Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
His gaze snapped to her face and her breath caught in her throat. The intensity. Even protected by the rim of his cap, she couldn’t escape how powerful his gaze was.
“What?” she growled.
“I really want you to elaborate on that asinine statement but I have the distinct feeling you’re going to piss me off. So then I was thinking how to show you how pretend madly in love with you I am by kissing you. But…I’m not going to want to stop, a fact that’s not fake, and the kids sure as hell don’t need that kind of education. Therefore, I’m opting to just stare at you.”
“Well stop,” she huffed. “You’re making me nervous and you should be cheering on the kids.”
“I’m making you nervous?” He drew out the sentence like it was foreign to him that she could actually believe the words she’d said.
He let her go and removed the hat from his head. Emma watched all that silky black hair spill down and her fingertips burned to touch it.
When he placed the cap on her head, her insides did a few flips. Linc leaned down and brushed their lips together. It wasn’t long, nor anything more than a quick skim against her own, but her chest thundered like a bass drum from the way her heart pumped and her lungs fought for air.
“Until I get to claim you like I want, this will have to do. See you in a bit.”
He walked off and she could only stare at him. Coming or going, the man was a work of art, but damn, the knowledge that even for a little while he was hers… Cue her nights of more battery usage…
Touching the brim of his cap, she smiled and walked toward her daughter, even though her thoughts were on one Franklin Conner.
Dawson sucked the liquid off her thumb as she walked into the living room. “Okay, girl, you’ve given me wine, the young’un is asleep. Sit down and fill me in on what’s going on.”
Emma watched as this woman, who not so long ago had been just a potential tenant and who was now a fantastic friend, sank gracefully onto the edge of the worn couch. Dawson was dressed incredibly as always, even when she was in a pair of dark blue leggings with a red stripe down the side and a blue and white shirt of Tully’s. Her hair was piled up on her head in some haphazard knot that had her looking sexy and adorable all at the same time.
Quite aware of how dumpy she appeared, Emma took a deep breath and perched on the recliner her father had pretty much lived in. The threadbare material on the chair was now covered by an old comforter she’d picked up at the secondhand store. It covered up the shoddy state of the furniture and hid the cigarette burns.
After pouring a glass of wine for herself, she tried for a smile. Failed.
“What’s going on, Emma?”
“He quit my job for me.” Even now, it still worked her up. “Like he had the right to do such a thing.”
Dawson didn’t speak, just nodded and sipped her wine.
“He doesn’t have a child to look after. I can’t just assume he’s actually going to keep his word and give me a job.” A humorless bark escaped. “I’m going to have to reach out and make sure I still have that damn job at the diner.”
“Breathe, honey.” Dawson placed the glass on the old coffee table and reached over to pat her knee. “I’ve not known Linc very long but he hasn’t ever come across as a man who says something he doesn’t mean. All three of those guys are close, disgustingly wealthy, and yet beneath all of the shit that comes with a Y chromosome, I see good.”
“I can’t risk my daughter’s wellbeing.”
“Of course not.” Dawson’s tone was indignant. She tipped her head to the left, a few curls falling free to cascade down the side of her face. “None of us would ever think you could. Tully told me what happened, and I’m pretty certain if he’d not stopped him, Linc would have beat that man for threatening you. He’s not doing it because he wants to control your life. He’s doing it because he cares.”
“He can’t understand what I’m going through. Maybe at one time he could’ve, but not now he has all that money and fame.”
Dawson lifted her drink again. “What’s really scaring you about this? The lack of a job or that you’ll be working so closely with a man who just announced to Rock Falls you’re engaged?”
Emma flushed and drank half of her wine. Dawson chuckled and sipped her own with a smug expression.
“Thought so,” her friend commented.
“It’s complicated.”
Not a single judgmental look crossed Dawson’s face. “I said that when I first came here.”