Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 31616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 158(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 31616 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 158(@200wpm)___ 126(@250wpm)___ 105(@300wpm)
13
MAGGIE
“I’m so glad you’re here.”
His words repeat over and over again in my mind. I wasn’t sure how he’d respond when I showed up early this morning, but he quickly put me at ease. Since his mouth touched mine, a tension I’d been holding in my body released. I can even breathe a bit easier.
This is bad.
By the time the sun came up this morning, I knew I was in full obsessive mode. It’s a wonderful trait to have when it’s geared toward my work. Once I lock in on something, there is no stopping me. I won’t stop, not until I have an answer unless I’m well aware the answer is beyond the realm of human knowledge or capability. Oftentimes, I’ll still have to run into that wall until I exhaust myself and know I’m never going to get anywhere.
“Oh!” I hop down from the kitchen island, where Alfie and I were watching Owen make us breakfast. “I forgot I brought you something.”
“All you ever need to bring is you.” He gives me a charming smile that melts all my insides. I’m a sucker, and I don’t care. I should. His smiles shouldn’t be so disarming to me, but they are. I bet he could extract all kinds of things out of me.
“It’s in my backseat. Kinda heavy.”
“All right.” He plates the eggs before dropping the pan into the kitchen sink. “Want me to grab it now?”
“Yes, please.” I try to give him a cute smile, but I’m sure it’s awkward. His expression doesn’t say that, though. Instead, he walks over and drops a kiss on my lips before heading toward the front door. This all feels so natural, which should be freaking me out, but it’s not. I want more of it. Of him. But I know I also have a mission to get to.
Quickly, I make my way around the kitchen island and plant a few of my bugs. I’ll have to do a little at a time. Whenever I can steal a free moment. The main one I place is toward the wall that I’ve been suspicious of from the start. I’ve tracked the outside of the home from a satellite, and now having been inside of it, I know he’s hiding something behind this wall. I’m dying to know what’s in there.
I have a secret bomb shelter, but I have to share it with my dad. I can’t go putting up a picture collage of Owen with all the images I found of him. My dad would tease me endlessly. He already gave me a funny look when I brought the spaghetti home for him. Not that it stopped him from eating all of it.
Owen’s phone hadn’t given me much. It was pretty boring. The only activity on it had been him texting me after I left his place and me letting him know I was home. One name did stand out though. Gina Moore, a veterinarian, from the quick search I did on her.
She’s pretty and graduated at the top of her class. Gina is also very single, and she and Owen speak almost weekly. I don’t think they’re in a committed relationship if one at all. She is on a handful of dating websites, but I do know she has a thing for Owen. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a quick search that I did on her but a complete background check.
I may have also hacked into her phone and seen her texts with some of her other girlfriends. I don’t like it. Not one bit. I can’t blame her for crushing on Owen, but that doesn’t mean I can let her crush go unchecked. I mean, the woman took sneaky pictures of him when he was at her veterinary clinic. I know they were sneaky because they were at odd angles, and I’ve done a few of my own. I deleted all of them from her phone.
“You didn’t have to do this, babe,” Owen says, entering the kitchen. Did he call me babe? He holds the giant box in his buff arms. I’m sure he doesn’t even have to work out with all the manual labor he does around this place.
“You enjoy coffee. Now you won’t have to go to the coffee shop. I was told this machine is the best.” It grinds down the coffee beans and froths milk. It should fly too. The thing cost over a grand. Not that I paid for it. Sometimes packages go to the wrong places. Technology, you really shouldn’t trust it, but you can’t live without it either.
“Without the coffee shop, I wouldn't have met you.” He winks at me as he sets the box down on the counter.
“But now that you’ve met me, do you need to meet anyone else?” I fold my arms over my chest. He lets out a deep chuckle.