Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131387 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
He bent his head to kiss her.
They were cute and all.
But I was staring at Hutch.
After he handed over his ten bucks, he caught my eye.
M&M? I mouthed.
His shades dipped down to Liam.
Oh wow.
He didn’t miss the instant hero worship.
Mr. Clean Eating wasn’t going to eat it. He just wanted Liam to think he was like the cool guy.
God, I wished I could kiss him.
Uh…
Dang.
Where did that come from?
We weren’t in the lover zone, we weren’t even in the friend zone.
Then again, I’d always been a sucker for men who knew how to handle children with care, and it didn’t take ten years of therapy to understand where that came from (or the three years of therapy I’d actually had).
Adding on to that, for one night, we had been in the lover zone. And it had been a very good night.
Thank you, I mouthed.
He jutted up his chin.
Yeesh.
Dudes.
Emma got tired of the furry cuties and latched onto another kind of cutie, that being Hutch’s hand.
I got a heart skip and a secret quiver watching his big, strong hand engulf her tiny one.
Skipping in place again, she stared up at him and asked, “Are you gonna walk with us through the fair?”
“You want me to?” he asked back.
“Yeah. You got a doggie.”
Boy, when she got older, and Hutch would undoubtedly still be Hutch, I hoped she didn’t remember she picked the dog over the guy even while holding the guy’s hand. She’d never forgive herself for it.
“Then I will,” Hutch agreed. “Wanna help me hold his leash?”
She let him go and clutched her hands to her chest like that had been her dearest wish all her life and squealed, “Yes, please!”
He offered his hand that held the leash. “Right. Hold onto the loop really tight.”
Concentrating, she grabbed on even though Hutch hadn’t let go.
Once Brett secured the paper bags filled with caramel apples, we set on our way.
Abigail gave me you are soooooooo gonna spill eyes.
To avoid that, I scurried ahead and fell in step by Hutch and Emma.
“How’s the rescue tent going?” I asked.
“With this crowd, we’re gonna run out of organic treats,” he replied.
“Any adoptions?”
“We brought four cats and six dogs. So far, the board has thirteen applications to go through tonight, which means at least three are gonna be disappointed. But we hope they’ll hit the shelter and try again.”
I smiled at him.
His head shifted the barest hint in a manner I got the impression his eyes behind his shades were resting on my mouth.
“Six doggies?” Emma butted in, thankfully before I did something stupid, like jumped him so I could try out that mustache.
She’d given up on the skipping and was now doing weird little kid lunges to propel herself forward, still with her hand clenched to Hannibal’s leash.
“Mr. Hutch is the president of the board at an animal rescue and wildlife sanctuary,” I told Emma.
Abigail and Brett were herding Liam on the other side of Emma and Hannibal. I was on the opposite side of Hutch. So I caught Abigail leaning forward and nonverbally communicating the threat to strap me into the iron maiden until she got the skinny on how I knew Hutch’s dog was named after a Carthaginian general and he was president of the board of a rescue and sanctuary.
“Sang-you-wary?” Emma asked.
“It’s where they keep dogs and cats safe until their forever families can come and pick them up,” I explained. “It’s also where they take care of hurt wildlife, like owls and eagles and moose and wolverines.”
Emma froze mid-lunge, looked up to Hutch and shouted, “I wanna see a moose!”
“That can be arranged,” Hutch told her.
Getting her way got her moving again.
“You save animals?” Liam asked quietly.
“Do my best, bud. Though, for the hurt ones, we got people with special training who take care of bones and wings and hooves and all that stuff,” Hutch answered.
“Whoa,” Liam whispered as hero worship went into overdrive.
“Don’t look at me. Nothing to see here. I just released a swimmer who made it all the way,” Brett muttered good-naturedly.
Abigail poked him in the ribs with her elbow.
Hutch looked to Abigail and Brett. “We do tours. It’s safe. All the animals are in pens. It’s up at Stony Bluff.”
“Think I heard of that,” Brett said.
“Can we go, Dad?” Liam asked.
Brett smiled at his son. “Sure, kid.”
His mom’s grin split Liam’s face ear to ear.
“Bazgetball!” Emma hollered, let the leash go, and zigged and zagged through people to get to the basketball hoop, run by, you guessed it, the MPHS basketball team.
The rest of us made it to her just in time for her to do her toe jumping thing again and beg, “Can I shoot, Daddy? Please, please, please?” She turned and pointed at a huge pink teddy bear that was likely two inches taller than her. “I want that!”