Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
I considered this suggestion, sleepily, at the same time considering my bank account, which was relatively healthy, but it probably wasn’t vacation healthy.
Before I could share that with Knox, he bent in, gave me a quick kiss and said, “I’ll make the coffees.”
He took off.
I pulled myself out of bed, did the bathroom thing and met Knox in the kitchen.
He handed me my mug, rested his ass against the counter, I rested mine against the other side, and we sipped.
Mm…good.
“I’m not sayin’ this has to happen soon,” Knox began. “I’m just sayin’ it to put it in your head. But I like it here. Last night, at that meeting, seeing how you all are pulling together for Jacob and Alexis. The way you are together. The way you have your private space, but all you gotta do is walk out and you’re with family. I wanna ask Harlow to do her magic with your storage spaces, and I’ll come here. We’ll rent out my crib.”
I stared at him, my heart having forgotten how to beat.
“Again, we can wait. A month. Two,” Knox continued. “But when it’s time, I want us here until we get hitched. Then we can look for houses where we’re gonna raise our kids.”
I kept staring at him.
“Luna?” he called.
“You know, I’m a take-life-as-it-comes girl,” I stated.
“All right,” he replied, watching me closely.
“As such, I never really thought of who I wanted my guy to be. What I wanted my wedding day to be like. Any of that stuff.”
He said nothing.
“I’m really glad I didn’t,” I whispered. “Because the surprise of what I got is out of this world.”
His coffee mug went down.
My coffee mug went down (and I didn’t put it down).
Then he was all over me while backing me to the bedroom.
After my back hit bed and my man hit me, I said, “Since Harlow will be in organization mode for Stella, we’ll get her on our space too. Right away.”
Knox confirmed he was at one with this plan by kissing me.
Thus commenced a session.
As ever, I abandoned myself to this session.
So again, I was late for work.
Worth it.
When I hit SC proper, the first place my eyes went was Byron’s corner.
I wanted an update on Cynthia.
I felt a five-alarm go off in my head when I saw he wasn’t there.
He was never not there.
Always, on the dot, the doors opened, and he was up in our business for a dirty chai.
What did this mean?
I walked direct to Raye.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Byron?” she asked back.
I nodded.
“I don’t know. I thought you would know.”
We looked at each other.
Then we went to Tito.
His sunglasses came up from his iPad.
He was playing Merge Magic.
“Hello, girls,” he greeted.
“Hey,” we replied in unison.
It was me who went on, “Have you seen Byron?”
His sunglasses slid to Byron’s table, they came back to us and he shook his head.
Raye and I looked at each other again and went to Tex.
He was obscured by steam.
Otis, who worked the cubby with him in the mornings (Hunter did it in the afternoons) asked, “Hey. You need coffees?”
“I’m next,” the person at the register said.
“I know they work here, but I’m after him,” the woman behind him added. “I’m sure it’s hard work being a server. And caffeine would help with that. Even so, they don’t get to cut.”
“I make coffee for who I make coffee for when I wanna make coffee for them, and I don’t take lip!” Tex boomed from behind the steam.
The customers shut up.
Raye told them, “We aren’t cutting.”
I asked Tex, “Have you heard from Byron?”
“Who?” Tex asked while wrenching a portafilter off the machine so hard, the entire counter shook.
“Byron,” I repeated.
“Who?” Tex asked, more irritably this time.
“You know, corner table Byron.”
“Oh, right,” Tex said. “No clue.”
Raye and I looked at each other again.
We stepped back into the restaurant, and I said, “He had a date with Dream last night.”
“Date three? In one week? Whoa,” Raye replied.
“I know. I think they dig each other.”
We shared a smile.
After we did that, I asked, “Even when he’s on a mission with this stuff about Knox’s mom, I don’t think he’d miss the date. Should I call her? See if he showed?”
“Wouldn’t hurt. I’ll connect with Cap. See if he knows anything.”
We took our phones out of our aprons and I called my sister.
“Oh. Hey. He’s here,” she said as greeting.
“Wait…he spent the night?” I asked in a happy-things-are-progressing-nicely way, and Raye stopped typing out her text to Cap.
“Hang on,” Dream said.
I hung on.
My phone went with a text.
It was from Dream.
I opened it and stared at a picture of Byron sitting at her kitchen table. His hair was standing on end. There were three empty coffee mugs by his laptop. He was bleary-eyed but fiercely focused on his laptop screen.
I heard Dream’s voice coming through the phone, so I put it to my ear and caught, “…all night, doing something important for you.”