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 looks great, Cam,” Perry said.
I walked up and looked out the window, adrenaline surging inside me. It was Luke. He’d pulled up and was currently in the process of grabbing some sort of plants out of the back of his truck.
“Jesus, guys, quit staring,” I said, backing away from the window. “You’re being weird.”
“Not as hot as Perry, but you’ve done very well for yourself, Cam,” Rock said, winking at me.
“We aren’t even dating.”
“You said you went on a date last week!” Perry protested.
“Okay, okay, fine,” I said. “But we aren’t official.”
“Tomato, to-mah-to,” Rock said, waving me off.
I finally managed to herd them back into the kitchen like the pair of weirdo, spying sheep they were, and I smoothed out my shirt and hair before heading out front.
“You made it,” I said.
He looked up from the mini plant nursery he’d seemed to have hauled over in the bed of his truck. His eyes scanned my body up and down.
“Hello, you,” he said.
“Quit looking at me like that,” I said. “You’re making me wish we had about three hours to ourselves before this dinner party.”
“Three hours? Make that three days,” he said.
I leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips as he put his hand around my waist. It wasn’t until I’d pulled away that I realized I’d just kissed him in public, out on my front street, without even thinking about it. Gary could have seen from next door, easily. My kids could have, too, if they’d walked around to the front yard.
But instead of the normal panic I felt at a realization like that, I felt… calm. Good.
“Help me take these into the backyard?” Luke said, nodding at the plants.
When Luke and I walked back with the potted flowers and plants, the kids ran over right away.
“Luke!” Dayna said.
“I come with many, many plants,” he said, setting them all down in a row beside the deck. “There’s about six more in the back of my truck. I wanted to get you guys one each, but then I didn’t know which ones you’d like best, so I ended up getting… lots.”
“This one is the fly trap,” Cooper said, bending down to look at one of the small plants.
“It is,” Luke said. “That one might need a little TLC, but it’ll come back to life quickly.”
By the time Luke and I brought the rest of the plants back, Perry and Rock were in the backyard checking them out. I introduced Rock and Luke, loving the little surge of pride I got when I saw the way Rock looked at Luke.
I had never liked that before. Whenever guys had clearly been into Rachel, all it did was irritate me. But I knew Rock meant no harm by it—he was plenty happy with Perry—and I was in a constant state of disbelief about how hot Luke was, too.
“All right, dinner is about forty-five minutes away from being ready,” Perry said. “I hope you’re hungry, Luke. Like, really hungry.”
“I can’t wait.”
“Luke, my dad said we needed you here to help us finish this tent,” Dayna said, running over toward it and doing a few twirls.
“Hey, that is not what I said,” I told her. “I said having him help would be nice. I could do it myself if I absolutely had to.”
Cooper grinned. “Yeah right, Dad.”
Everybody laughed, and soon I was laughing, too. “Okay, you guys know me better than I know myself.”
Luke made it look like second nature as he quickly scanned the components, picking up rods and instantly putting them in the right places. With a little help from the kids, the tent came together quickly and easily, just as the sun dipped below the horizon. I propped up the battery-powered lantern I’d bought, putting it on the far side of the tent, and turned it on. The whole tent was bathed in a warm glow.
“This is a very good tent,” Luke said, looking around. “It’s big.”
“Bigger than yours,” I said. “You jealous?”
He snorted. “My tent is the best one on the market, but I do admit, this one is a close second.”
“We all fit in here,” Dayna said, rolling around on the bottom of the tent. “Perry and Rock could be in here, too.”
“It’s awesome,” Chloe said. “I still don’t like camping, but this is nice.”
“Backyard camping isn’t real camping,” Cooper added.
“And that’s why I agreed to sleep in here with you all tonight,” Chloe said.
“You guys are doing your first backyard camp?” Luke asked.
“Yes! And you’re sleeping over, too,” Dayna said, a huge smile on her face.
“Well, we haven’t asked Luke yet,” I said. “He probably has work early tomorrow morning.”
Truthfully, I was trying to give Luke an out. I knew he’d been plenty happy to sleep in his tent next to me, but having a bunch of kids around was a different story.