Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
I felt spoiled.
More than that, I felt…hungry. I wanted more of this in my life. I wanted to reconnect with my buddies and play more music. I wanted to have fun. I wanted people around me again.
A few minutes before seven, James and I were done in the kitchen for the day, and we heard Jordan thump his way up the porch steps. We’d left the door open once we’d started sweating buckets.
The marble top was gone, and so were the other countertops. The drawers and doors to the cabinets were stacked against the wall in the living room, and James and I were covered in dust.
We were also starving.
“Dinner’s ready!” Jordan marched into the living room, the only place we could sit. Because I had been the brainiac who’d bought patio furniture before I’d considered finding a dining room table.
In my defense, badass sale on outdoor furniture in the dead of winter.
“Jesus fuck, that smells good, sugar,” James commented.
Yeah, my stomach tightened with hunger as my senses were invaded by the scents of cheese, freshly made bread, tomato sauce, garlic, and oregano. And something else.
“An official welcome to Picnic in Ash’s Living Room 2019,” Jordan declared. “And a big welcome to our neighborhood!”
I was gonna have to come up with a thank-you gift for everything they’d done for me today.
“It’s certainly been the tastiest welcome,” I said, eyeing the monkey bread at the center of the table. That thing looked out of this world. Tons of little pizza balls stuck together in a circle, with melted cheese and tomato sauce on top. “Goddamn, boy.”
Jordan raked his teeth over his bottom lip and gestured at the chair across from him. “Sit down and eat, please.”
No need to tell me twice.
“Okay, so there’s cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni inside each ball,” he said.
My mouth watered.
James grabbed the first one, creating a long string of cheese, and stuffed it into his mouth.
He groaned.
All right, I was diving in.
Had he fried the balls before he’d placed them in the oven? Or maybe he’d brushed something on them to give the outer shell a bit of crunch? Either way, I was in heaven. Fucking hell, it was possible I groaned too.
“Right?” James went in for another.
“Jordan, I’ll give you a kidney for this recipe,” I said, still chewing.
“Ha! No way,” he laughed. “Then you’d get the goods from elsewhere. You’ll get them from me now. Whenever you want.”
Oof.
How easily that could be misinterpreted.
A day later
Arlington
Nathan Riley
That was one down. Lily was asleep.
Ash carried her upstairs, and I glanced over at Micah.
He’d started blinking more the past hour, and I wasn’t ready for him to pass out yet. Hell, it was only nine thirty.
“Would you like some more candy, sweetheart?” I pushed the bowl closer to him.
The coffee table in the living room was filled with snacks. It was possible I’d gone overboard. Cheese board, vegetables and dips, a chocolate assortment, chips, popcorn, and one big bowl of candy. Yes, I’d overdone it.
Micah huffed and pushed out his little tummy. “I’m full.”
He chose today of all days to decline more candy for the first time ever?
A beat later, he yawned and snuggled up against me.
Maybe I should put on a more exciting movie for him. Something that kept him awake.
“Is Dylan gonna drive me to school?”
“No, that’ll be a while.” I combed my fingers through his hair. “He can’t drive without Daddy or me in the car until he gets his license.”
He hummed and shivered. “He needs to practice a lot.”
I chuckled as I scratched his scalp gently. “He sure does. We all do in the beginning. I was even worse when I was your brother’s age.”
Micah snickered.
They grew up too fast.
Even though we wanted Dylan to get all the practice he needed, Ash and I had struck a deal with him. Because our son could be incredibly reckless with money, we’d decided that he had to earn the gas money. It was time for him to show a bit more responsibility when it came to his spending. Not that this had stopped him from already asking for gas money in advance.
Hallie was the opposite. Every allowance, she set aside half of it. She’d even asked if she could get a part-time job when she turned fourteen this spring. She was meticulous about wish lists to her grandparents, preferring to ask for makeup and gift cards for accessories for her birthday and Christmas, rather than buy them herself when she went to the mall with friends. She didn’t spend any of her money on takeout or sodas; she walked around with a water bottle plastered with stickers.
If Ash and I gave her twenty dollars for dinner with her girlfriends, she’d order something that gave her a few bucks extra for her savings.
At least we had Micah and Lily. They weren’t in a rush to grow up. Micah turned nine soon, but he carried himself significantly younger.