Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 102(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 102(@300wpm)
“I’m in here,” Kelsey responds. The other door is closed. No telling what’s in that room. Probably a bed, some furniture to house a guest or two.
“Shit, woman, you leave your house open and unlocked for just anyone to walk in?” I ask, not say, without any pleasantries once my eyes land on hers.
“Deke, it’s not like everyone knows where I live. This place is off the beaten path, and I knew it was you when I heard your car door shut. You’re as noisy as a stampede of elephants. Hi, by the way. Sorry, I was trying to get this last order in for Beach Babe.” Kelsey is sitting on the floor, back to the foot of the bed, legs crossed in front of her, typing away on her laptop.
“Hey.” I walk further in, bend down. I was going to kiss the crown of her head, seeing how she’s in work mode. That changes when Kels’ head tips up and our lips meet instead. I’m not complaining, though, enjoying the feel of her soft pliable lips. I suck on her upper lip before pulling away. “I’ll go get dinner plated. Will that give you enough time?” I can see the dazed look in her eyes when I pull away, not sure if it’s from the kiss or me trying to do more after being an absolute bastard.
“Um, yeah. Help yourself to whatever. There should be beer in the fridge for us to have with dinner. Thanks for picking it up, by the way. I’ll pay you back as soon as this is done.” I’m already shaking my head at that bullshit.
“I’m not broke, sunshine. I think I can afford to pick us up dinner and not go Dutch.” I’m clearly going to need a lot more help when it comes to making shit plain as day that I want more than the fake relationship we pretended to have, or this friends-who-give-each-other-orgasms arrangement. Asa wasn’t much help besides telling me to do better. That leaves either talking to my other brothers, Leena, or my mom. There’s only one problem with that: none of them know Kelsey came with me as a favor, and the ration of shit I’d get from my mom alone… Yeah, I’m not prepared for that. Though, there is my father. He might understand it more than anyone. Maybe I’ll give him a call tomorrow.
“Fine. Next time, it’s on me.” I don’t reply. Over my dead fucking body will I let that happen. I walk out of her room and make my way to the kitchen, where I take the to-go containers out of the bags, figuring instead of dirtying dishes, we’ll just eat out of them. I grab a couple of beers out of the fridge and slide the key lime pie inside before rummaging through the drawers until I land on silverware, scooping up some knives and forks. It doesn’t take long for me to find everything we need and make my way towards the back patio. Operation “Make Kelsey Mine” is underway, and I won’t stop working until she is.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
kelsey
Confused, baffled, perplexed, bewildered, and puzzled. Those would be the adjectives to describe everything I’m feeling right now. It’s like a switch has been flipped. Deke with his normal gruffness about this not being in a relationship sure is acting like it. The array of food he brought from the Pink Pony as well as what I asked for was unreal. There’s so much leftover food I won’t be cooking dinner tomorrow, and I can probably invite Emily over to help polish it off, too.
“I can’t believe you got key lime pie.” Deke brings the fork up to my mouth, giving me a bite of the tangy yet sweet, the perfection combination in dessert.
“It was this or their ice cream, but I figured it’d melt on the way here.” He takes a bite for himself. “I’m not sure it’s the best ever. Florida key lime pie is out of this world, especially the further south you go.”
“Well, it’s not like Florida doesn’t hold the secrets to everything lime, so I’m not surprised in the least. No more. I’m full.” I push away from the table. My usual two beer allowance that I’ll let myself have on a weekday was allocated to one because of how right the food was, and I switched to water.
“Want to go for a walk?” Deke asks. I’m such an idiot. I should be shutting this down. This is not a relationship, I tell myself like it’s a mantra.
“Sure, let me just take care of all of this.” I stand up, picking up what I can.
“I’ll help.” Deke takes the majority of the empty drinks and containers, while I take the food I’m saving to put in the fridge.
“Thank you again for dinner,” I tell him. With my place being on the small side, it doesn’t take us long to make it to the kitchen. I open the fridge door, bend over because I don’t have one of those fancy side-by-side or the style where the fridge is on top. Mine is on the bottom. I’m an ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’ kind of gal, liking my money where I can see it—in my bank account. So, when I stand back up and turn around, Deke is right there, completely catching me off guard.