Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
“No!” she ordered, shaking the beef kielbasa stick my way. “Stay back.”
Something about her shaking a sausage stick at me was oddly humorous, but I didn’t laugh due to her current panic attack. “Why do I have to stay back?”
“Because when you come near me, I can’t really think straight. And in order for me to process this, I have to think straight.”
I snickered a little. “You’re being dramatic, Jerry.”
Her eyes widened and glassed over. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Don’t call me Jerry.”
“Why not?”
She swallowed hard. “Because it makes me want to cry after not hearing it for so long.”
That tugged at my heart.
Slow down, heart. You haven’t beat this much in years.
“Please don’t cry,” I urged.
She pushed out a smile. “Okay, I won’t.”
“Jerry,” I whispered. “You’re crying.”
She lightly chuckled. “Let’s not act like it’s shocking that I’m emotional.” I took a step toward her, and she halted me again. “Please, Aiden. I need a little time to process this. That’s all.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Take all the time you need.” I’d waited five years to hold her again. I could wait a little bit longer.
“All right. Well, uh, it was great seeing you. You look great like, uh…” She waved her hand, gesturing toward my body. “You look great. Okay, cool. Have a good night. Goodbye.” Her words were soaked in awkwardness as she scurried into her apartment, slamming the door shut behind her.
There I was, completely butt naked on the steps of the Joneses’ bakery, feeling like I’d been spun around in a hurricane of emotions. Yet the strongest one I was feeling after the interaction with Hailee was happiness. I didn’t know I could still feel such a thing.
“Fucking hell,” a person muttered.
I looked up to find Hailee’s father standing in front of me with his hands full of loaves of bread. “Oh shit!” I shouted, reaching across the steps and grabbing my T-shirt to cover my privates. “Hey, Karl,” I muttered, probably fifty shades of red. As if that day couldn’t get odder.
“I’ve had nightmares that started this way,” he grumbled. “It looks like you and Hailee are reconnecting. Unless you’re just waiting on her steps naked for some reason.”
“No, I mean, yeah, I mean, I, uh, I’m going to get dressed and go now.”
“Probably a solid idea. I’ll make sure to sanitize the steps once you’re gone.” Karl began walking to the back of his bakery but called out my name. “Aiden?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t break her heart, or I’ll have to rip yours out.”
“She was the one who broke my heart last time.”
“I hear you, I do, but that girl is my heartbeats. So again. Don’t break her heart, or I’ll have to rip yours out.”
Fair enough.
“And Aiden?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Put on your damn boxers. People can walk by the windows and see your balls.”
“Right, of course. It’s good to see you again, Karl,” I said, reaching out a hand toward him for a shake.
He narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “There’s no way I’m touching your hand. I’m honestly going to go bleach my brain and pretend this interaction never happened so I’m able to sleep tonight.”
Fair enough.
30
Hailee
* * *
“You banged Aiden Walters on the steps leading up to your apartment last night?” Kate gasped as we sat at the front desk of the inn during Kate’s evening break. I’d just finished my shift and was filling Kate in on the craziness of the past twenty-four hours.
“I banged Aiden Walters on the steps leading up to my apartment last night.”
“Oh, my goodness.” Kate sighed, flopping back against the couch. “How romantic. That’s some The Notebook making out in the rain type of love. You two were pulled together like force-packed magnets, and the wind ripped your clothes off, and his Special K accidentally slid into your Lucky Charms.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Are you hungry?”
“Starving, and I’d just finished stocking the cereal for the morning. I really want some Froot Loops.”
“You’re losing focus.”
“What can I say? I’m a Pisces. My mind floats away. Okay. Continue. What happens next between the two of you?”
I shrugged. “I’m still processing it and trying to figure out what this means.”
“What? No, no, no. You two just reconnected in the most romantic way. Now is not the time to be logical!”
“It’s very much more romantic in your mind than it actually was, I think.”
“Hailee Rose Jones. Aiden screwed you on a staircase after telling you that you are his dream come true. You cannot tell me that’s not romantic and sexy.”
“I’ll admit, it was a little bit sexy when he lifted my body up on the railing and, well, railed me. He did it so effortlessly, too. As if I weighed nothing more than a feather.”
“You were light as a feather, and I bet that man was as stiff as a board where it matters most.”