Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
I lean down to whisper in Haven’s ear, “You okay?”
She smiles wide at me. “Yes, I’m good.”
Dom waves me off. “Go on, big brother. We’ll take care of your wife while you’re gone.”
I point my finger at him. “Keep your hands off my wife, Dom, or I’ll beat you like I did when we were teenagers.”
He just laughs and chugs his beer.
I walk away without a worry. I know my brothers and have no doubt that Haven is safe with them. I walk up to the bar and order two of all the apps and another round of beers. I pull out my credit card as my brother Holden walks up beside me. “Want me to get this round?”
I hold up my card and hand it over to the server. “I got it. Good game last week.”
He nods. “Thanks!” He takes a drink of his beer and gestures back to the table. “I get it now.”
Confused, I shake my head. “Get what?”
“I didn’t understand the other night when you were telling me about getting married. After finally meeting Haven and seeing you two together, I get it. She’s good for you.”
I catch Haven looking at me, and I wink at her. “Yeah, she is.”
Holden leans against the bar. “So have you told her?”
The server comes and hands me my credit card, and then she shoves a piece of paper in front of Holden. “Can I have your autograph and can I get a picture with you?”
“Sure can,” he says.
As the woman comes around the counter, one of her co-workers comes to take the picture. My brother hangs his arm around her shoulders, and they both smile for the camera. All I can do is shake my head. He’s always had women falling at his feet, and I can’t wait for the day he finds the one. Then he’ll really understand it.
As soon as he’s done with the picture, he comes back over to me and slaps me on the shoulder. “As I was saying, did you tell her that you love her?”
I’m about to deny it, but there’s no use. I do love Haven, and somehow I need to convince her that I want this fake arrangement to be real. I shake my head. “I haven’t told her yet, brother. But I plan to.”
27
HAVEN
The day has been a busy one, but I’m still on a high from this morning with King. He wouldn’t let me out of bed until he’d taken me twice, and even then he didn’t seem to want to let me go.
I try to push everything, all my worries, to the back of my mind as I try to take care of everything at the community center. I’m checking off the list, and for everything I mark off, I add two more things that I just remembered that need to be done.
It’s almost noon when the front door opens. “Chrissy, what are you doing here?”
She rolls her eyes, walking in with a big bag from what looks like Red’s Diner. “My brother insisted I come to check on you, and so I thought I’d bring lunch for us both. You got time to eat?”
“I do have time, but I’m sorry King sent you. I’m sure you have plenty to do today without babysitting me.”
She waves me off as she sets the bag on the counter and starts unloading everything. “Please, I’m just giving my brother shit. I wanted to come see you. You don’t know how excited I am to have a sister.”
I smile at her, but it doesn’t quite reach my eyes. I’m happy to have a sister too, but a part of me wonders how long this is going to last. His brothers and Chrissy have all seemed to accept me, and for the first time last night, I felt what it was like to be a part of a family. “I’m excited to have a sister too.”
Chrissy takes out the last container. “Yeah, and not just any sister… I’m a sister that has brought you a slice of the famous apple cinnamon Blaze cake.”
My mouth drops open. “You didn’t.”
She opens the container and inhales it and then sticks it under my nose. “I did. You want to eat this first?”
I hold up a finger. “Okay, one bite.”
We each take a spoon, and as we scoop up a huge bite for each of us, we cackle because we think we’re funny. Nope, no little bite for us.
We start with the cake and then we go to the chicken salads. There’s no pause in the conversation, and I appreciate how easy it is to talk to Chrissy. She tells me about her job as a nurse at the hospital in Jasper, and I tell her stories about my modeling career. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.