Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“I would have got it.”
“Now it’s done.” He chucks me under my chin when he’s finished, and I try to be offended that he just used that whole big-brother-little-sister move on me, but seriously, I’m sitting here thinking how hot he is, and he’s chucking me under my chin like I’m a little kid. “Are you ready?”
“As ready as I will ever be.” I watch as he gets on the machine, and then he motions for me to get on behind him, something I thankfully do with ease. “Now what?” I wrap my hands around his sides. Or I try to, but it’s awkward with the mittens, which are about three sizes too big.
“You’re going to have to hold me a little tighter than that.” He takes hold of my hands and pulls them forward to rest on his stomach, a move that causes my legs to spread wider and the space between us to become nonexistent. “Now if you need me to stop, just tap me, since I won’t be able to hear you over the engine.”
“Okay,” I agree right before he revs the engine and puts the motor in drive. As we take off, I tuck the side of my face against his back and take in the scenery. It looks like a fairy tale with the freshly fallen snow covering the green branches of the trees and the white covering the ground as far as the eye can see.
If I were with anyone else, someone who’s shown even an iota of interest in me, I would think this whole thing was really romantic, but that’s not what this is. Even without words he’s made that clear.
It’s probably better that way. I have always been reckless in my pursuit of happiness and men, and I would never want to make things awkward for Cybil or Tanner. And since I have absolutely zero luck when it comes to dating, I know it wouldn’t be long before it blew up in my face anyway.
When he starts to slow down a while later, I drag my cheek off his back to look around. He was not wrong when he said that the view up here was better than the one out the living room window of his house. From here you can see the mountains off in the distance and the valley below, with homes scattered few and far between, only really visible now because of the smoke escaping from their chimneys.
“This is it.” He turns to help me off after I let him go, and I sink into the snow as I hop off, then lift my chin when he nudges it up so that he can get off my helmet.
“This is just . . . wow.” I glance over at him as we walk toward one of the trees closer to the view. “Please tell me that this is going to be the view from your bathtub.”
“I don’t plan on putting in a bathtub,” he says, coming to stand next to me, and my nose scrunches in disappointment because there is nothing better than taking a bath. Even Tanner, who is a total badass, takes baths with Cybil, and he reads to her while they are soaking. “This is where the deck is going to be.”
“Are you going to put a hot tub on the deck?” I ask, looking up at him, and he shakes his head no.
“Well, you should.” I cross my arms over my chest in an attempt to keep myself warm. It’s cold, really fricking cold, and I know without a doubt that if I didn’t have on the mittens he gave me, my hands would be frostbitten by the time we got back to his house. “You need someplace to hang out with your girl, and where better to hang out than the hot tub overlooking this gorgeous view, since you won’t have a bathtub?”
“We can hang on the couch in the living room.”
“Seriously?” I roll my eyes at him. “You want to hang out on the couch?”
“Would it be better if I said I would have a fire going in the fireplace?”
“Barely.” I catch his smile and smile back. “So tell me about the layout—where is the kitchen going to be?”
“The kitchen will be here.” He points at a spot near where he said the deck would be. “It’s going to be open into the living room so that if I have family or friends over, everyone can hang out. There will be two bedrooms upstairs, including the master, but that will be the only one with a deck of its own, and another bedroom will be downstairs for guests or when I get too old to take the stairs.”
“So you want to live here forever?”
“This was my dream,” he tells me softly, turning to meet my gaze. “I didn’t have much growing up, and me and my sister were moved around a lot as kids. I always wanted a place that was mine, with a little bit of land and a house big enough for the people I care about to be comfortable in.”