Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“Whoooo!” they all said in unison, sounding like a bunch of teenage girls.
“Shut up,” I grumbled again. I was always telling my brothers to shut up. But they never did.
“Hey, man.” Lucky grinned. “You’re the one not getting any.”
Everyone laughed again.
“Don’t talk nasty in front of her. She’s a nice girl.”
They all ‘oohed’ again and I groaned. I was never going to live this down.
“How blue are your balls right now?”
I raised my eyebrows. I couldn’t lie. My balls felt like lead. They were working overtime since I met Suzanna. But I didn’t say anything. I’d hadn’t actually admitted that nothing happened. I didn’t say it out loud. They’d asked, and apparently, the look on my face had told the whole story. So they knew I went home hard up. Again.
Nothing much had happened technically, but the truth was, it felt like everything had happened. Rolling around with her on the couch had felt more intense than any sex I’d ever had. Kissing her was better than a hundred orgasms. It was hard to believe, but it was true.
Something between us had shifted.
Everything had changed last night. Even though we hadn’t taken our clothes off, it had felt extra-filthy fooling around with her on that couch. And by the door. It had felt like sex, even though we didn’t technically have sex. I’d realized that I wanted more than just sport fucking. It wasn’t even a fling I was after.
I wanted to fuck Suzanna really fucking badly, yeah, but it was more than that. I wanted to protect her. Be around her. Listen to her stories. I wanted to fucking soak her up. All her little quirks, her cute gardening clothes, her cooking, the way she bit her lip. Hell, I was even falling for her cat.
Falling. Holy shit. I’d been feeling it but I’d never put it in those terms. It was clear as fucking day. I was falling.
Interesting choice of words. Lucky is right. You are a jackass. You don’t even know if she feels anything for you, other than the obvious.
It was true. Suzanna might still be hung up on her deceased husband. That was a whole other element I had no idea how she was feeling about. I didn’t even know how long ago it had happened, or how. What I was feeling might be one hundred percent one-sided.
After all these years, I had finally found the perfect tree to bark up, and I might be the wrong dog.
If she didn’t care about me, I didn’t know what I would do. Lose my shit, probably. Drink for a year. Beg.
Hell, I’d sleep outside her door if she let me.
I’d make her care, I decided. No matter how long it took. I’d plant a thousand trees and fix a thousand things around her house if I had to. It didn’t even sound like work.
Other than the waiting for her to fall for me part.
She wants you, though. She wouldn’t melt in your arms like that if she felt nothing. She’s just inexperienced.
I glanced at my watch. It was almost time to get going. I was thinking five trees would be best, but I thought we only had time for three before it got dark.
“Did you load the mulch?”
“Yes, sir,” Kyle said, sounding like he was back in the service. I shook my head at him. I had never been an officer. And we’d been in different branches. But Kyle still treated me with the respect that an officer was due.
Most of the time, anyway. He still gave me shit like the rest of them.
I had to admit it. Kyle was my favorite prospect. Nick made me laugh with his cowboy drawl, and Drake was almost as big a pain in the ass as Lucky was.
But they were all here, after quitting time, to help me plant some trees. That’s what family did. And they were my family.
Even Lucky.
“Thanks for helping me plant these trees, you guys,” I said.
“No problem,” Lucky said, slamming his meaty palm onto my shoulder. “Just as long as you plant your tree, I’ll be satisfied.”
“And so will he!” Drake crowed.
“Everybody’s a comedian,” I muttered, tagging two other trees. “Load them up.”
This time, they all saluted me.
Chapter 14
Lucky
“Hold it. Right there! Tilt it about ten degrees to your left. That’s good. Hold it steady.”
I wriggled my nose where some of the pine boughs were hitting it. I had a face full of greenery where I stood, holding the ten-foot pine tree in place.
“Hold it.” Mac looked serious as he called Suzanna over to discus the placement of the tree. They conferred for a minute before Mac told me to twist the tree ninety degrees clockwise. Then he shouted at me that it wasn’t clockwise. I groaned. For someone who didn’t talk a lot, Mac was giving a hell of a lot of orders today.