Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Her sweater went up so fast that the only thing I could do was tackle her to the ground.
I hit her hard, and her body slammed to the floor under mine.
Almost instantly, I was up and off her, rolling her around, back-to-front, again and again.
“Shit!” Downy said, dropping down to his knees beside us.
I moved completely off of Aspen, rolling her over so I could see her face.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded, dazed, her head the only thing that moved.
“You’re sure?” I asked.
She nodded again.
“Can you breathe?” Downy asked laughingly, poking Aspen in the side. “He took you down like a linebacker does a quarterback.”
“You suck,” she replied through a wheeze, rolling over to stomach, then getting her knees under her.
The sweater was a goner.
Her ass, though, looked to be perfectly fine.
Very fucking fine.
I licked my lips as the leggings she was wearing stretched tight over her ass as she pushed up to her hands and got to her feet.
I got up right after she did, watching to see if she’d fall or not.
Once I was sure she wouldn’t, I moved over to the oven, closing the door and turning off the burners, before I turned and left the room.
I got firewood from the front porch, stacked ten pieces next to the fireplace, and then went about starting a fire.
I had to laugh when I pulled out a box of paper plates, cups, and napkins that were being stored in the fireplace.
Then laughed even harder when I pulled out what appeared to be a teddy bear.
Once everything was safely removed, I turned the gas on and lit a paper plate, thrusting it into the fire.
As the paper burned, igniting the wood, a fire was roaring quickly.
“Where’d all that come from?” Aspen asked, pointing at all the stuff I’d removed from the fireplace.
“That looks like Lock’s,” Downy pointed to the now very dirty bear before stooping down to pick it up. “I left your groceries on the front porch.”
Aspen smiled, and we both watched as he stomped out of the house, Mocha hot on his heels.
We both looked at each other.
“You want to stay for dinner?” She asked softly.
I studied her face, as well as the hands she hadn’t stopped ringing since I’d gotten there.
“What are you cooking?” I teased.
It’d take some near excellent cooking to get me to stay.
I was fucking tired, and the only thing that might keep me up longer than twenty minutes was a good, hot meal.
“I can make anything in the freezers.” She offered.
I looked at the fire behind us, then back at her face.
“Okay,” I said.
“Great!” She cried excitedly. “Do you want baked chicken or taco soup?”
“Chicken,” I replied instantly.
She grinned, then walked around the door and hurried into the kitchen, her sweater gone.
“You might want to change your shirt!” I yelled at her, just now realizing that it had a sizable hole.
Her horrified gasp had me smiling, but it was her anger at having her most ‘favorite shirt ever’ ruined that had me laughing.
“Shut up!” She cried loudly. “They don’t make these anymore!”
I rolled my eyes, tossing another piece of wood onto the fire before I picked up one of the blankets Downy had tossed back onto the couch and followed her.
I studied her kitchen as I waited for her to return.
It was on the newer side of old, but, like my place, it was definitely in need of some tender, loving care.
Aspen came back into the room, a look of sheer annoyance on her face as she practically waddled into the room, a heavy winter cloak covering her body from mid-thigh up.
“You want this?” I asked her once she came back in the kitchen.
She looked at me, held up her hands, and gestured to the blanket.
“What, you don’t like this?” She indicated the jacket.
I grinned, then studied it.
“It looks like one of those jackets you get at the Ice Place in Dallas,” I said. “Did you steal it?”
She shook her head.
“No,” she said. “Not… exactly.”
I snorted.
“They had those out at Disney on Ice. And they make you pay for it if you don’t give it back,” I said.
“That’s true,” she said. “But I stole it from the ex. He bought it for his ex, but he never gave it to her.”
I snorted.
“That’s a lie,” I said. “He probably just didn’t want to hear you bitching about wearing another girl’s clothes.”
She pursed her lips, then shook her head.
“I’m not contemplating that right now,” she ignored me. “Now move over so I can get into the freezer.”
I moved, leaning my hips against the counter, unfolding the blanket.
Once I’d wrapped it around myself, I watched as she practically disappeared into the large deep freezer.
“When I got on house arrest,” she chattered. “Naomi brought me a shit ton of meat and staples,” she said from somewhere deep in the freezer. She emerged long moments later with her hands full of foil pans. “And I sat down and made a shit ton of freezer meals.”