Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
This time I let the tears come.
“I love you, too, Daddy.”
A moment later I pulled away and looked up, studying his face.
“I need to get back to Hunter now.”
He nodded at me, running a hand through his hair, looking almost wistful.
“I know, baby. Go take care of him.”
Thanksgiving morning dawned bright and sunny.
I woke up and crawled out of bed carefully, trying not to jostle Hunter too much.
Walking over to the window, I peered out to find everything covered in a thick layer of ice. And I mean everything. Cars, evergreens, the power lines. Yikes. Those cables looked about ready to collapse. As far as I could see, ice caught the sunlight and reflected it like millions of tiny prisms. Almost like we’d gone to bed on earth and woken up in a fairy tale.
Of course, there was one big downside to the whole frozen wonderland thing … No fucking way we’d be able to leave today, which meant Hunter and I would be stuck sharing our first holiday together with my entire Reaper family. On the bright side, only about half of them wanted him dead. Unfortunately, several of those who did would be cooking today, so I figured I should taste anything they offered him before letting him touch it.
Maybe we should just do Christmas in Portland …
I heard a noise from the bed. Hunter looked much, much worse today. His bruises had ripened and his face made me think of a smashed tomato. Make that a smashed tomato with eyes.
“Come back to bed,” he muttered. “And bring the drugs with you. I feel like shit.”
I walked back over and found the bottle, carefully spilling out a couple pills into my hand. Hunter managed to pull himself up long enough to swallow them, with the help of some water. Then he lowered his head painfully back into the pillow, clearly spent from even that small effort.
I settled on the bed next to him.
“I’ve been thinking things over,” I said quietly. “And I want you to know how much I appreciate the fact that you didn’t lie to me. I also realize you’re not going to tell me anything, and I know why. He did this to you because we’re sleeping together, although the kidnapping thing probably didn’t help, either. And I’m sure you just stood there and took it because of some kind of macho, bullshit pact you made with him.”
Hunter closed his eyes.
“I’m too tired for this, babe. You need to let it go. We’ll have a nice holiday dinner together and then tomorrow we’ll get the truck situation figured out. It’s all good.”
I crawled under the covers, leaning up on my elbow to study his pulped face.
“Promise me it’s over.”
“What’s over?” he asked, his voice sleepy.
“Your shit with my dad. Or do we have to go out and buy him a herd of goats, too?”
“Naw,” he whispered. “Pic said kegs were just as good. He’s a practical man.”
“You’re going to drive me crazy. This isn’t okay.”
“I know. Love you, babe.”
“Love you, too.”
“Can we please go back to sleep now?”
I snorted, then rolled onto my back.
“Sure, why the hell not,” I said. “Not like we can have sex, which sucks for you. I’ve been studying that book. Did you know there’s a whole chapter on erotic massage? Apparently a man’s penile tissues actually extend way down into the scrotum, and if you press gently—”
“Em?”
“Yes?” I asked innocently.
“You’re an evil, evil woman.”
I smiled, savoring my small victory. Then I decided I might as well go back to sleep—I’d need my strength to make it through the afternoon. Knowing my luck, Uncle Duck would decide to tell Hunter the story about when I’d been six years old and sang “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” in a surprise solo at the school holiday program.
Uggh.
We were definitely spending Christmas in Portland.
Epilogue
SIX WEEKS LATER
PORTLAND, OREGON
The coffee shop was supposed to close at four that afternoon, but of course I had a couple of customers lingering. That wasn’t usually a problem. I just flipped the “Closed” sign and cleaned up while they finished.
Unfortunately, these two guys were camped out for the long haul. They’d each bought a small cup of tea two hours ago and had been arguing ever since about whether God was dead or simply never existed. Cookie didn’t like to kick people out, but she was also willing to draw the line in situations like this. I hated to ask them to leave, though. We couldn’t afford to lose customers.
Unfortunately, the shop wasn’t doing that great and I was worried about her. I felt guilty over moving to Kelsey’s apartment, too, although realistically Cookie hadn’t been charging me enough to make much of a difference in her monthly budget. I still tried to babysit for her whenever I could, and I’d even gone over last week and cleaned the house.