Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
It was on trip number two for wood, which I made sure she had plenty more than she would probably need, when I got the call as I was coming back inside.
“That’s them, isn’t it?”
I looked up to find her with her finger in her mouth, sitting by the fire, staring at me with open invitation on her face.
Maybe it was because my shirt was semi-lifted up because of the way I was holding the stack of wood. Maybe it was because we’d been dancing around the subject all night, and both of us wanted to have a repeat of what we’d had the day before.
Whatever it was, I had the same damn expression on my own face.
“Probably,” I muttered darkly, wishing that I didn’t have to be responsible anymore.
I wished I could just let the damn place go and forget every single responsibility I had to anyone and everything. Alas, I wasn’t that kind of person, and not even for a taste of Gracelynn’s sweet lips would I skip out today.
Even worse, I knew that I would be running into Rachel. Which always made my day fuckin’ suck.
It was then I saw that she was eating a pudding cup with no spoon, just using her finger to dig into the small tub and bring it to her lips.
She placed the tub on the coffee table, then got up to help me start unloading the wood.
Once it was nicely stacked in the corner, I turned away from the way her breasts swayed gently with her movements and called the number back.
“Jere,” the man on the other end of the line said. “I know you’re not gonna like this, but Rachel is fuckin’ everything up. We need you.”
CHAPTER 11
Some days it do be like that.
-Shine to Jeremiah
JEREMIAH
“What are you doin’?” I asked as I watched her stomp into her boots.
“Goin’ to start my truck,” she answered. “You can’t be heading out doin’ God knows what, God knows where, without having a warm truck.”
“I’m not taking your truck,” I dismissed her immediately.
I was going to have one of the boys pick me up. And hope they had time to take me back home when it was all said and done.
“Yes, you are,” she disagreed almost immediately.
Then, before I could catch her, she was heading out of the room and out of the duplex completely.
Luckily, in the hours that we’d been talking, I’d washed and dried my shirt.
I’d also started on her sheets and a load of towels that looked like they’d been hanging out for over two weeks.
My lips quirked when I pulled my sweatshirt on, then my Carhartt jacket.
Heading outside, I found her getting out of her truck and doing it with a smile.
“What’s that look for?” I wondered.
“I was thinking about what your ex-wife would think, you coming to work in a girl’s truck.” She smirked.
“God help me.” I shook my head. “Because there’s no way in fuck that I can handle her shit today. Hopefully, she’ll just think that I got a new one.”
She laughed and patted the truck. “There’s no way you’re gonna pass off something this old as new.”
I shrugged and moved so that I had her by the elbow. “Let’s get you back inside the house. I don’t want a repeat of earlier.”
She giggled, and I sadly let her go when she was safe and secure on the front porch.
“Be safe out there, Jeremiah,” she ordered. “I would hate to lose my boss when I just found a good one.”
I winked. “There’s nothing dangerous about holding up an office job, babe.”
Then I was gone, leaving in her truck, and wondering what in the hell I’d gotten myself into. Because there was no way that I would be staying away from her when I got back.
• • •
In the wee hours of the morning, I was doing something even stupider.
I was going back, even knowing my weakness to the woman that lay in a duplex in the middle of town.
My work was far from home, but I was doing no good at this point, now that I had all my guys, both borrowed and current employees, safely where I needed them.
I just didn’t want her to have to do anything crazy, like walk to work, because she didn’t have her truck with her.
Which I knew without a shadow of a doubt she would do.
But, I could also offer to come pick her up.
I could go home, tell her I’d pick her up in the morning, and I wouldn’t have to spend the night with her.
Yet, I was telling myself that staying with her was for her benefit.
Not mine.
I was giving myself an excuse to go back to her place now that everything at the power company, and the power grid in our area, wasn’t in peril.
The men that I’d called in were here.