Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69537 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“I can’t,” I muttered.
She pinched my side.
“I’m sorry,” Auden apologized again and dropped her hand.
She smiled. “It’s okay. I really promise. I’m fine. I’m made of stronger stuff.”
“Seriously, I’ll fuck you up if you ever hurt her again,” I murmured quietly so only he could hear.
Auden swallowed and nodded.
“Not that I don’t mind talking to you some more, but Atlas is asleep at Garrett’s place on the couch. And there’s a baby inside all alone,” Bindi said carefully.
“I’ll get him,” Auden offered.
Auden left to get Glades, and I wrapped my arms around Bindi and pulled her in tight to my chest. “What the hell?”
“What the hell, what the hell?” she asked.
I picked her up and spun her. “What I mean is, what the hell were you thinking walking out of that house with no idea where you were going? And even worse, letting him in?”
“Well…” She started to explain what had happened, poking her little finger into my chest as she did. “I couldn’t just leave him out there, dammit! What did you want me to do there? He was sitting there running face first into the door.”
I reached down and rubbed Rooster’s head, followed by Rufus’s before saying, “Well, hell.”
She had a point. I wouldn’t have allowed him to stay outside, either.
Then again, I wasn’t blind, nor was I a defenseless woman.
“Maybe we should at least introduce me to your family so they don’t try to drag me out by my hair if they see me in your house,” she suggested.
I didn’t like the way that she’d made it sound like she didn’t belong there.
“How about we introduce you, and don’t tell them anything more than that. Let them make their own assumptions.” I paused. “Let them figure it out on their own.”
She smoothed my hair back with the hand that wasn’t holding her phone and the dogs’ leashes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into my shirt. “I tried to call. Or, at least, my mom did. Oh! My mom!”
She pushed away and pulled up her phone. “Mom?”
“Still here. Fanning myself,” Mom replied. “Is the entire Carter family attractive, Garrett?”
I couldn’t stop the stupid smile that split my face.
“How are you even seeing how attractive they are, Mom? It’s dark out here,” she countered, giving me some time to recover from the sexualized comment.
“They have great street lighting,” her mother answered.
She was right, though.
That was one of the things that we’d made sure to put in on the Carter subdivision. Great lighting.
With all of us being cops, we wanted to make sure our families were safe.
Plus, the kids could play outside once it got dark and still be able to see and entertain themselves.
“There’s Auden,” I said as he walked out with the baby, a diaper bag, and a newly made bottle since Glades was wide-ass awake and screaming his head off.
“You woke him up,” I accused.
Auden shrugged. “Couldn’t be helped. They shouldn’t be trying to be quiet anyway. Kid needs to get used to the chaos.”
“I agree,” my future mother-in-law said. “Being quiet around babies is a landmine waiting to happen. One day you’re being quiet so you don’t wake the baby up, and the next day your daughter is an adult that can’t sleep when she hears the damn clock ticking in the living room.”
“Listen, Mother,” the woman in my arms said. “It’s not the ticking that bothers me. It’s that you have a hundred freakin’ clocks on your damn living room wall and all of the fuckers go off at different times, and click all willy-nilly.”
That might fuck me up, too.
Not that I’d be saying that.
I wanted her to like me after all.
After saying goodbye to Lea, the group walked back to my place.
I let the dogs off their leashes and let them walk at the pace that they wanted and made it back into the house just as Boss opened the front door with his foot.
One day I’d have to think about replacing the lever door.
It was a mistake.
“That’s convenient,” Auden muttered.
“Until he lets himself out in the middle of the night, and you forgot to lock the door, but didn’t forget to arm the alarm. And he sets it off and scares the shit out of you,” I shared.
“Maybe I should get an alarm,” Bindi said as I closed the door behind us all. “Or maybe one of those little alarms that beeps when you open and close the door like yours does.”
I’d forgotten mine even did that, I was so used to it now.
“That would be a great add-on,” Auden said as he walked to the couch, sat, and popped the bottle he made into Glades’s mouth.
Just as he calmed down and started sucking, Atlas popped up off the couch like he’d been electrocuted.
He started looking around wildly, and I held up my hand—the one that wasn’t still around Bindi’s body—and said, “Calm down, bro. We got this.”