Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
She nodded and patted my chest. “Okay, well then we can reconvene at your place.”
“Our place,” I corrected her.
“Is that a ring on her finger?” Atlas butted in.
“What?” Quincy stood up, almost pressing his face between my body and Shayne’s.
“It is!” Quaid chirped as he picked up Shayne’s hand and shook it in Atlas’s face. “Holy shit, Soleada! Miracles do happen!”
Then Shayne was pulled out of my arms and passed around to my brothers.
I might or might not have been slightly offended and annoyed that I’d lost her heat, though I didn’t show it.
“How about giving her back?” I said after Quincy held his arm around her shoulder.
Shayne snorted and pulled herself away. “I have to go get a few things at the grocery store. I’m making dinner tonight.”
It pleased me that she was doing better.
I could still see a hint of sadness in her eyes, deep and ever present, but I could see that she was trying, too.
“Let’s go,” I said as I caught another cookie. “Don’t eat my donuts, please. My crew’s gonna need it after all the shit we’ve had to deal with.”
“Are you calling me shit?” Shayne teased as we walked out, hand in hand.
I took a bite of the cookie in my hand, then offered it to her, before replying, “Never.”
She winked at me, and we stepped outside, through the side door that would lead her to where she’d parked. I could see my truck at the corner of the lot and started guiding us toward it.
When we were close, and the truck was at our backs, and the building at our fronts, I twisted us and reversed our positions.
“Tomorrow,” I said as I backed her up against the wall outside. “We’re going to go jump out of a plane.”
I was fuckin’ nervous as hell, but I was willing to do just about anything to put a smile on my girl’s face.
Her mouth dropped open. “You’ll go with me?”
“Where you go, I go, baby,” I teased.
A flash of movement had me looking to the right, but when I did, I saw nothing.
A sense of foreboding filled me, though.
“Love you, Quinn,” she said as she went up onto her tippy toes and licked the corner of my mouth.
My eyes went intense as she said, “Chocolate.”
“Sure.” I kissed her back, pouring every ounce of happiness into the kiss before pulling away. “Drive safe.”
“How will you get home?” she asked as I opened the truck door for her.
“One of my brothers,” I said. “Probably Quincy.”
She patted my cheek, and I closed the door.
Once she was strapped in and backing out, I headed back inside.
But not before another flash of movement caught my eye farther into the parking lot.
When I moved my attention that way, there was nothing to be seen.
So what had I seen move?
If tacos can fall apart and get messy, but stay hot and still be amazing, then so can you.
—Quinn to Shayne
SHAYNE
“Are you sure about this?” I asked him as I watched him start to copy me in setting up his harness.
He’d done this before, of course. He was in the military, and they’d done the jump process quite a few times from what he’d told me. But he’d never actually enjoyed it like I did.
Also, he was jumping solo despite not being certified to do so.
Which made me feel kind of worried because that wasn’t something that should be allowed. But jumping out of an airplane like this wasn’t something you forgot.
It was ingrained in your mind, forever there. Like riding a bike, but more.
He offered me a wink before saying, “Just because it’s not something I do on my own, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it with you. If you love it, I want to do it with you. Simple as that.”
This man.
He had no idea what he did to me.
“Okay,” I said, deciding that I’d stop asking him repeatedly if he was sure.
He wouldn’t lie to me.
That I knew—at least now I did, anyway.
I finished my harness up, then wiggled my eyebrows at him. “Ready to be flying free, big boy?”
He reached forward and picked me up, tossing me over his shoulder.
I giggled as he walked us to the plane where Tom was waiting.
“You ready?” Tom asked, a twinkle in his eye.
“Ready as I’ll ever be, sir,” Quinn said as he deposited me into the plane and followed behind me.
Tom followed suit and started up the plane, going through his checklist.
As he did that, I studied Quinn for a few long seconds before rechecking his harness.
“Remember,” I said as I pointed at the parachute on him. “Parachute here.” I tapped the pull. “Then there’s the secondary chute. If you need the secondary chute…”
He placed a finger over my mouth. “I know, baby. I know.”
I’d gone over it with him twice now.
And four times yesterday.