Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 63862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“I don’t mind complaining.”
“Oh, no. I don’t complain. I could be on my deathbed and still trying to do all the things.”
“Wanna bet I can convince you to stay in bed?”
“This is a nice bed,” I admitted. “The guest bed is decent. But this one is the right mix of soft and firm.”
“You’ll be really amazed if you actually sleep in it.”
“Is that a nice way to tell me to shut up and go to sleep?” I asked, my lips curving up.
“I have to be up in five hours.”
“Sleep in for once.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t have to work out every day.”
“I was thinking about a different kind of workout,” he said, arms tightening around me.
“Well, then. I’ll try to sleep then.”
I didn’t.
Even as I felt his breathing go deep and slow, as his body went slack and I knew he had passed out.
I just stayed there in his arms, wide awake, taking in the feel of him, sinking into his warmth, listening to his heartbeat.
Until I saw the clock inch closer to his wakeup time.
Then, well, I decided to wake him up in a much more pleasant way than an alarm clock.
A low rumble in his chest was the first sign that he was waking up as my lips kissed across his warm skin.
His fingers flexed on my hip.
I leaned forward, pushing him flat, then kissing down his chest, stomach, lower.
Then, well, Harrison got a whole different kind of morning workout.
“That’s one hell of a way to wake up,” he decided, breathless, afterward, smiling up at the ceiling. “How long have you been up?”
I let out a big yawn.
“I haven’t been to sleep yet.”
That got a small chuckle out of him.
“Guess I can’t ask you to meet me at the office to go out for lunch today then.”
“I’m sure I can drag myself out of bed by noon. I have nothing else to do today.”
“Sure you do,” he said, leaning over to press a kiss to my cheek. “You need to move your things in here.”
“Yeah?” I asked, sitting up to watch the view as he got off the bed. “Still no regrets?”
Harrison stopped mid-stride, walked back toward the bed, grabbed my ankles, and dragged me to the end of the bed. “Sweetheart, if you thought going to sleep with you in my arms and waking up to… all that,” he said, nodding toward the bed, “was going to make me change my mind about you, you’re crazier than I thought.”
“Well, I have been known to be a little crazy. I mean… I once married a practical stranger in Vegas.”
“And it was the best damn decision either of us has ever made.”
I was starting to think he was right about that.
EPILOGUE
—
Harrison
Layna leaned over the bar, snatching the phone out of the bartender’s hand and turning the screen toward herself.
We were celebrating her winning that challenge I’d laid out for her. Though our marriage was no longer on the line.
“Your girlfriend is the hottest, most hilarious, sweetest person ever,” she told the man on the screen.
“I know, right?” the guy asked, looking a mix of confused and charmed.
Just like that, my memory flashed back to a different bar in a different town—fewer suits, more neon, the sound of slot machines a never-ending song in the background.
She had barely even sipped her first margarita, so she wasn’t tipsy yet. All her enthusiasm and vibrancy was all her own as she reached across the bar to grab a different bartender’s wrist and pull her closer.
“You listen to me,” she said, ducking her head to catch the teary-eyed woman’s gaze. “You are better off without that asshole.”
Everyone at the bar was in agreement with that. The man in question had shown up at the woman’s work, told her to give him money, then flipped his lid when she turned him down. The fight went on from there until the girl finally ended things.
“I’m so stupid,” the bartender said, wiping at her wet cheeks.
“Listen, we’ve all been stupid about the wrong guys. I once let some troglodyte in flip-flops have two weeks of my life. It doesn’t matter what happened then. What happens now is what’s important. And I think you should dry those tears, forget about Mr. Manbun, and maybe let that hot busboy bang you in the back alley. He’s been staring at you like you walk on water all night.”
The bartender glanced over toward the busboy, tears drying.
And Layna?
She turned her attention to the gay couple on the seat next to her.
“Okay. I heard something about you two having an OnlyFans. I’m going to need a link.”
And as she was waiting for that, she called out to a woman who was passing, “Oh, my God. You look amazing. Tell her she looks amazing,” she demanded of the man walking along with her.
She was so… dynamic.