Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
A wry chuckle rumbled from the side. I shifted to find Lolly was out there, too, quiet as a mouse while she watched the exchange.
Okay, more like sly as a cat since she hiked a shoulder, smiling at me in her lacy nightgown with red lipstick smeared on her lips.
“Now why would you want to go and waste all of that when he can take care of it, lickity split?” she parroted, though her tone was painted in suggestion.
I sent her my best glare.
She shimmied her shoulders.
Good lord, what was I supposed to do with these people?
I returned my attention to my daughter and Cody.
Cody stared at me from over his shoulder, frozen to the spot, the intensity of him billowing on the morning air.
It wasn’t until then I realized I hadn’t taken the time to dress. I’d flown out here wearing my favorite pajamas—super short satiny sleep shorts and the matching tank in that teal color I loved, my legs bare and my boobs spilling out the top. Hair wild and untamed.
I shifted on my feet. It was one thing having him take me in on Saturday night. It’d been dark, and well…I’d felt sexy and beautiful in that dress.
It was an entirely different story when I was standing lit in the spotlight of the sun, and I was sure I looked a disaster right then.
I tried to clear the discomfort from my voice. “Cody has work this morning, Maddie, and I’m sure he needs to get ready, the same as I do.”
Cody pushed to his feet, and he dusted off his hands before he ruffled one through my daughter’s hair.
Affectionate.
Tender.
Slow.
“Yeah, your mother’s right. I should probably finish getting ready and get to the job site before my partner thinks I’m slacking, but I think I can knock this out this evening if you help me out while I’m gone and put all the big pieces in one pile and all the small ones in another. How’s that sound?” he asked.
“I can definitely help you so much, Mr. Cody. Look it, I got muscles, too.” Maddie flexed both arms.
Amusement rippling from him, he tapped the tiny lump. “Those suckers look like they could bust right through a brick wall.”
“I bet so. Wanna arm wrestle?” she challenged.
Cody laughed, this low, rolling sound that tumbled through me. “Maybe after we get this thing built.”
“You’d better be ready,” she told him. “You won’t even know what hit you.”
His attention slid back to me, and he slowly started back across the yard, his boots taking the lawn before he climbed the steps to come to stand in front of me.
Towering and tall.
Overwhelming and right.
So gorgeous with the backdrop of the sun lighting behind him.
The man sanctuary and warmth.
But I couldn’t allow myself to settle in it. Couldn’t allow myself to get too cozy before that blanket was ripped away. Most of all, I couldn’t let Madison get attached. I could already see her slipping, enamored with the man, which I was realizing was an easy place to be.
Enamored.
“You don’t need to do that, Cody,” I mustered, tipping my head back to meet the magnitude of his gaze.
“I want to.”
“It’s not your responsibility.”
He glanced back at Maddie. “I’m not doing it out of obligation, Hailey. I’m doing it because your daughter is amazing.” Then he leaned in close and murmured so only I could hear, “Just like her mother.”
He straightened like he didn’t feel the roll of the ground vibrate beneath us, and those big boots thudded across the porch before he swung open the back door. “Now hurry up and get that cute butt ready. We need to leave in fifteen.”
It took me a second to process what he’d said, and still, I wasn’t fully gathering his meaning. “What?”
“You heard me. You’re riding with me.”
Then he stepped inside and let the door slam shut behind him.
TWENTY-ONE
CODY
Nope.
Little Button was right.
I most definitely didn’t know what had hit me.
Didn’t know what the hell had come over me.
Getting close to people when I’d sworn I’d never do it. But there didn’t seem to be any choice in the matter when it came to Hailey and Madison.
Hell, to Lolly, too.
It struck me like an arrow when Hailey finally stepped out her front door twenty minutes later, wearing tight jeans and worn cowgirl boots and a coral-colored top that scooped way down low on her chest.
A mass of blonde hair twisted into a long braid with those locks of honey and maple weaved through it. Thick and heavy and perfect for fisting.
Lashes long and lips pouty and those eyes both wary and intense as she ambled down the steps and took the walkway to where I’d pulled my truck up to the curb. It was sitting in the exact same spot as it’d been on Saturday night though facing the opposite direction.