Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Why didn’t he keep looking at me? We were talking about the forever of marriage. I was sent reeling from his tentative acceptance. Wow. How hadn’t I thought more about marriage than I had?
Mace’s heavy breath drew my attention. My heart was pounding and my cowboy was actively falling asleep.
Since I refused to miss a single moment of our time together, I rolled off the mattress and took a second to tug on my jeans. As I went through the house for my evening routine—setting the alarms and turning off the lights, a new scenario played out in my head. Mace tentatively seeing me as his husband meant that he was, in fact, all in. Of course, I was too.
I stared at my love sleeping awkwardly across the mattress. He was the realest person I’d ever met. It attracted me, body and soul.
“Come here, babe.” I knocked his foot to wake him. “I’ll get a warm towel, roll to your side.”
He lifted his head enough to look around, still dazed.
“What about you?” he asked groggily.
“I’ll get in bed after I’m done.”
Mace nodded and rolled to where my pillows were tugged into his chest. He was asleep instantly again.
My love for him burst free.
Somehow, we’d found our way.
Chapter 27
Slade
Los Angeles
“What’s your favorite ice cream?” I texted, typing quickly and pressed send before my assistant, Tommy, put his hand over mine and my phone again. He was frustrated with the lack of attention I gave to the matter of my picture on the back of Pepper.
I wasn’t unaffected, but I was damned tired of talking about it.
“It could be AI. We’ve dropped the press release on Grainger’s movie deal. The two pictures tie together. You know how social media is,” I said, splaying my hands across the small conference room table which was really my kitchen table in LA. My manager, Liam, my agent, Steve and Tommy were with me.
“Someone’s watching you discreetly. You’ve been identified on your property in Texas, and we must prepare for the fallout,” Steve said, in a tone that clearly called me a simpleton.
“Maybe,” I started and glanced down at my screen to see Mace’s incoming text. Of course, I paused to read the message.
“I tell you I’m planning to expand our operation to include blind horses and you ask me my favorite ice cream? You know that answer. All ice cream.”
The reply made me smile and also tunneled my vision to that conversation alone. I was in an unscheduled bi-week, where production had given us an unexpected break. It didn’t take more than a moment after hearing of the downtime to decide to spend it in Texas. I was headed back there tomorrow. I couldn’t wait.
“We need to get hold of Mace’s cellular account. We also need him to accept a cell phone we can control the security too. These devices today are too easy to hack into,” Steve stated. It wasn’t a suggestion.
As I prepared to shoot back a text response, my thumbs paused in midair. My gaze focused on Steve. “He’s not behind this. Even if his phone was hacked, there’s nothing there. He barely uses his phone. Maybe a Spotify playlist…”
“Even if there are no pictures, they’ll have your text messages and phone call records,” Steve said, sitting back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. His fists tightened underneath his biceps. I rolled my eyes at the dumb flex.
“I’m careful and he has me in his phone as a local friend.” Duh. I dismissed Steve’s request and lowered my thumbs to the small keyboard again.
“We’re not accusing him of anything, Slade,” Tommy said, attempting to use logic on me to get his way. “We’re only pointing out that he’s the only one of us who isn’t in the privacy of your world. Over the years, we’ve had to change your phone several times. You know that.”
“All right, I’ll ask him,” I said. “Get me a phone to take with me.”
“Tell him, don’t ask,” Steve said.
“We don’t have that kind of relationship,” I said, as I had over and over. I wasn’t going to ever try to control my cowboy. His free spirit was one of the most important aspects of his personality and our relationship. I couldn’t expect him to change and continue to have what we shared.
Instead of saying any of that, I let the silence fill in the holes of my explanation, because I was in absolute control of these two people. They didn’t need to know how easily I caved with Mace.
I went back to typing again, focused only on explaining why Rocky Road ice cream was the best choice of all ice cream. Blind animals in the refuge? That had to take a special kind of care. Mace was an animal lover to his core. I was proud of him.