Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
“Hey, Rip.” Why was I out of breath? I really needed to get back to the gym.
“Yeah?” He looked up at me, his green eyes lit with excitement.
“Best surprise I’ve ever been given.” I laughed. “And now we have to hurry so the kids don’t catch us.”
“It’s not like they know what we’re doing,” he said as he pulled out of me and grabbed a tissue to start cleaning up my thighs without me even asking.
I was still smiling when I pulled my leggings back up and realized last night we hadn’t used a condom the second time.
“Rip!” Panic washed over me. “What if… what if the condom isn’t enough? After last night, oh God, we can’t handle more kids and—”
OK, yeah, I was high-key panicking for no reason because that was what I did when things were going so well, when they were so perfect, when I had this god of a man taking me against the bathroom sink.
“You’re the only woman I’ve slept with in a year,” he said softly. “And you’re on birth control.”
“How do you know that?” I stared at him in shock. Then I blinked. “And a year?”
“I was busy,” he said, slowly eyeing me up and down. “And I know because I know everything about you, even when I don’t want to.”
“I can’t decide if that’s romantic or mean.”
He barked out a laugh and then said, “Let’s go back into the kitchen and make sure Viera hasn’t killed Stu.”
“Oh, she already did.”
He opened the door. “The hell?”
“Swear jar,” Ben said in a bored voice as he walked by us with his iPad and headphones on.
“How did he even hear me?”
“She killed him in the picture she drew. I think I’m dead too. I can’t tell, but x’s over my eyes can’t be a good sign, right?”
Rip grinned. “Yeah, probably not, since that’s what the dead emoji looks like.”
“Awesome.” I took him over to the fridge. It was halfway covered with projects we’d been working on together as a distraction for the kids. They loved slime and they loved coloring. Ergo we had buckets of slime and scores of colorful crayons.
“What am I?” he whispered. “A vampire?”
“Uncle Rip, do yous love it?” Viera hopped off her chair and bounced over to us. “And can I know the secret?”
“Yes.” Rip picked her up and kissed her on the head. “You’re a great colorer.”
She laughed and wrapped her little arms around his neck. “Duh, I know!”
“Humble too,” I added.
“Yup.” He looked over at me, his grin slowly falling from his face and something more intense passing over it.
He felt it too, didn’t he?
The rightness of us in that moment, not just together in the kitchen, but together with the kids.
Well done, Monica. Even in her death she was still trying to matchmake me with her brother. And it was working. It was perfect. It was everything I’d ever wanted, I just hoped he felt the same way.
“I’m starving!” Ben moped into the kitchen and pulled out a chair. “Are we ordering pizza?”
“Nope.” I went over to the chili and turned the burner back on to warm it. “I cooked!”
The kitchen went silent.
Rip set Viera down and then felt my forehead, earning a glare from me and a giggle from both kids.
I stuck out my tongue at Rip, only to have his eyes flash as he leaned in and whispered, “So inappropriate in front of the children, tsk-tsk.”
I quickly grabbed a kitchen towel and started wrapping it in the air to create a whip.
“Run.” I whipped it through the air.
He gulped and slowly started backing away and managed to find a towel of his own. “You sure you wanna do this?”
“Fight, fight, fight!” Ben started chanting. Viera joined in. Stu just sighed and probably pondered pooping outside his litter box. Yay me.
Rip moved to one end of the counter while I ran to the other end, ready to attack. We went in circles as the kids yelled, and then I bolted toward him, snapping the towel.
“Damn it!” he yelled.
“Swear jar!” the kids said in unison, and then Ben added, “I’m gonna be able to get my Bugatti soon!”
“How the h… eck do you know what a Bugatti is?” Rip asked.
“YouTube.” Ben shrugged. “And some kid on Roblox has one.”
Kids these days.
I laughed at the exchange and then realized that Rip had zeroed in on me. I held up my hands. “Now, Rip, be mature… remember what that’s like? Where you don’t have fun and iron your jeans.”
He snapped the towel at me. “Weren’t you the one that said you were bringing”—another snap toward my thigh—“me out of my shell?”
“Maybe tonight you go back inside it.” I laughed.
He snapped the towel while I shrieked and jumped out of the way, and then he was grabbing me from behind while I screamed and the kids laughed.