Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“What was that?”
Gray cleared his throat, annoyed by the airport noise. “I said I just wanna be home with you, in our bed.”
“Mm, me too. Or a documentary marathon on the couch.” Darius hugged Gray to him, and it felt so damn good. Some of the tension faded away. “Do we have any more of those truffles?”
Gray grinned sleepily. After all the shit he’d gotten for those truffles… “There might be a couple packages in the back of the main pantry.”
“You’ve been hiding them from me?”
“I’ve been saving them for you.”
“Oh. You really do love me, don’t you?”
Gray snorted a chuckle. “After the drama with your sister, I’m not sure I should.”
As it turned out, Elise did not like it when her brothers enjoyed candy and sweets that she hadn’t made herself. She was the family’s very own truffle peddler, and she had an impressive glare to protect her territory with.
“Let the record reflect that you brought that drama on to us,” Darius replied.
Whoa.
Gray lifted his head and stared at him in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? I did that for you. In my world, you were gonna see the wedding favors and go, oh wow, the knucklehead really knows me. Ain’t he sweet? Instead, you just threw accusations around.”
This was some bullshit. Gray had put a lot of thought into the wedding favors. Each guest who had RSVP’d to attend had received a gift a few weeks ago, and Gray had figured, since Darius really loved those Ferrero Rocher truffles, they’d been added to the goodie bag. One truffle in one of those tiny cupcake holders with a dome-shaped lid. It’d looked so pretty.
The gift bags held some other stuff too, like a wooden pen with their wedding date, soap bubbles because throwing rice was wrong—and birdseed wasn’t the best option out on a pier—and a candle in a tin jar that held their wedding monogram. Cute shit! Plus the chocolate truffle.
“We’re dead on our feet, Gray,” Darius reasoned. “Let’s not blow this outta proportion.”
Solid idea, but it still bugged Gray. He hadn’t known that the truffle thing was serious. He’d thought Darius had made a joke when he’d said he’d have to hide those truffles around Elise.
Gray had discovered the severity of the matter a few days after the gift bags had been sent out. Elise had driven up to the cabin, waving a Ferrero Rocher truffle around, hollering at Darius, who was now banned from her shop.
“Besides, I told you I didn’t want any fuckin’ soap bubbles,” Darius grumbled under his breath.
Gray narrowed his eyes. “And I told you we’d have to go with those if we didn’t find anything else. Guess what—we didn’t.”
“Why?” Darius blurted out. “Why did we have to go with them? Why did we have to send gifts at all? We’re the ones getting hitched. If you’re dumb enough to get married, you deserve a fuck-ton of gifts as a consolation prize.”
Holy shit. Gray stiffened.
Darius realized what he’d said, and he groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It was a joke, Gray. You know it was a joke.”
Whatever. Gray clenched his jaw and withdrew, even going so far as to put a seat between him and the one who needed a consolation prize for getting married.
“Really?” Darius asked irritably. “You wanna pick a stupid fight over that?”
All their fights were stupid—and always began when someone was tired—but the dick had put his foot in his mouth this time. Gray shook his head and didn’t respond. Darius was the one who’d said what he’d said, but it was Gray who was picking a fight? Fuck that.
A few hours later, the bad mood was giving way to worry, and Gray was beginning to fret. Soon as they’d landed in Houston, Darius had muttered about needing a smoke, and he’d headed straight for the exit.
Reese had opted for a two-hour nap in some lounge, and Gray had…wandered. Wandered and wondered. He’d eaten, he’d bought a neck pillow, he’d eaten some more, he’d talked to Mom and the kids, and then he’d bought a coffee and made his way over to their gate.
They’d start boarding in forty-five minutes.
So had Darius been outside just smoking for two hours?
Gray sighed to himself and sent a quick text.
Can you warm up those cold feet and get to the gate?
They didn’t fight often. Usually when it happened, it was about logistics and time. If Darius presented a plan for building something new at home, it was in Gray’s nature to get rid of any obstacles. So he’d ask and point out issues, which sometimes irritated Darius because, more often than not, he’d thought of everything and had an answer for it all. Likewise, Darius was the same when Gray wanted them to do something as a family, like go someplace.