Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
“We’ll make time,” I told her firmly. “I can keep the kids while you go tlak to someone for an hour.”
“Fine, I’ll make an appointment.”
“Things are good, baby. Nothin’ is gonna happen to the kids.”
“I know.” She was quiet for a moment. “I wonder if other people feel like this.”
“Normal people?” I laughed a little. “Probably not. People like us? Definitely. We grew up in chaos, Cec. The lack of it makes all of us twitchy.”
“Fair enough.”
“It looks like we’ll be startin’ bright and early in the morning, so you probably won’t hear from me until tomorrow night. I’ll text you when I’m headed out in the morning though, so put your phone on silent so I don’t wake anyone up.”
“Ooh, send me a picture once you’re dressed.”
“Don’t you want one before I’m dressed?”
“Hell no.” She giggled. “I see you naked all the time. I want to see you in that suit.”
“It’s nothing special.”
“Believe me,” she groaned, instantly giving me a semi. “It is something special.”
“I’ll send you a photo.”
“And it’ll go straight into the saved photos on my phone.”
“You know, we haven’t had phone sex in a while.” I smiled.
“We had real sex this morning,” she reminded me with a snort. “And your kids are about fifteen feet away.”
“Fine.”
“Don’t pout. I’ll see you in two days and then I’ll rock your world.”
“Deal.”
“I better get off of here, love,” she said with a sigh. I could picture her in the kitchen, leaning on the island like I’d watched her do a thousand times. “I need to bring our little monsters up to bed before they wake up demanding another movie and you have to be up early.”
“Alright. I love you.”
“Love you, too. Don’t forget to send me that picture.”
We hung up and I laid there staring at the ceiling, imagining her bringing the girls up to bed. They always started in their own beds for the first half of the night, but eventually one or both of them ended up in ours. They couldn’t sleep next to each other or all the sleep gymnastics woke them up, so Cecilia and I ended up back to back in the center of our bed with the girls on each side. Eventually, Forrest would be in there with us, too. We were going to need a bigger bed at some point.
I thought about them as I got ready for bed and turned out the lights. I’d happily spent most of my adulthood sleeping in the shittiest places imaginable and rarely in my own bed—but ever since Cecilia and I got together I’d started getting homesick. It was part of the reason we’d started our own company—so we could decide which jobs we wanted to do. I hadn’t been apart from my girls, and now Forrest, for more than a week at a time. It was a rule I stuck by and I was always reminded of how important that damn rule was when I got in bed the first night away. It fucking sucked not sleeping next to my woman.
The next morning was surprisingly seamless. A few of Layla’s fans were camped outside the hotel, but she didn’t even interact with them because we knew what we were doing and used the parking garage like professionals. I had a feeling if there was a break in the schedule, she’d go back to say hi to those fans, but I’d deal with that problem if it came. The news studio was pretty low key and we’d dealt with them before, so we didn’t have any issues there. Surprisingly the radio station was where we hit the first hiccup when they told us that firearms weren’t allowed inside. They didn’t have any metal detectors, so they didn’t actually enforce that rule for anyone that they didn’t assume would be carrying—which was bullshit. I wasn’t about to take my client into a building unarmed when they weren’t checking everyone for weapons. When I wouldn’t back down and Layla finally told them she wouldn’t be able to do the interview, they asked for our credentials, copied them, and relented.
By the time we headed for the concert venue that afternoon I was feeling pretty good about shit but we still went through the moves like we’d done hundreds of times before. Comms in our ears, eyes on a swivel, we checked and rechecked every route with Josiah and Ephraim a step ahead, making sure that all entrances and exits were clear of threats and ready for us to move through. We didn’t get complacent, not once, and later I would piece through every fucking moment of our day looking for a minute when we slipped up—but we hadn’t. Not once.
Josiah and Eph had checked with the venue security. They’d made sure the parking garage was clear. They’d checked under cars, ran license plates, even watched through security footage for the hour before we arrived.