Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55769 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Roman, however, had his gaze locked on Alice, and he looked like he’d been struck by lightning.
Shirleen might have been nervous, but she didn’t miss this.
Her eyes flew to Moses, and they got big.
This was the lot of any man with daughters. It wasn’t as if it was the first time it happened.
However, it was the first time it happened when his Alice appeared to have been struck by that same lightning bolt. So far, with so much in the world she needed to fix, she hadn’t really shown a lot of interest in boys.
That just ended.
Damn.
“Right, since everybody seems to be down with staring at each other, I’ll do this,” Julien stated. “I’m Julien. This is my brother Roman. And this is our mom, Shirleen.”
He indicated his brother and mother with a jerk of his thumb.
Moses stepped up. “And these are my girls, Judith and Alice.” He gestured both in turn.
“Hi,” Judith said.
“Hey,” Alice whispered, eyes still glued to Roman.
“Hey,” he whispered back, his voice a low slither of velvet that held such invitation in that one syllable, even Moses felt drawn in.
Damn.
“Nice to meet you girls,” Shirleen said warmly, and added hurriedly. “Let’s all sit.”
Roman, Julien and Moses bumped into each other, all intent to help Shirleen with her chair.
Judith laughed.
Alice sighed (still watching Roman).
Roman and Julien backed off and Moses moved in.
They had a round table so, at first, he was pleased Julien slid into the seat beside Alice.
Until Roman slid into the seat on the other side of Shirleen, which meant he had direct eye contact with his youngest, something he instigated immediately.
Moses shared some eye contact with Shirleen.
The expression on her face said both It’s not my fault! and It isn’t like we didn’t know this might happen!
He hadn’t been with her long, but he still could read that.
Judith waded in. “So, uh, you work for a private investigation firm?”
She asked this to Shirleen, therefore, she startled when she got three simultaneous answers of “Yes.”
“You work for a private investigations firm?” Alice breathed toward Roman.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Wow, that’s cool,” she said.
“Yeah,” he confirmed on a sly smile.
Moses turned his head again, leaned in and looked over Shirleen’s shoulder as he whispered in her ear, “Kill me.”
He heard her soft laughter.
Now it was him who didn’t think anything was funny.
When he turned back, he saw Judith’s attention on him. Him and Shirleen. But when he caught her gaze, she quickly looked away.
He didn’t know how to read that, so, with no other choice at that moment, he let it be.
“It’s the best outfit in the Rocky Mountain region,” Julien bragged.
“I’ve heard of them,” Judith put in. “There’s books written about them, right?”
“Books you’re not allowed to read,” Moses warned.
“Whatever, Dad,” she mumbled, aiming the side eye at her sister that was meant for him.
Two teenage girls, he knew what the side eye meant. Absolutely.
“What do you do there?” Alice asked Roman.
“I’m the office manager,” Shirleen cut in swiftly so Roman couldn’t continue to charm Moses’s youngest with his ultra-cool badassness.
“I bet that’s interesting,” Judith said with a tentative smile at Shirleen.
“It sure is, pretty thing,” Shirleen replied.
Judith’s smile became less tentative, and it moved to her dad.
Right, okay.
That smile was all good.
The server came to take their drink orders.
“What’s everyone getting to eat?” Moses asked when the server left.
The girls chimed in, Roman and Julien had never been there, so they took his cue to study their menus, as did Shirleen, even though he knew she’d already decided what she wanted. His woman was good at online research when it came to menus.
Things smoothed out from there, mostly because Julien demonstrated that he was, indeed, simply growing up. Or at least that was what Moses read in the Jesus, man, cool it! looks he was aiming Roman’s way.
Reading these looks, Roman checked back in to what was happening and its importance, which was both good and bad.
Good, because Moses no longer had to bear witness to his daughter’s yearning gazes at Shirleen’s son.
Bad, because Roman was no longer returning those gazes, so Alice seemed confused he’d suddenly lost interest.
Which might be why, when their entrees were served, she tried to learn more about the boy who caught her eye.
“So, I don’t want to be nosy, but we’re all kinda in this together, and Dad told us you guys were adopted.” She gave a sweet smile to Julien and added, “I mean, it’s also kinda obvious, you know.”
Julien smiled back. “Yeah.”
“We were runaways,” Roman announced, his attention fixed to Alice.
Her attention shifted right to him, then she sat completely still and stared at him.
Judith’s gaze raced to her dad.
Shirleen’s hand curled around Moses’s thigh.
“I got shot,” Roman continued.
Judith gasped.
Alice put her hand on the table like she needed to steady herself or she’d fall out of her chair.