Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 664(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 443(@300wpm)
Griffen and Hope had taken one look and declared that it had to be renovated before we could live there. Honestly, it wasn’t much worse than the apartment off the kitchens we currently occupied, and it was far bigger. Space. My own bedroom. A full kitchen that was all mine. A real living room. I would have taken it as it was, but Griffen had offered his sister Parker the job of renovating it, along with the equally run-down gatehouse Hawk lived in, and she’d run with it.
Parker had turned the place into a gem. The floors were refinished, the kitchen brand new. She’d juggled the budget to afford a gas fireplace in my bedroom. It wasn’t just going to be nice; it was going to be amazing.
I sighed. One box. I’d pack one box, get Nicky tucked in, and pass out. After I ate my secret stash of chocolate. Plan made, I stood, wincing at the pull in my back and the throb beginning between my temples. My period was usually okay, but the PMS was always a bitch. Literally.
Just one box and I’d call it a night.
Chapter Seven
SAVANNAH
I put on some music and got to work, packing summer clothes we wouldn’t need in the next few weeks and setting aside things Nicky had outgrown. I made it through two boxes before the alarm on my watch went off. Nicky’s bedtime. I headed into the bedroom to get Nicky in his jammies and introduce him to his toothbrush. He went with only minor grumbles, telling me about the trades he’d made with August and the cards August’s brother Thatcher had promised to trade him.
Thatcher, Scarlett’s oldest, was thirteen, teetering between young man and child. Old enough to eat with the adults, young enough to trade cards with August and Nicky. He was a good kid. They all were. And soon we’d have a baby in the house.
I pulled the covers over Nicky’s shoulders, listening with half an ear and wondering how easy it would be to get my hands on the baby once he or she showed up. Considering how excited everyone was, I’d have to get in line. My hand settled over my abdomen before dropping to my side, fatigue dragging at me.
Oliver and I had planned for three. By now I’d thought Nicky would have at least one sibling. Instead, it was just the two of us. The way things were going, that wasn’t going to change.
Nicky was enough. Of course he was. He was my world. I didn’t need a partner or more children. I had Nicky, my mom, and an odd kind of extended family in the Sawyers, who treated me more like one of their own than like part of the staff. I didn’t need more.
Most of the time, reminding myself of everything I had made me feel better. Tonight, it was going to take more than a pep talk. Tonight it was going to take the chocolate I’d been craving since my back had started aching that afternoon. Closing Nicky’s bedroom door behind me, I went to the galley kitchen in the corner of the living room, reaching for the cabinet above the refrigerator and feeling around for the bag of candy I’d hidden there.
A crinkle of plastic met my questing fingers. Dragging it out, I stared uncomprehendingly at the crumbs of chocolate inside. Empty? I thought back to the last time I’d raided my stash. I’d groped for the bag in the dark and shaken out one foil-wrapped chocolate. It must have been the last one. Throwing the bag in the trash with more force than necessary, I tried to think. I’d been looking forward to that chocolate for hours. The idea of giving up and going to bed was untenable. Tears welled in my eyes, and I gave a huff of impatience. Cranky and weepy. Fucking PMS. I’d rather just have my period.
There was chocolate in the pantry. I’d given it to the family after that awful soup. The rest of it was still there. Or it should be. Only one way to find out. I creaked open the door at the end of the hall and peeked into the dim, empty kitchen. Finn had left the light on over the stove, casting a warm glow over the room.
The kitchen was immaculate, the counters wiped clean, Finn’s tools for breakfast neatly arranged on the island. A whisk and a mixing bowl. Pancakes? Waffles? My mouth watered. I needed that chocolate. Poking around in the partially reorganized pantry, I came up empty. I could just go to bed without. I was a grown woman. I didn’t need chocolate. All that sugar and caffeine weren’t good before bed anyway.
Forget that. There had to be something in here. Somewhere.
Leaving the pantry, I crossed to the refrigerator, giving a sharp tug on the heavy door. It swung open after a brief protest to reveal organized shelves of food. In a million years, I never would have pegged Finn as a neat freak, but everything I’d seen in the kitchen said I’d been wrong. Right there on the bottom shelf were two precise rows of glass dishes, each one filled with something that looked a lot like chocolate.