Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
“Love you too.”
“Mommy.”
“Hey, baby, you okay?”
“Grandpa gave me cake for breakfast,” she answers, and I hear my dad say in the background that it was supposed to be a secret. I listen to her giggle.
“I miss you.”
“Grandma said you’re with Denver on his boat.”
“I am,” I concur.
“I want to go on his boat.”
“Soon, baby.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“Sure,” I laugh. “Hold on. I love you.”
“Love you too, Mama.”
“Ly wants to talk to you.” I hold out the phone.
“Hey, gorgeous.” He winks at me as he puts the phone to his ear. “Miss you more.” He laughs as he shakes his head. “Promise. Me, you, and your Mama will all come out on the boat for a night sometime this summer. Right.” He shakes his head again, and then his face softens along with his voice. “Love you too. I’ll talk to you soon.” He hands me back the phone.
“I miss you, baby,” I say again when I put the phone back to my ear.
“She already ran off to go play,” Shel says, and I smile. Figures I’m already forgotten about.
“Kiss and hug her for me.
“Will do. Have fun.”
“I will. And Shel?” I call before she can hang up.
“Yeah, honey?”
“Thank you… again, for everything.”
“Anytime, sweetheart. You know that.” I do, which means I’m lucky. I might have gotten the short end of the stick where my mom is concerned, but Shel is the best stepmom a girl could ask for. “Love you. Talk to you soon.”
“Soon.” I hang up then watch Denver smear mayo on the bread he just popped out of the toaster, dump the microwaved eggs on the toast, and then add a slice of cheese. “Eat.” He hands me the egg sandwich wrapped in a paper towel. I never would have thought eggs cooked in the microwave could taste good, but when I take a bite from the sandwich, I find they are actually fluffy and surprisingly delicious. “Good?” he asks, making his own sandwich.
I chew then swallow before I answer. “Yes, very. Who knew eggs cooked in a microwave could be so awesome.”
“Fisherman’s breakfast.” He grins. “When we’re out here for days, we gotta find ways to eat. This is one of the things I came up with. Took me ages to figure out that I needed to spray the bowl with cooking spray before mixing the eggs to keep them from sticking, but after that, I was set.”
“Good to know.” I smile as he sits down next to me on the bed to eat his own sandwich. “So what are we going to do today?” I ask between bites.
“This,” he answers, gesturing to me with a flick of his fingers.
“This?”
“Just this. All I’ve ever wanted is you and me to spend time together.”
God, if he keeps saying things like that, I’m going to keep crying like the girls in the sappy romance movies Shel loves to watch. “Sounds good.” I swallow over the lump in my throat.
“You gonna cry?”
“No,” I lie.
He grins, leaning in and kissing my temple before looking into my eyes. “You’re eyes look a little wet.”
“Whatever.” I roll my eyes to the ceiling and fight back a smile as he starts to laugh.
“I’ve got my laptop and some movies. We can lay in bed and watch something. Then later, we can go up and see if we can catch something for dinner.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He stands then walks across the small space to a cupboard, opening it up. He pulls out a CD folder, handing it to me, and I scan through about a hundred different movies, a few scary, most of them action. I settle on one of the scarier ones then curl up next to Denver in bed, my head on his chest. We half watch the movie between making out, and when we head up to see about catching dinner, I know he was right. Even though I miss my baby like crazy, just him and me spending time together is a pretty perfect way to spend the day.
Chapter 9
_______________
Denver
IN THE WHEELHOUSE WITH BRE on my lap, we sit in silence, staring out at the ocean. I don’t know what she’s thinking about, but I’m thinking these last couple days have been fucking perfect and are coming to an end way too fucking quickly.
“You ready to head back to town tomorrow morning?”
Her question causes my fingers that are running through her hair to pause, and I pull in a breath. I’m not ready to head back to town. I wish we could stay out here forever, and if Lyra were here with us, I’d make it happen, at least for a few more days. But just like Bre, I miss our girl, and unfortunately, I need to get back to town so I can get ready for the next opener.
“No,” I answer, and she looks at me over her shoulder. “Are you ready?”“I miss Ly like crazy, but this has been nice. I like spending time with you out here. I wish we had a little longer.” She rests her head back on my shoulder and wraps her arms around my waist.