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)
“You are…you,” she continued. “You’re gorgeous. You’ve got a shit-hot, alpha-male, testosterone-fueled job that pays big bucks. You’re a catch no woman wants to throw back. You will sit down and have that convo with her, and she will take it one of two ways.”
She put the mug under the Nespresso spout and hit the button on top, then returned to Knox.
“First, she’s going to sense your guilt and think she can use it to manipulate you into coming back to her. Or she’s going to miss your whole message, note only that you sought her out to spend time with her, not why you did it, just that you did. And she’s going to twist that into thinking there’s something still there between the two of you. The result of either of these will be Cheyenne continuing to stalk one, the other, or both of you and backing that up by doing increasingly deranged things.”
IMO, Shanti was, as ever, correct.
“This is why you need to send in the Angels,” Joey stated.
Considering the fact I worried Shanti was right, I was curious.
Thus, I asked Joey, “What are we gonna do?”
Joey shrugged. “No clue. But we’ll come up with something.”
“Back off until I talk to her and get the lay of the land,” Knox ordered.
“We’ll give you space, brother,” Shanti said. “But we’re still gonna plan because she isn’t gonna give up that easy and we gotta be ready.”
Knox didn’t look happy about that, and it was such that it was killing my “Walking on Sunshine” vibe.
“And by the way, I’m just making us coffees because I’m out and I don’t feel like navigating a grocery store on a Saturday,” Shanti said. “As soon as I set us up,”—she grinned—“you can resume your reun—”
She didn’t finish her statement because there was another hammering on the door.
Jessie was closest, but Knox stalked to it, opened it, and Martha was there.
This could mean anything. Impromptu brunch by the pool and she was there to give us our assignments for food (or booze). Her needing a hideout because she saw one of her daughters-in-law pull in. Or, even though her unit wasn’t close to mine, she was miffed the Angels had knocked so loud, so early, and she didn’t feel she should keep that a secret.
It was none of these things.
Instead, she said, gazing irascibly up at Knox, “Good. You’re here. So is Alexis’s father, and he had a few things to say Jacob didn’t like, so things are getting very real right now down in the courtyard.”
Oh no!
Alexis’s father was against her marrying Jacob. To the point he’d refused to pay for the wedding. He and her mom had been sent an invitation (I knew, I helped her address them). I didn’t know what their RSVP was, considering that deadline was a while ago since their wedding was next Saturday.
But I suspected his version of an RSVP was happening right now.
Knox asked for no further information.
He just turned to me and looked at his shirt on my body.
Ah, fuck.
I’d been guarding this secret and had no intention of ever telling it. Not even now that he was back. It exposed far too much.
“Babe,” he grunted as his way of telling me he needed his shirt.
Crap.
“That tee I stole from you? You know, the army one I liked so much?” I asked.
He said nothing.
“It’s under my pillow,” I mumbled.
Okay, so we shared a lot last night, including avowals of love.
But that said a whole lot more, precisely why I wasn’t ever going to tell him (all right, maybe one day, when we were old and gray and watching our great-grandchildren graduate high school, but not a day before that).
“Mm-hmm,” Shanti hummed.
Harlow and Gemma giggled.
“Well, all right,” Jessie whispered.
But Knox…
Knox stared at me…
And God…
God.
This man really, really loved me.
“Well!” Martha exclaimed impatiently. “Isn’t anyone going to stop Jacob from blooding the courtyard with what comes gushing out of his future father-in-law’s nose?”
The Angels started dashing out the door.
Knox jogged to my bedroom and jogged out sans sling (gah!), tugging on his tee.
I jogged out after him completely forgetting I was wearing nothing but his shirt.
Jacques jogged out with us.
You would not think Knox had a healing hole blown through his thigh just eight days and some change before with the way he caught sight of what was happening outside Jacob and Alexis’s apartment, and he started sprinting.
I hastened my step too, as did all the Angels (and Jacques, though sadly, my wee boy’s legs were very short, so he had no hope of keeping up with his guy), but Knox passed them on the stairs in order to get to Jacob, who was bumping chests, nose-to-nose with an older man.
Linda was holding onto a sobbing Alexis just outside their door.
A handful of other residents had fanned out around them.