Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 87439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 437(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
But we’d made it through the stormiest parts and now…life was blissfully ordinary again.
We were just a couple of guys who lived together in a quiet town in Vermont and shared child-rearing duties with my ex-wife and her husband, who’d recently relocated to Pinecrest. Oh…and we were dog dads to two rescue Labs—one who was adorable but incredibly lazy and the other who had more energy than three dogs put together.
A trip to our local animal rescue was the first item on Silas’s agenda after he’d officially moved in with me.
“Sorry, babe. I promised the kids. Don’t worry. I’ll help take care of the puppy too,” he’d assured me.
“Puppy? Wait up. Puppies are too much work. Let’s not—”
“Relax, Dad. I’m here now. We got this.”
Max was a three-year-old sweetheart, and Ivy and Chase were head over heels for him. Max adjusted well, but Silas worried his low energy was a sign of doggy depression and soon began a campaign to convince me that Max needed a brother or sister.
Yeah, I’d folded like a cheap suit. Two dogs was nothing. I would have given Silas the moon on a platter if I could. I’d give him my world.
I sipped my coffee and eyed my handsome man as he tossed his cell onto the island. “Everything okay?”
Silas grinned. “I think so. Ger says the contract will be ironed out by next week. Monday nights and occasional weekend gigs during the season. I’ll be home for carpooling, dog-walking duties, coaching flag football games, and to fuck your brains out almost every night during the week. I told him I wouldn’t settle for anything less.”
I set my mug aside and yanked at the elastic on Silas’s workout shorts. “You added a sex clause?”
“Of course. Sex is important, Coop,” he singsonged, sliding his palm along my crotch.
“I agree.” I kissed a path from his ear to his jawline. “But…we’ll have to wait. Ivy and Chase will be here any second now.”
“Cool. How do you want to tell them? Put it on a cake or make a sign or…maybe attach a note to Marly’s collar and—Marly! Down, girl.”
I huffed a laugh. “I don’t know. Maybe we just…say it.”
“Okay. Let’s practice first.” Silas cleared his throat. “I asked your dad to marry me and he said—”
“What?” Ivy burst into the great room, Chase at her heels. “Oh. My. God!”
“You did? You’re getting married?” Chase gasped.
Silas widened his eyes, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Are we?”
All eyes turned to me. My heart swelled, and emotion clogged my airwaves. These three were my world. My beautiful children and the man who’d stumbled into my life in the middle of a snowstorm and stayed.
“What was the question?” I teased.
Silas didn’t miss a beat. He took my hand and dropped to his knees, much to the delight of my kids. “Will you marry me, Cooper?”
“Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
I pulled him to his feet and hugged him tight, and opened an arm inviting Ivy and Chase to join us. Soon two dogs were barking at our heels. Total mayhem.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too. So much.”
And I planned on loving this guy for the rest of my life.