Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
“I am. All these years, and the man who I was meant to be with is the one who has always had my back.” My hands are on her shoulders, body locking tight when her words sink in. If there were ever any doubt in my mind that she still had any kind of feelings for Douchebag David, they’d be gone. Leigh saying that only solidifies it further, on top of the little tidbits of information she’s been dolling out, like not having sex for well over a year, what she said right now, and that one time she spoke under her breath about being married to the wrong man.
“Always, Rosaleigh, fucking always.” I kiss the top of her head and pull her way from the pictures, our fingers threaded through each other’s. I’m ready to have this conversation, to not have anything stand in our way, which is why I’m practically dragging her through the door. I could have slowed down, and when she took two steps for my one, I was tempted to pick her up to get her there faster. I barely fucking refrained. And when we make it across the street, I breathe a sigh of relief. There’s something to be said when a man of the law is crookeder than a dog’s dick and runs like the coward he is, and still is. It makes you worry night and day not about if but when he comes back, because if there’s one thing I know about my douchebag ex-best friend, it’s that he’ll make an appearance when we least expect it.
“Go check on the girls, sweetheart. I’m going to grab us a couple of bottles of waters and meet you back here on the front porch,” I tell Rosaleigh once I’ve inputted the code to her door, letting my hand go slack in hers, noticing she squeezes mine once before doing the same.
“I’ll be right back.” I close the door, expecting her to head in the direction of the bedrooms. That’s not Rosaleigh, though. Her cool hands touch my cheeks, cupping them, and I dip down when she starts to stand on the tips of her toes.
“You’re the best man there ever could be, Phoenix Drakos, and I’m never going to let you go.” My eyes close, and I breathe in her scent, soaking in the words. My chest expands with male pride. When I open them, I press my lips to hers, keeping it short so she can make sure all is right in the bedrooms down the hall.
“Right back at you, sweetheart.” We pull away from one another. The moment she turns around, her going one way while I’m going to be veering off the other, my hand slaps her ass lightly. The saucy grin she tosses over her shoulder only bolsters what I feel for this woman. I head to the kitchen. Clearly, Rosaleigh was settled for the night and didn’t bother turning on any extra lights on her way out the door. Judging by Rory’s shoes Leigh had on her feet, she was going for something quick and easy. I notice the house is picked up along the way to the kitchen. Rosaleigh likes things put in their place at the end of every night, especially on a Sunday when she knows Mondays are always a pain in the ass. I open the fridge and see she’s got the girls’ lunches packed in brown paper sacks. Neither of them can be trusted with lunchboxes, haven’t since their younger years. After they went through three a piece in one school year, she was over it. This way, all they have to do is throw away their trash. I smile. Rosaleigh has it going on—the girls, the house, the job, and now she’ll have me.
“All is good with the girls. They haven’t moved since I checked on them before I left to go to your house,” Leigh says quietly as she comes back into the kitchen. I’ve got the bottles of water in my hand, a smile still plastered on my face.
“The girls always could sleep like the dead. It doesn’t matter if a fire alarm were going off; they’d still be conked out. You wanna talk on the couch or on the front porch?” I ask, slowly walking toward her, drinks in hand. Leigh has lost the shoes, and on her feet now are slippers, the ones that have some kind of fluffy material, stylish and cute like the woman herself.
“Front porch, just in case. Plus, there are things a mother does not want her kids to know about.” My hand goes to her lower back as we walk back out the door we just came through. I watch as she slides the deadbolt out. That way, the door is cracked for not only us but the girls. The only bad part about this situation is that the furniture on the front porch isn’t like the back patio or the comfort of a couch. We’re in separate chairs, and a table is set between the two. That’s why once Leigh is settled in her chair, I move mine closer, my ass to the seat, and I pull up her legs so they’re on my thighs.