Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
I drive by her workplace first, seeing her car isn’t there and all of the lights are off. Turning around, I head straight to her house. I pull up to her house and see a truck in her driveway next to her car.
I park on the street, looking at the truck twice before walking up the steps to her house. I ring the doorbell, turning to look over at the truck again. My hands go to my hips as my stomach gets tight.
I hear the door unlock, turning to see Sofia open the door. She is still dressed in her work clothes, looking just as beautiful as ever. The smile on my face quickly fades when she comes out of the house and closes the door behind her. The feeling I had in my stomach gets even stronger. “What are you doing here?” Her voice is almost a whisper as she looks at me with a frantic look on her face, then turns to look at the closed door.
I watch her and I swear I feel like I’m going to throw up all over the place. “Is someone inside?” I ask as my heart sinks in my chest. My breathing starts to come in pants as I wait for her to answer.
She’s about to tell me something when the door opens behind her and, I swear to God, I’m getting ready to throat punch whoever is in her house. The door opens, and I see Casey step out. I recognize him from the picture my uncle Matthew showed me. He’s wearing dress pants with a dress shirt with sleeves rolled up at the arms. He stares at me with a glare. “Oh my God,” Sofia mumbles from beside me, and I look over to see her closing her eyes and shaking her head.
“Who are you?” he asks, his voice calm and monotone. He puts his hands in his pants pockets.
“I’m Matthew,” I tell him, even though we did meet once a long, long time ago.
“Why are you here?” His eyes never leave mine as he takes me in.
“I’m here to see Sofia.” I look down at her and smile at her as she looks like she’s ready to freak out.
“Why?” he asks, and I have to think about how to say this without sticking my foot in my mouth.
“Okay,” Sofia finally cuts in, “that’s enough of the interrogation.” She looks at her grandfather and then looks over at me. “We were just going to have dinner.” She looks at her grandfather. “Do you want to join us?” she asks, and the nerves that were all over my body are now gone.
“No,” Casey snaps.
At the same time, I say, “Sure.”
Sofia walks away from me to stand in front of Casey. “Be nice,” she tells her grandfather, then turns back to look at me.
I follow her lead and stand in front of her. “Hi,” I say softly and then bend to kiss her on her lips.
“Did you just kiss me in front of my grandfather?” Sofia hisses, now almost yelling.
I roll my lips and look over to Casey, who is now glaring at me even harder than he was before. His hands are out of his pockets and folded in front of him.
“Yeah,” I finally say, “I guess I did.”
“Can you not?” Sofia says and I put my hand on her shoulder. She looks at said hand.
“We were just going to eat.”
“There isn’t enough food,” Casey states, and I just smile.
“No worries, I’m not that hungry,” I lie to him.
Sofia huffs and walks away from me, my arm falling beside me. She steps into the house, stopping beside Casey. “Why would you lie about the food?” Sofia folds her arms over her chest. “You think he’s not going to see the twenty-seven plates of food Grandma sent for me?”
She shakes her head and walks into the house, leaving Casey and me staring at each other. Each of us sizing up the other before Sofia storms back to us and pulls Casey by his arm away from the door so I can walk in. I step into the house, and Casey takes one more look at me before he walks back into the house, leaving me with just Sofia.
“You never called me,” I tell her, and she just shakes her head.
“You would think one would get the message.” I can’t help but chuckle as I wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her to me.
“Oh, I got the message loud and clear,” I inform her and her eyes soften when I lower my mouth to hers. “Now, let’s go before your grandfather plans my murder.”
Sofia throws her head back and laughs. “That happened the minute you kissed me in front of him,” she states, turning to walk into the house but my hand slips into hers. “You are pushing it.” She side-eyes me as we round into the kitchen and I see the plates she was talking about. Casey is standing in the middle of the kitchen, facing us, his phone in his hand. He’s typing like crazy and looks up at us.