Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 91755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91755 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Fia: Stronzo!
Teo: You barely speak Italian, and stop calling me an asshole.
Fia: You start dating a man after a million years of bupkis and don’t tell your own sister?
I stared at the screen before realizing I was going to need to down several gulps of coffee before proceeding.
“What’s up?” Jack asked. “Everything okay?”
I tilted the phone away from him as inconspicuously as I could so he couldn’t see my family drama. “Oh, fine. Just my sister.”
Teo: What, now you speak Yiddish? Who told you I was dating a man?
Fia: You going to pretend you’re not gay now?
It was too early for this.
Teo: What? I’m gay. I’ve always been gay and out. What are you talking about?
Fia: BOYFRIEND. Tell me everything.
Teo: What did you hear? From whom?
Fia: My friend Noreen scored tickets to a Cubs game and swears she saw you getting cozy with some guy. Is that true?
Teo: Kind of?
Fia: And it’s not Chris?
Teo: No.
Fia: Don’t make me come to the city and beat you. Give me details.
I clicked through some of the sneaky pics I’d taken of Jack in Goose Bay and at the game last night. When I found the best one, I attached it to a text and sent it to her. It was from the game. His face was bright with laughter at something Sam had told him.
Fia: Oh. My. God.
Teo: Don’t get too excited. It’s not serious.
Fia: Do you have any other pics?
I started to click through until I realized why she was asking.
Teo: Stop perving on my pilot.
Fia: He’s a PILOT?!
I couldn’t stop a laugh from bubbling out.
“What’re you laughing at over there?” Jack asked.
My face heated. “My sister heard that I had a boyfriend. She’s giving me hell about you. Asking for photos like you’re some piece of meat.”
Jack grabbed my phone and clicked on the camera app before leaning in and kissing my cheek. He snapped a selfie of the kiss and then tossed the phone in my lap and sat back to finish his coffee.
I stared at him before scrambling to look at the photo.
We were clearly in bed together, sleep ruffled and topless. Jack’s dark stubble was like something out of a porn video, and for some reason my eyes were closed in a comical expression of ecstasy. My heart frolicked around my chest like My Little Pony on speed. I now had proof I’d had this glorious man in my bed.
I sent it to her and tried not to mentally strut around like some kind of boyfriend master.
My phone rang immediately. I was terrified to answer it and have Jack hear her screech, so I hit the button to decline the call.
Jack chuckled next to me. “You’re adorable.”
“Shut up. She’s going to embarrass me. It’s bad enough you know the truth.”
His forehead crinkled in confusion. “What truth?”
“That I’ve never had a boyfriend or whatever,” I muttered, hiding behind a big sip of coffee.
He reached out and took my coffee mug, sat it on the table next to me, and then pulled me into his lap until I was straddling him. Since I was still naked and he had on underwear, I felt a little exposed. I tried sneaking the sheet over my junk.
“Stop that,” he muttered, grabbing the fistful of cotton out of my hand. “I’ve seen you naked a thousand times by now. I like seeing you naked. Seeing you naked is my new favorite thing.”
He leaned in and kissed my neck. “So is this.” He ran both of his hands into my hair. “And this.”
We were never going to make it to the market, and I was a thousand percent okay with that.
My phone rang again.
“Fuck.”
Jack laughed and picked it up, answering the call from Fia.
“Buongiorno, Teo’s sister,” he said with a smile and a wink at me. “This is Jack.”
The screech could have probably been heard from the middle of Lake Michigan. I fell backward onto the bed and pulled the sheet over my face with a groan.
Jack put the call on speaker and then pulled the sheet off me again and yanked me back up into his lap.
“… and wait till I tell our mother because she is going to want to meet you yesterday. I hope you and—”
“Fia!” I cried, cutting her off. “Fia, please. You’re embarrassing me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Jack sounds like a perfectly understanding man, isn’t that right, Jack?”
His smirk was legendary. “Absolutely. And seeing bright red flags of mortification on Teo’s cheeks is pretty fun too.”
“Oh god,” I groaned, leaning in to hide my face in his chest. His deliciously hairy chest. He smelled so good, but I felt like maybe I’d already noted that a thousand times or more in my mind. This wasn’t the time for brainless Jack licking.
“Bring him around, Teodor. Or I will invite him directly, and Mom and Dad can ask him a few simple questions like how much money he makes per year and whether or not he understands the lifestyle demands of someone who loves cats more than football and who still to this day insists on all crusts being cut off his—”