Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88456 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Wait. What was it about Bryson doing it that made me feel that way? I’d never felt this flutter in my stomach before. Now I totally got why my mother looked at my father like she did.
I smiled as I thought about my parents. I wanted what they had. A love like theirs. The way my father adored my mother, and she adored him. You could feel the love coming off them even after being married for over twenty years.
Bryson’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“Stay here. I’m going to make sure no one is in Nick’s room,” he said as he walked to the door threw it open, then said, “Oh shit, sorry, Nick…sorry, Loren.”
He shut the door and turned to look at me. His cheeks were as red as tomatoes. My hands came up to cover my mouth as I attempted not to laugh.
Bryson walked back to me, eyes wide, brows lifted, and his mouth shaped in an O. “That’s definitely going to make things weird the next time I see Loren.”
At that, I laughed.
I watched as Bryson went to a cabinet and opened a drawer. He pulled out some cards and walked back over to me. “Do you have anything warmer to wear?”
Frowning, I shook my head.
“Come on,” he said, taking my hand and leading me to the door opposite Nick’s. He opened it, and I followed him into a massive bedroom. I nearly moaned as I took in the room. A king-size bed with a view of the city that was somehow better than the one from the balcony. The room was spotless, and I filed it away to ask him if it was because of him or a housekeeper.
Bryson walked around a corner, then reappeared with two sweatshirts. “Here, it gets chilly on the roof.”
“The roof?”
He winked and grabbed a blanket. “It’s either there or in here with all the people bumping uglies.”
I pressed my lips together tightly to keep from laughing yet again. “Lead the way.”
For the next two hours, I played, of all things, rummy. With one of the best pitchers in the MLB. Not to mention, he was hot as hell and the perfect gentleman. He even dared to go back into the house of sex to get us some food and drinks.
Before I knew it, I lay in a hammock with him as he pointed out the star constellations.
“How do you know all of this?” I asked, twisting my fingers around his. We hadn’t held hands, but he had started to twist his fingers with mine, and I absentmindedly did the same.
“When I was a little boy, my father taught me all about the stars and the planets.”
“Was he an astronomer?”
A soft smile appeared on his face. “He was. He worked for NASA, then met my mother, and she got pregnant. She was from Montana and told him she couldn’t live in Florida. She hated it there. She had finished her master’s degree and wanted to spend a few months visiting her grandparents. Plus, she had a job waiting for her back in Montana. He loved her so much he gave up his job, moved up to Kalispell, and helped her father run his business. All after only knowing her for three months.”
I turned and looked at Bryson. “He gave up everything for her?”
“He did,” Bryson said with a nod. “She was pregnant with me, so that was a big factor as well.”
“Wow,” I said as I slowly shook my head. “It must have been love at first sight.”
Bryson was quiet for a few moments. “It was.”
“That’s so romantic. What was your grandfather’s business?”
The way he smiled as he looked up at the sky made me smile. “He sold farm equipment.”
“Shut up! He left NASA to sell farm equipment?”
Bryson laced his fingers in mine, and I was positive he hadn’t realized he had done it. “He loved my mother and his unborn baby that much. He never regretted it. He ended up teaching an astronomy course for a local college and said that between his family and teaching, it fulfilled every part of his life. I’m sure he loved working at NASA, but he always said our little family was the one thing in life that made him happy, and he never once regretted the decisions he made in his life.”
He laughed softly. “He used to let me sit behind his desk when he taught. Man, I loved watching him talk about the moon and stars.”
A strange pull in my chest had me longing for something I couldn’t name. It felt like it was right there, but at the same time, so far out of reach. It felt like I was reaching for something in the dark and couldn’t touch it, and all I knew was I suddenly felt lost without it.