Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
I went back to my hotel room to pack my things. Whether Lindsey liked it or not, I was moving in this weekend.
12
LINDSEY
It was Sunday, my day off and the day that Jason planned to move in. I woke up in my own bed, alone in the cabin for the last time. I took my coffee out onto the porch, listening to the sounds of woodland creatures stirring. The air was so calm, the quiet so refreshing. I felt a pang deep in my heart as my dream of living alone in the mountains came to an end.
There wasn’t anything to be done about it, though. Jason had signed the paperwork several days ago if he could be believed. I had no reason to think he was lying. The last time I had seen him was really odd. I played the scene over in my head and still couldn’t come up with an explanation. Why had he been so interested in who worked at my salon? Was he thinking of buying that too? Just how much money did he have, and why was he investing it everywhere in my life? Maybe his questions had nothing to do with investment, but I still couldn’t think of a reason he needed to know that information.
It didn’t help me to speculate, and it wouldn’t forestall the inevitable. Four hours from now, he was going to drive up with all his things from storage, and that would be the end of my brief sojourn into home ownership. I decided to start things off on the right foot. I would put all my past feelings and heartache behind me and begin fresh. He was a new roommate, and if I wanted any shot at a stress-free home life, it would be best if we could be friends.
I decided to buy some alcohol. It would smooth over any rough edges between us if we could share a beer or a martini, or whatever it was that he drank. I drove into town to the liquor store and picked up a bottle of vodka and a six-pack of beer. I grabbed a carton of orange juice at the grocery store, thinking we could make screwdrivers. That would give him three choices of beverage, and I would have my favorite.
I drove back to the cabin to enjoy a final half hour by myself before I heard his truck muscling up the driveway. I inhaled courage and stepped outside to meet him. Today, I had dressed casually in jeans and a long-sleeve T-shirt. At least I was wearing clothes, which was more than I could say for the last time we had seen each other at the cabin. I shook off my horror at discovering I had confronted him in my pajamas and greeted him as pleasantly as I knew how.
“Hey.” I came around the side of the truck. A U-Haul was attached to the back, presumably with his television, bed, and dresser.
“Hey,” he said, snapping the door shut. He looked good enough to eat in his dark blue jeans and cowboy boots. I wondered if he had put as much time and energy into looking natural as I had. Yes, I was wearing a T-shirt, but it was my sexiest T-shirt, the one that showed off my breasts and hips. He wore a light blue button-down shirt open just far enough at the collar for me to get a glimpse of his pectoral muscles. I wondered what it would be like to drag my tongue over those hard ridges, to feel the bulge of solid man beneath my lips. I tried to focus.
“Do you need help moving your stuff?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said. We moved around to the back of the U-Haul, and he unhooked the lock. Inside, there were a few suitcases, a dresser, a mattress, and a disassembled bed frame just as I had suspected.
I chose the suitcases first. The one I grabbed was heavy, and I struggled my way up the porch stairs. He didn’t seem to notice, grabbing another bag and following me. Together, we dropped the bags in my bedroom, where my bed stood against the far wall.
He turned to me awkwardly. “I guess we should move your bed?”
“I guess so,” I said.
He brought a toolbox in and unscrewed the bolts that held my bed frame in place. I dragged the mattress to one of the empty rooms while he reassembled the wood. We threw the mattress on top of the frame, and I busied myself putting fresh sheets on while he carted his own wooden frame into the master bedroom.
“Hold on.” I emerged from my new room. “I need my dresser and my nightstand.”
We spent an hour moving furniture, at the end of which I was feeling more exhausted than sexy. Everything from my old room had been moved into my new room, and everything from the U-Haul had been moved into his room. His mattress was propped against one wall, and the frame lay in pieces on the floor.