Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
I take a pen and paper now and start to track all the lineage to William and Nancy. When I click William’s name, I find out he went by Samuel and was born in eighteen hundred and married Sally in eighteen nineteen.
I get up to walk over to the whiteboard and fill in their family tree, unsure if it will lead to anything. I’m about to go back to the computer when there is a knock on the door. I walk down the steps, my eyes on the glass door. The person is there and has his head bent forward. I unlock the door and pull it open, seeing him standing there. He has both hands outstretched on the side, holding the doorjamb. His head looks up, and I see his golden-brown-almost-hazel eyes right before his mouth goes into a smirk. “Hey, baby.”
I roll my eyes and fold my arms over my chest as if his presence does nothing for me. I think I’m a good poker player because everything inside me screams that he’s here. “What are you doing here?”
He takes a step in, and I have no choice but to take a step back. He grabs my hip with one hand, while his foot comes out to slam the door shut, and the other hand grabs one of my folded arms, pulling me to him. “I missed you,” he answers, and I’m about to say something else to him when his mouth crashes down on mine, and just like all those other times, I forget my own damn name.
Chapter 18
Caleb
“I missed you,” I answer when I have her in my arms, and her body semi-melts into me. She’s about to say something else, but before she even does it, I move my hand that was on her hip to her face, my mouth crashing over hers. My tongue slides into her mouth, and the minute it touches hers, she melts into my arms. Her arms loosen from her chest, and she moves one to wrap around my shoulder while the other grips my hip. I wasn’t planning to kiss her as soon as I got here. But one look at her and I just couldn’t help myself. When she’s near me all common sense goes out the door and everything in my settles when she is near. Fuck, I didn’t have any plans except to come and see her.
“Caleb,” she pants out my name when she lets go of my lips and I watch her eyes slowly flutter open.
“Yeah, baby?” I say, my thumb rubbing her bottom lip. I can see she’s trying to think of something to say to close this down. “I missed you.”
“Stop saying that,” she whispers and looks from my eyes to my mouth and back up again.
“But I did.” I rub her cheek with my thumb. “I missed you”—she doesn’t say anything as her arm around my shoulder runs down the front of my chest—“and you kind of missed me.”
“No, I didn’t,” she quickly adds, trying to dislodge herself from my arms, but I just pull her closer to me. She gives up after a second and avoids my eyes when she says, “I maybe was wondering where you went.”
“That means you missed me.” I laugh, rubbing her back.
“That means I was curious as to where you were lurking.” She pushes out of my arms, and I let her, but my hand reaches for her, and our fingers intertwine. I bend and kiss the tips of her fingertips. “I was wondering if you were going to pop up like an ax murderer.” I throw my head back and laugh. “You know, those scary movies where the woman is getting ready for bed, and the guy is watching from inside the house, and everyone is screaming to get out.”
“Trust me, if you’re undressing, I’m not going to be hiding and lurking. I’ll be front and center, sitting there watching your every move.” I wink at her.
“That doesn’t sound creepy at all.” She shakes her head and I can’t help but laugh.
“I might even have something to show you.” She groans. “Something you want to see.”
“No.” She snatches her hand away from mine and covers her face with both of them. “I was drunk. So it doesn’t count.”
“You said it, so it meant you wanted to say it. You just needed a little bit of a push.” I touch the tip of her nose with my finger. “They say a drunken woman’s words are a sober woman’s thoughts.”
“Who says this?” She tilts her head to the other side. “Who? Say their names.”
“A lot of people.” I pull her to me, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. She holds both my sides. My T-shirt fisted in her hands. “You look beautiful”—I softly bend to kiss her lips—“and I did miss you.” I kiss her again. “And I’m really, really happy you called me.”