Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Exasperation had my eyes dragging closed and my head wagging back and forth. Like I needed the reminder of how hot the guy was.
That was somewhere I would not let my mind go.
But I wasn’t sure I could expect anything else when it came to my grandmother. I had a mind that her drooling all over my father’s employees was half the reason he’d wanted to put her into a nursing home.
“You probably shouldn’t be peeping out at the neighbors, Lolly. You’re going to catch a reputation.”
She chuckled without a trace of shame. “Oh, sweet girl, I’ve had a reputation my whole life.”
“Lolly,” I chastised, trying to suppress my grin. The woman did not need to be encouraged.
My grandmother had been married five times. Four divorces before she’d finally met the love of her life when she was sixty. She’d been devastated when he died last year, and I knew she was still suffering from it, even though she always seemed to find a way to smile.
Almost eighty years old and she was still looking to the good. I’d idolized her my entire life, sitting at her feet when I was a little girl, dreaming of being as wild and vibrant and free as she was long before I’d really understood what it meant.
Her laughter was wry. “Maybe you should earn one with that cowboy. Looked to me like he might want to take you for a ride.”
“The last thing I need in my life right now is to get mixed up with the likes of that.” I wasn’t about to admit that I knew him.
Besides, I knew Cody’s type of mixing. That guy reeked of player.
Always had.
Always would.
I went for light, playing the entire thing off. “Besides, have you seen me? I look like a drowned rat. I think he was looking to win some brownie points with his new neighbors.”
Some place to toss all that brawn.
Too bad it’d felt like he’d lit a fire when he’d looked at me with those gold-colored eyes. Flecked in reds and browns that licked and danced like flames.
Too bad my lungs had felt hollow, and my stomach had felt too tight as he’d towered at the end of the trailer with the last of the day illuminating him like some kind of tempting silhouette.
Too bad my thoughts were tossed right back to the way I’d felt when I’d first seen him all those years ago.
I blamed his overpowering presence on his sheer size.
He had to be at least six foot three, a pillar of strength. Shoulders as wide as he was tall. I swore that I could have counted every muscled groove and ridge beneath the soaked fabric that had clung to his chest and abdomen.
Arrogant.
Cocky.
The man dripping sex and easy smiles.
He’d aged, though.
The boyish features that I remembered had hardened to something rough and rugged.
Worst of it all? I’d nearly gotten swept away by the undercurrent of something beautifully brutal that had radiated from him when he’d reached out and touched my chin.
Like he was on the verge of understanding.
I knew I looked different. The years have changed me. Inside and out. But I’d just thought…
Shaking off the direction my thoughts were going, I focused on trying to get into the box and did my best to ignore the way my skin tingled in the spot where he’d held me by the chin.
“Have I seen you?” Lolly tsked, taking a couple steps across our still-empty living room. “The most gorgeous girl on the planet?”
I finally got the tape up at the edge and ripped it free, and I gave a roll of my eyes to my Lolly, my voice drifting into a light chuckle. “You have a moral obligation to say that.”
“I think you know full well I tell it like it is. No lies come from this tongue. And you could be my twin back in my heyday, and believe you me, I was a looker.”
I laughed outright. “Don’t kid yourself. You’re just as beautiful as you’ve ever been.”
Her smile went wry. “That’s right. You and I are going to be the talk of this little town.”
Well, it was certain one of us was going to be.
A grin spread across my face when I suddenly heard the clatter of tiny feet rushing up the hallway that ran down the right side of the house, her sweet little voice carrying as she came. “Did you find my Princess Verona?”
I glanced up to see my four-year-old daughter standing just inside the living area, wearing her favorite purple jammies and bouncing on her bare toes.
“I think it might be in one of these.”
I’d searched through the trailer for the boxes with her name written on the side that had come from her room.
Madison.
She’d written her name on them herself, all the letters different colors, messy, and upper case. She’d insisted on helping me pack her room, which was how I was pretty sure we’d ended up with a missing Princess Verona, assuming the stuffed animal had been accidentally tossed into a box.