Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
My lips quirked at the words.
I wasn’t worried that she was in trouble.
We had that place wired. Plus, if there’d been danger, Auden, who liked to spend his early mornings at the bakery with Maven before he went on shift, would’ve done something.
“Why won’t you fucking…” I saw her whirl past the doorway, my olive green DPD SWAT shirt in her hand, after something imaginary.
Though, if I had to guess, it was either a horse fly or a spider. She didn’t like either of those.
The horse fly more than most.
She got bitten by one at least four times a year, and she welted up really bad, to the point where she had to be on antibiotics.
That was how we’d gotten Glades, after all.
Grinning like a fucking loon, I picked up the half-empty bottle, a diaper, some wipes, and made the trek over to my nearest neighbor.
I used my code to get into the door, and then disarmed the alarm.
Everyone knew everyone’s codes, and it was hard to keep a Carter out if they wanted to be there—at least in their families’ homes.
I walked toward Garrett’s bedroom, unsurprised to find him still in bed.
What was a surprise was to find him with who he was with.
“Don’t shoot me,” I teased.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” the woman grumbled, face buried in the pillow beside Garrett’s.
“You ever heard of knocking?” Garrett asked, hair wild, as he stared at me.
“I did,” I said. “In my head.”
The woman giggled, still not picking her head up from her pillow.
I placed my sleeping baby boy in between the two of them and said, “I have to go save my girl from a murder hornet.”
“You mean a fly?” Garrett asked, turning over and cuddling closer to my son.
My boy made a soft cooing noise, and the woman finally picked her head up. “Is that my baby?”
I snorted. “Bye.”
I left my kid with my brother and the girl he wasn’t willing to admit was his, and headed out, letting Boss out when I did.
Only when he was finished did I let him back inside and close the door.
The drive to the bakery took less than five minutes.
It was when I was running up the stairs that I realized I was still in sweats only.
I waved at the two bakery workers who were serving about five customers at a time.
There were quite a few eyes on me as I cut through the kitchen and headed for the office.
Generally, I went this way because the back hallway was always filled with bugs.
That had to be the way Pepper had gone for her to let the fly in.
As I slowly crept in, I watched the show.
“Why. Won’t. You. Die.” Pepper growled, tits swinging underneath the crop top she was wearing.
It was another one of my shirts, though cut off about mid-waist. I’d worn it for football my senior year of high school.
She loved it.
I loved it, too.
On her.
I loved it even more when she was braless wearing it, her tits swinging.
I watched for a while, at least until the horse fly finally landed on her.
Snatching up my shirt, I whipped it at her, catching her right on the left ass cheek.
She screeched, turned, and gasped, “What the hell, Atlas?”
I pointed at the ground where the horse fly was still twitching.
She stomped on it.
If you didn’t know better, you would’ve never realized she was hurt so very badly a few years ago.
She was in great shape.
Her body had handled having our babies like a champ.
And speaking of babies… “How do you feel about another baby?”
She snorted, patting her flat belly. “I’ll have to give you a rain check. I’m gonna enjoy wearing a crop top for the summer.”
I moved up closer to her, pulling her suggestively into my arms before saying, “I could probably convince you.”
All I had to do was look at her and she was pregnant.
I would love to put another one of my babies inside of her.
She laughed. “Not here, though. Maven’s set to head up here to make a conference call in less than an hour.”
“Perfect,” I said, then took her home.
We’d just cleaned up and gotten dressed when the doorbell to our house went off.
Usually, Garrett would walk right in, but I’d informed him that I needed him to knock because when you had three kids, you had to get it where you could, when you could.
He only took that to heart when he’d walked in on me banging my very pregnant wife on the coffee table right inside the door.
From that point on, he knocked.
But only barely.
Pepper headed for the door while I headed for the kitchen.
The sound of pattering feet had me glancing up to see Forest running in, looking windblown.
“Hey,” I said to him. “I thought you were spending the day with Papa?”
“I was,” he answered. “But Papa got called into work for an emergency meeting. So I came home with Aunt Shayne.”