to speak about her in the past.
I didn’t know if the feeling would ever subside, and thought that maybe it was a good thing that it didn’t.
I still thought of my child in the same way.
An aching longing poured through my chest at the thought of never holding her.
Hell. I couldn’t do this right now.
“I left because they said your father was trying to arrange the funeral. I didn’t want him to fuck anything up, and the guy that called told me that you relayed a message to me. It sounded like something you’d say.” She whispered brokenly.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Just, don’t ever do that to me again. I won’t be able to handle it if I lost you, too.”
My voice sounded raw, and it was.
I was feeling pretty raw, too. Sleep sounded like a good thing, and that’s what I declared when I unlocked the door and held it open for her.
“Let’s get to bed. I don’t want to do anything else right now but sleep, if that’s okay.” I said as I locked the door behind us and flipped on the front room’s light.
It was piled to the brim with the furniture that belonged in the rest of the house. The only thing that probably resembled livable space right now was the one bedroom where my bed was, which was a good thing. That’s all I really cared about right now.
“Okay,” she said, as she followed me into the bedroom.
I showed her to the bathroom, stripped out of my clothes until I was in only my briefs, and then walked to the back door and pissed off the side of the porch.
I chuckled a little when I saw Sebastian doing the same thing. At least I’d had the decency to leave the light off, unlike Sebastian.
After we both waved, I went back inside, locked the door, and walked to my bedroom to find Adeline asleep on the four-poster king sized bed directly in the middle.
I had to smile as I walked to the dresser, opened the top drawer, and pulled out the engagement ring that I’d had for nearly a week now. At least I was lucky enough to hide it here with the rest of my valuables, or those would’ve been gone, too, after the fire.
Replacing it back in the drawer, I walked to the side of the bed, lifted the covers, and crawled in beside my woman. She was soft and willing as she turned into my body. Fortunately, I was too exhausted to think about anything that had happened in the past couple of days. Unluckily, I woke up in the middle of the night to a nightmare that was sure to be recurring.
The dream. The most god-awful dream I’d ever had. It had me sweating bullets as I was jarred awake by Adeline’s hand.
Adeline was up on an elbow, looking at me in concern.
I hadn’t given it a second thought earlier, but my unconscious hadn’t forgotten, and now I couldn’t slip the mental pictures of the bodies in the drawers. One of those that had been burned could’ve very well been my sister.
Logically, I knew they weren’t my sister. My sister’s remains were being examined by the BPD coroner. Was that what she would’ve looked like?
“Kettle?” Adeline asked worriedly.
My eyes snapped to hers, nearly black in the pre-light dawn. The time of day where you knew the sun was about to come up, but it was still practically dark outside.
“Wanna go watch the sun rise on my dock? It’s the only thing that’s finished.” I asked as I threw the covers off myself and stood.
My body ached, and I stretched my arms up high above my head, feeling my tired and sore muscles stretch and ease. My spine crackled and popped, making the tension in my body ease a small bit.
“Sure, but I’ve got no clothes, and from the looks of it, you don’t either.” Adeline said, staring around the empty area.
I snorted. “I’ve got a blanket. That’ll be enough for now. Moreover, I remember hearing last night that today is supposed to be in the 70s. Can’t be too cold out there.” I said as I grabbed the blanket off the bed.
It wasn’t until we were down at the dock that I realized we didn’t have any chairs, and the deck was wet with the morning’s dew. “Well, shit!”
“We should go steal a few of Sebastian’s,” Adeline said as she eyed the other man’s dock with its numerous chairs. All dry, due to the gazebo he had over the top of his deck.
“He’s probably awake right now watching out the window like he usually does. He’d kick my ass.” I teased.
“He wouldn’t kick my ass.” Adeline affirmed before she got up and started in the direction of Sebastian’s dock.
She’d gotten her hands on one of Sebastian’s favorite chairs before he came out in his underwear with a coffee mug in his hand. “Hey!” He said indignantly.
Adeline ignored him and continued down my dock before she came to a stop right next to me and thumped the chair down.
I sat down with a wave to Sebastian, who was glaring at me, and wrapped my arms, comforter and all, around Adeline as she sat in my lap.
The sliding glass door followed on the heels of Sebastian’s stomp into his house. Making us both laugh at the inventive language he’d just used.