Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
-Drew to Aspen
Aspen
“You’re shitting me,” I said. “You’re really going to allow me to take it off?”
Risa Fairchild, the lovely lady who’d been so helpful during all of this, smiled.
“I sure am,” she said. “But only because I need it.”
I snorted and picked my foot up, clunking it down onto the table enthusiastically.
Risa laughed at my exuberance, lifting my pant leg up further, then used her fancy key to unlock the ankle monitor.
It clicked slightly, and I gasped at the sudden feeling of lightness.
“Who do you need it for?” Drew asked, stopping next to his sister and bringing his arm up to hook around her neck.
He then proceeded to pull her down and mess every bit of her hair up with his opposite hand.
“Ahh!” Risa screamed. “Stop it, you big shithead!”
I laughed, my face breaking out into a large grin.
I’d always wanted Downy to be that way with me, and slowly but surely, we were getting there.
It’d been a full week since the day Ellison had tried to burn down my house. A full week since I’d moved in permanently with Drew.
A full week since my brother started trying to be the brother that I’d always wanted him to be.
Although, that’d definitely take some time to fix. My brother had gone off the handle at first, and then had come the regret everything he’d ever said or done to Jonah and me to ever make us feel like we were unwelcome.
After sitting us all down, my mother explained—without my stepfather there—that my father was infertile. She’d also told us that after a cancer scare with my biological father—who’d been dead at the time of my conception—that they’d frozen his sperm and had saved it even after his death.
When my father realized he was infertile, he’d reluctantly let my mother use my biological father’s sperm, only if she promised not to tell her kids that they weren’t really his.
Which led us to Downy finding out anyway.
Secrets always had a way of coming around and biting you in the ass.
Needless to say, my father wasn’t very happy with the situation. Downy, however, was.
He was like a completely different person.
And I freakin’ loved it.
Everything I wanted out of life was perfect.
Even on the Danny front.
Risa had approached the DA on my behalf, and had somehow made miracles happen by getting me freed from my shackle.
It’d just taken a little bit of time to process it all, which was why it’d taken Risa so long to get here and take it off.
Despite plenty of annoyed phone calls from Drew.
I’d also had all of my belongings returned to me that Danny took when he left. Including all of the money replaced in my bank account from my blog advertisements.
Now the only thing left was meeting the parents, which we were getting over and done with in one fell swoop.
Meaning his parents, my mother, his sister’s family, my brother’s family, and our friends were all meeting in the same place. At the same time.
And nobody but us knew why.
***
Two days prior
“I want to get married,” I blurted out.
Drew’s beer paused halfway to his lips.
“What?” He asked, turning away from the breakfast I’d cooked him and fully towards me.
“I want to get married,” I said again, turning to look at Attie who was currently knocked out on the couch, then back to him.
His eyes filled with laughter.
“You do?” He teased. “Who are you going to marry?”
My lips thinned, and my eyes narrowed.
“You know exactly who I’m going to marry, Dillweed,” I snapped. “And I got these nifty rings to review.”
His eyes went down to the silicone rings I’d received from a new distributor that specialized in making rings for people in demanding jobs such as firefighters, mechanics, police officers and such.
His eyes went down to the ring I had in my hand, then back to me.
“Are you asking me to marry you?” He asked.
I shrugged.
“I guess. I wasn’t really trying to demand it …but I wanted you to know my position on the matter…in case you were wondering,” I stammered.
He grinned and pushed the ottoman away from him before standing fully.
He left the room and came back moments later, his hand holding a pink velvet box, causing my heart to start pounding.
“Well, I was going to save this until we had somewhere special to go, but I guess now is as good as time as any,” he said teasingly. “Do you want to switch?”
His eyebrow was raised, and the corner of his lip was tipped up in a small quirk that mine answered with their own grin as I tried not to laugh at the craziness of what we were doing right then.
“You were going to ask me in a romantic proposal?” I whined. “I would’ve waited for that!”
He tossed the box into my lap and snatched the black ring with the thin, red line through the center of it.