Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79145 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 396(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“Still in bed. She had a little too much fun last night with her sisters,” I tell her on a chuckle.
She starts laughing and gives me a hug once I reach the front door. “The girls are still in bed, and when I offered them breakfast, they started throwing stuff at me. So would you like some breakfast? I have plenty.” She smiles, and I can plainly see where July got hers from.
“I’d like that,” I agree, following her into the house and to the kitchen, where she has a whole buffet of food prepared.
“I got a little carried away, but I like having the girls home, and I know one way to keep them coming back is by keeping them full while they’re here,” she says on a grin.
“I have no doubt they would continue to come back, even without your food,” I assure her, seeing a lot of my mother in her.
“You hitting on my wife?” Asher asks, coming into the kitchen, and I hide my smile. These two have most likely been together for a good twenty years, and you can tell he is still possessive and protective of his wife.
“Don’t know if that would bode well with you agreeing to let me marry your daughter,” I tell him, and his eyes flash with respect, the same look he has given me since the first time we met, and some of the anxiety about this moment leaves me.
“Don’t suppose it would,” he concurs, patting my shoulder then kissing his wife, whispering something to her that makes her snap out of her daze.
“Coffee?” he asks me, holding up the pot.
“Yes, sir.” I nod, and he fills a cup for himself and one for me.
“Do you think you deserve my girl?” he asks, and I’m actually impressed that’s his first question. I take a drink of coffee and look at July’s mom, who is watching me closely, more closely than she has any other time I’ve been around her before.
I swallow and set my cup on the counter. “No.” I shake my head. “There’s probably someone out there who can give her more than I can, but I would kill that guy before I gave him the chance to prove me right.” I look at her mom then her dad. “I love her with everything in me. Since almost the moment I met her, I’ve felt a pull to her unlike anything I have felt before. I don’t deserve her, but no one will ever love her like I do or will.”
“Oh my,” one voice says from behind me, but I don’t take my eyes off Asher.
“If we’re voting, my vote is yes,” another voice says.
“He has my vote too,” comes a third.
“I love my sister, but if she says no, I’m here.”
“April!” November snaps, making me chuckle.
“All right, son, you have my blessing. Now you just have to ask my girl,” he says, and the word son fills me with a sense of pride.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Don’t thank me; turn around and look at the girls behind you,” he tells me, and I do as he says, taking in July’s four sisters. “I didn’t have any boys. I had five girls…five beautiful girls I swear to Christ were put on this earth to torture me.” There is a lot of yelling, “Hey!” from the girls, all of them glaring at him. “You’re the first man, which means some of this weight has been lifted off me, and you now have the responsibility of helping me look out for my girls. Welcome to the family,” he says, lifting his cup to me then to his mouth and taking a drink.
“Well then, let’s eat,” November says, and I look at her then the girls, wondering what the hell I just got myself into. July is a handful on her own, and with all her sisters coming home over the next couple of years, I have a feeling I’m going to need some back-up. I shake off the feeling, knowing I have a few years until I need to think about it, and go and eat breakfast.
“Hey, babe,” I answer the phone as the girls pass around the ring I got for July. I step out of the room and stand in the hallway. All along the wall are pictures of the Mayson family, and my eyes land on a picture of July when she was a little girl. Her long blonde hair looked wild, like she had been rolling in grass, her dress wrinkled, and her tiny arms were wrapped around a giant dog’s neck, her head pressing into his black and white fur. He sat looking regal, the look on his face one that said he would eat anyone who got too close to her. I knew instantly that was Beast; I also knew from the picture the bond they shared.