Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
He looked fucking hot. Not that he didn’t always look hot, but Luke Warren sure as hell cleaned up well. I’d never really seen him in anything other than flannel or T-shirts, so seeing him all dressed up just to meet my kids made me proud, somehow.
Like we were worth it.
Like he wanted to impress my family, even though Luke never much cared about impressing anybody.
>>Cam: Not good enough. Why aren’t you wearing a tuxedo?
>>Luke: Christ.
>>Cam: I am kidding, and you know it. You look fantastic, and it fits perfectly. The kids are excited. We will see you at 12:30, okay?
In about an hour, we’d be on our way. I paced around the house, making some vague attempt to seem like I was tidying and cleaning. I pulled out my phone again, opening up the BackOutThere app and navigating to my private messages with Phlox.
>>LittleBit: Definitely doing something today that scares me. And good God, I hope it turns out well.
12
Luke
I paced around my backyard, looping my way through all of the different paths and through the greenhouse, trying to make sure I didn’t have anything out that wouldn’t be kid-appropriate. What was even kid-inappropriate? Dayna was nine, and Chloe and Cooper were twelve, which definitely still counted as “kids” but was closer to teenagers.
I barely had any experience around kids. I didn’t know what they liked. I couldn’t remember what I was even like as a twelve-year-old, other than being secretly pissed off at the world and wishing I could fly away from my home life.
When I heard the sound of Cam’s car doors shutting out in the front driveway, my heart started pounding like a drum again. I checked my reflection in one of the glass panels of the greenhouse, ruffling my fingers through my hair one last time.
I heard a girl’s voice.
“No, Dad, you don’t get it, Mary is the main character of the story and you don’t know she’s a witch until the very end.”
“The whole book, you don’t know?”
“Not at all! She’s—woah.”
I came through the side gate to see Cam flanked by his kids. Cooper and Chloe were taller than I’d expected, already looking well on their way to being teenagers, and Dayna was still short and clearly the one protesting to Cam about a book. Dayna was currently wide-eyed, looking back at the glimmer of the greenhouse past the gate.
“Guys, this is Luke,” Cam said, a proud smile on his face as they all walked over to me.
Chloe came first, holding out her hand in a perfectly polite way. “I’m Chloe, it’s nice to meet you, Luke,” she said. She was in faded jeans and an oversized purple hoodie, her hair back in a ponytail.
“Very nice to meet you, Chloe. And I’m guessing you’re Dayna?”
Dayna looked at me, shier than her sister, staying by her dad’s side.
“I’m Dayna,” she said. I held out my hand, gently shaking hers. She was wearing shorts and a tank top, and had blonde hair reaching down to her elbows.
“I’m Cooper,” Cooper said, waving at me awkwardly. He looked like a preteen version of Cam, with sandy hair and blue eyes. But unlike Cam, he wore rimmed glasses and a Chewbacca T-shirt a little too big for him. He looked like the kind of kid I might have been friends with when I was twelve.
“Go ahead and shake hands,” Cam said. He came up to me, holding out his hand to finally shake it.
“The house definitely isn’t green,” Dayna said, looking at my place.
“Want to go see the real greenhouse in the back?” Cam asked.
“Yes!” Dayna said.
“Let’s go,” I said. “The wisterias are looking particularly happy today.”
“Oh my God!” Dayna shouted, running back toward the greenhouse as soon as we’d made our way through the gate.
“I was not expecting this,” Cooper said, looking all around at the trees and the outside of the greenhouse.
“The backyard seems ten times bigger than the house itself,” Chloe added.
“It definitely is,” I said. “That’s part of what I liked about this place. My backyard is the main event.”
“Is that a tent?” Cooper asked.
“Sure is,” I said. “I basically go on little camping trips, but in my own backyard.”
“We should do that!” Dayna exclaimed. “I want to go on a camping trip in our backyard.”
“We can sometime, sweetie,” Cam said.
“You always say that,” Dayna protested. “Sometime. Let’s do it tonight!”
Cam laughed. “Probably not tonight. But soon.”
Dayna ran over toward the tent, and Cam shot me a look like he wasn’t sure if that was okay.
I nodded at him. “Go wild, explore all you want,” I said. “This backyard is made to be enjoyed.”
“You made that bird feeder for my dad, right?” Cooper asked.
“Hey, I told you I helped,” Cam protested.
I grinned. “Your dad definitely helped, but yes, we made that bird feeder together.”
“It’s pretty cool. Did you make everything else back here?”