Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 737(@200wpm)___ 590(@250wpm)___ 491(@300wpm)
Our secret smile, and I love it.
Dad just watches us, steely at first, but then his face slowly relaxes.
“We have that in common, I suppose,” he says. “Rescuing women from maniacs in the worst storms to hit Washington in the last fifty years.”
“Yes, sir.” Shepherd nods slowly. “I heard about your situation. Not an experience I’d ever recommend.”
“Wasn't my favorite time,” Dad agrees.
“But we got through it, didn't we?” It’s my turn to squeeze his hand.
His thumb traces over the back of my palm.
Even with all this tension, he makes me tingle.
God, I love him.
Love him.
Like, we’re not even at the six-months together mark, but in this small, tucked-away part of me, I already know this is forever.
A forever I could never experience with anyone else.
“Cole, let me be frank,” Shepherd says, going straight for the first name. Risky. “I don’t need your blessing to date your daughter, but I’d like it. I respect you for raising an angel who's only thirty percent brat.”
I dart him a dirty look.
Dad’s eyes narrow and his lips thin.
Yeah, there’s no way he’s happy about this. I just hope he can respect another man who shoots straight.
Please be cool. Be reasonable. Be fair, I plead silently. Dad, don’t embarrass me.
“Damn. There’s no disputing the fact you saved my Destiny,” Dad says after the world’s longest silence. “Whatever, Shepherd, you get one chance. One. Don’t fuck it up and make me regret giving you a green light.”
Holy hell.
Another grim silence.
Shepherd weighs his words. I don’t know how to tell him that coming from Dad, this is basically the most generous thing ever.
Thankfully, he doesn’t need the memo.
“You won’t be disappointed, Cole. Thank you.”
“See that I’m not.” Dad’s eyes rake Shepherd again before he stands and extends a hand.
They shake hands again, and this time it’s a little less like two snapping bears.
Fortunately, Eliza walks back into this weird-ass manly ritual with a tray full of steaming coffee mugs, banishing the awkwardness.
“It’s sweet, it’s steamy, and it’s full of blueberry goodness straight from Alaska! Come try my latest creation,” she sings, pressing a mug into everyone’s hands.
Her eyes twinkle and she gives me a wink.
He’s hot, she mouths.
I have to agree.
Shepherd is a meteorite, scorching and fallen and brilliant, all blaze in body, mind, and soul.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever fully get used to how he loves me, though.
I’m still smiling into my first sip of the new blueberry brew. Eliza has a real 80-20 thing going on with her coffee creations, but this one’s an instant winner.
I can’t tell if it’s the sweetness of the drink that makes me so giddy or the fact that the two men in my life can finally make eye contact without looking like it’s pistols at dawn.
After another hour of polite coffee talk with them, we make our escape.
I rest my head on Shepherd’s arm as we walk the gardens stretching down to the water behind the house, hand in hand.
“That went well!”
“Did it? Sweetheart, you can’t ever cry again in front of Cole. Not even happy tears. He’ll put my head on the wall.”
I giggle. “Aw, he’s not so bad. He didn’t start brandishing his Navy knife or anything.”
“Not yet,” he says dryly.
“Shepherd, he gave you his freaking blessing. That’s massive.”
He glances down at the top of my head and studies me. “Is he always like this?”
“Wanting to skin my boyfriends alive? Yeah, pretty much. And you’re the first one I’ve ever brought home.”
Honestly, my other dates were only that. Never boyfriends.
Boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend.
The word feels equally alien and spectacular when I just want it to feel real.
Somehow, though, it also doesn’t quite feel permanent.
Will boyfriend always be enough to contain what he means to me?
This is so much more than a fickle high school relationship or a steady college guy with an expiration date.
It’s bound by real emotion, tears and tragedy and drama and even a little blood.
It’s like calling an old giant sequoia tree a shoot.
Still, I love how his hand tightens around mine, and his thumb does that thing again, caressing my skin.
Tingles.
The man makes me a human lightning rod, and he’s the only storm I’ll ever need.
I haven’t told him how much I like it, how much it makes my stomach swoop, but I’m sure he knows.
And I wouldn’t change anything about it for the world.
“It went well,” I repeat again, papering over the moment just in case he feels as weird about ‘boyfriend’ as I do. “Trust me. Give it a few months and you’ll be best friends.”
“You’re full of it.” Shepherd snorts. “He doesn’t even like me.”
I hold up a finger. “Doesn’t like you yet. But he doesn’t hate you. You have to do something really atrocious to lose Dad’s trust. Once you’re in, you’re in. Plus, I’m sure this is only a conversation you’ll ever need to have once. He basically said you’ve got the green light to go ahead and m—” I stop right there.