Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
I did know it.
I’d felt the connection just as easily as she did.
And we’d both been denying it…now there was no denying. There was just us. And everything that’d been behind our walls were now broken down and at our feet, surrounding us.
I doubted either of us would ever be able to get our walls back up again.
She moved forward and placed a kiss on the ink on my chest…the tattoo of my sister’s name.
“You hungry?” She asked.
I thought about it.
No, I wasn’t really.
But I needed to get up or I’d never sleep tonight.
And she’d gone to all that trouble to cook.
“Famished,” I lied.
She patted me on the side and then disengaged from my arms, sitting up and walking to her clothes.
She bent over, giving me the perfect view of her pussy, and my dick started to stir.
She pushed her feet into her panties, pulling them up and over her hips.
I hadn’t watched her taking them off earlier, but now I was admiring them.
And I couldn’t wait to take them off of her again.
Chapter 12
I can’t adult today.
-Coffee Cup
Tai
“You don’t want any help…” I said.
My voice sounded skeptical…as it should
I looked around Mia’s living room, completely and utterly confused as to why she wouldn’t want help moving.
“I just…I don’t think I can do it without breaking down and crying the whole time…and I’m tired of people seeing me cry,” she admitted softly.
I walked forward and gathered her into my arms, moving my face down until I could run my lips over her cheek.
“I’ll have the boys over here tomorrow to help…why don’t you and me just focus on getting you packed today?” I asked.
She pursed her lips, then nodded jerkily.
“Yeah, I think I’d like that,” she said. “Just…don’t be surprised when I have that breakdown…because it’s going to come.”
And she did have a breakdown…five different times.
And I held her through each one.
The first one was because we’d found a pacifier that’d been Colt’s favorite underneath the couch.
The second had been when we’d found a bottle that she’d lost when her dish rack had been pulled down off the counter when Colt had grabbed hold of it during a bath.
The third was the worst.
She’d found Colt’s coming home from the hospital outfit.
That one had been over an hour of listening to her cry, and it’d broken my heart over and over again.
The fourth and fifth had come from when we’d gone through the pictures on the walls. She told me about the first time Colt had his picture taken in the hospital. How he’d peed all over the clothes he’d been in.
Then she’d given me a funny story of the first time Colt had grabbed a lemon and immediately stuffed it into his mouth.
That picture was my favorite, and I asked her for a copy of it.
I didn’t know why.
Those memories weren’t mine…they were hers. However, I felt bonded to him. And I wanted that picture because it was beautiful.
Now we were making dinner…or I was. Mia was on her stool with a glass of wine in front of her.
“What did you want to be when you grew up?” She asked me suddenly.
I looked up at her from where I was cutting up chicken.
“I wanted to be an astronaut,” I said. “I’ve always been pretty big into stars, and they’ve always interested the fuck out of me.”
Mia giggled.
I found that I really loved that sound.
She hopped off her stool and walked towards me, wrapping her hands around my gut and pressing herself against the full length of my back.
“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve your endless understanding, but I’m going to take it. And try as hard as I can to give you what you need back.”
I patted her hands with the inside of my wrist, since my hands were covered in chicken guts, causing her to laugh.
“You’re humble,” she said.
I snorted.
“No…,” I said, hesitating. “The second you walked into the department’s gym, I knew I wanted you. Then you sat a huge problem at my feet, and I felt like, for once, I was able to give someone something…to offer someone more than just heartache and pain.”
I could practically hear her mind screaming for answers.
But she needed to know me…all of me. She needed to know that at one time I wasn’t a very good person.
And for her to know that…I had to tell her things…things I didn’t really want to tell her because they’d probably send her running.
“I’ve never gotten anything from you but understanding, acceptance, and…love,” she said. “And last night was absolutely beautiful,” she added.
I laughed humorlessly.
“It was…but I’m a selfish bastard for even doing that when we haven’t even gone on a real date yet,” I said honestly.
She shook her head.
“No,” she said firmly. “You really have no clue what it’s like. Everyone watches me, practically waiting for me to break down. You, however, do not. You support me. You let me cry, and you move on with me. You don’t dwell, or toss me worried looks,” she added. “And, for once, it’s nice to be treated like I’m not a grieving mom. It’s nice to forget, just for a little while.”