Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“You’ve clearly never had an Italian Ice Cream Cone,” I told her.
“What is an Italian Ice Cream Cone?” she asked as she sipped her coffee.
“A hollowed out piece of Italian bread stuffed with meatballs, cheese, and sauce,” I told her, watching her lips part.
“Okay. That might be better than French toast,” she agreed. “So we’re getting those, obviously. When do they open?”
“They’re open now. I can have someone drop them off… no?” I asked as she pouted.
“Can we go to pick them up?” she asked. “We could really use some more treats and kitty litter for Evander too,” she added.
That was a lot of we.
And I liked that a lot more than I could have anticipated.
“Sure,” I agreed. “Sounds good. Need anything else?”
“I’m going to need to go back to my apa—“
“No, you don’t,” I cut her off.
To that, she let out a small laugh. “I meant to get some more of my clothes,” she said.
“What for?” I asked. “You won’t need them.”
“Bastian is going to come home eventually, you know,” she insisted.
“Not if I tell him to crash with Coal for a while.”
“You can’t do that to him,” she said, shaking her head at me. “This is his home too.”
“Alright. Fine. We’ll move out. Wanna go house hunting this afternoon?” I asked, only half joking. That had just moved up high on my list of priorities. If Bastian wanted this place, he could have it. And I’d get a place for Kick and me where we could be as naked and loud as we wanted.
She laughed it off, but there was a light of hope in her eyes.
“Let’s start with spending the week together,” she suggested.
Kick - 1 week
It was funny how one week of living at Rico’s place made it feel more like home than months in my apartment.
Even before my clothes were hanging in his closet and my bath products were scattered around his shower and sink cabinets, it just felt, I don’t know, right.
I even really liked Bastian being around. Though, yeah, I was painfully aware of his presence on the nights when he was home and Rico and I were in bed.
It was nice to have people to share meals with, to have small talk over coffee or watch shows with.
“So, did you read it?” Saff asked, sitting on the counter I’d just wiped down at the shop, her legs swinging as she looked at me out of a blackened eye.
I had to admit, it was going to take some time to adjust to seeing the female capos sporting injuries I’d once walked around with. But without all the mental and emotional pain I’d felt. Since, as far as I could tell, Saff and Cinna tended to wear their bruises or cuts with pride.
“I… did,” I admitted, feeling a flush creep up my neck and across my cheeks at just the memory of some of those spicy scenes in that alien book.
I was still working my way through the giant romantasy one for the actual book club, but once the alien smut showed up on my doorstep the day before, I’d caught myself creeping out of bed in the middle of the night so the light didn’t wake up Rico, and devouring the rest of the book in the living room with Evander lazily swatting at the dangling ball on his cat tree to keep me company.
It was definitely thin on the plot, heavy on the steam, and completely and utterly addictive.
“That flush tells me you want to go book shopping with me tomorrow to get all of the sequels.”
“How many are there?” I asked.
“Twelve,” she told me, smiling. “Hey, Rico,” she said, making me turn to see him walking in from the office where he’d been speaking to Renzo. “I wanna take your girl book shopping tomorrow. Give her a stack.”
“What? No. I can buy my own books,” I insisted as Rico wrapped an arm around my lower back, pulling me close, and pressing a kiss to my temple.
“I mean, sure, you can,” Saff agreed. “But why should you if a guy is willing to buy them for you?”
“Saff once got a guy to pay her rent just to get her phone number,” Rico said.
“No way,” I said, brows raising.
“Then changed my number as soon as the payment posted,” Saff said, nodding.
“The kicker is, she probably made ten times what that guy made a year,” Rico said.
“Hey, it’s only fair.”
“How’d you figure?” Rico asked.
“He will never have to buy a box of tampons. That’s several grand you guys get in your pockets over a lifetime that we don’t have. And we’re not even factoring in waxing, makeup, bras. Or the things that are the same but cost more because they’re marketed toward women.”
“Can I buy your books too, Saff?” Rico asked, fingers tickling my hip for a second.