Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71303 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“Great, sounds like perfect timing,” Cam says. “It’ll be ready in less than an hour. Want to come by our house, or should we bring it over here?”
Marissa stands there looking hesitant, and then Stella appears. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Stella. We came over to invite you to dinner. Bacon mac and cheese.”
Jessie smiles up at her mother. “He says it’s better than pizza, Mommy.”
“Oh, is that right?” She looks hesitant, too. She’s not dumb. She realizes it’s not just an innocent neighborly dinner, but a ploy to spend time with her.
“Can we go, Mommy, please?”
Stella’s expression makes it clear that she wants to say no, but she doesn’t want to disappoint her daughter. Cam is much smarter than I sometimes give him credit for.
CHAPTER 16
STELLA
I resist the urge to change my outfit, but I do freshen my makeup, justifying that I’d do it if I were going to dinner at any neighbor’s house, not just the super sexy ones.
On the walk over, I have to call Jessie back to us because she keeps skipping ahead. “You didn’t like mac and cheese the last time I made it. Why are you so excited to go eat it at Cam and Wyatt’s house?”
“Because Cam and Wyatt are fun. Maybe their mac and cheese will be good too.”
Her first grade logic turns out to be sound, because the mac and cheese is delicious, creamy and rich, with a generous amount of perfectly cooked bacon on top. There’s salad too, and roasted brussels sprouts, and my jaw drops when Jessie eats three of them and asks for more.
It’s all so tasty that I eat a bit too much, and I regret it when Wyatt brings out a plate full of his chocolate chip cookies.
While Jessie’s oohing and ahhing over them, Wyatt bends and whispers in my ear. “Would you like me to create a distraction, so you can grab all the cookies?”
I smile and laugh, but what’s actually distracting is how his warm breath so close to my ear makes me feel. And the smell of him, so crisp and clean and manly. I wouldn’t be surprised if my pulse rate doubled from that brief exchange, and I’m glad the cookies are attracting everyone’s attention, because I’m afraid my reaction to Wyatt might be clear to anyone looking.
Sure enough, Marissa happens to glance my way across the table, and the way she smiles and quirks her brow tells me that she can see exactly how I’m feeling.
Marissa looks at the men, who are both in conversation with Jessie about their favorite types of cookies, then back at me. She tilts her head toward the men and gives me a look that communicates so much, namely: What’s wrong with you? You need to get after those men. Especially if they can cook and bake food like this.
I bite my bottom lip and shake my head. We shouldn’t have come over here. I’m afraid Marissa is going to join Ana in encouraging me to go out, but neither of my friends have kids, and they sometimes overlook the fact that I have bigger concerns than sex and romance.
Shit! Why did I have to think about sex? Ever since I walked into the men’s home, I’ve been struggling not to notice how good they look, or think about how they made me feel in that damn dream that I can’t get out of my head.
What makes it worse is that even though most of their videos are filmed outdoors, some short ones were done in their house, and being here keeps reminding me of things I’ve seen.
One type of recurring video on their channel that breaks up all the dueling and battling, is of Cam making morning coffee and wishing their viewers a good day.
There’s another really popular type that’s a montage of Wyatt, shirtless, doing household chores like dusting, vacuuming, and washing dishes, and their followers go wild on those, with comments offering all kinds of indecent enticements to get Wyatt to come clean their houses.
“Stella?”
“Hmm?”
Cam’s calling my name, and when I look up, everyone’s looking at me, except for Jessie, who's fully focused on the cookie she’s eating.
“Would you like tea or coffee?” Cam asks, sounding like he’s repeating the question.
“Sorry, I was lost in my thoughts for a moment. No, thank you. I’m good.”
Marissa is giving me yet another knowing look, but I ignore her.
After dinner, we all go into the living room, which looks both lived-in and comfortable, but also tidy and nicely decorated, with a lot of warm, dark tones and rich textures, like the plaid fleece blanket on the back of the sofa, which looks like it would be cozy to curl up in.
Their whole house is neat and clean, in fact. I saw some of it the day I brought the delivery package over for them, but somehow I’ve still been picturing them living like frat boys, imagining their living room being dominated by a giant pool table piled with red plastic cups, but it’s nothing like that.