Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
It took him a second to dig deep past his mortification to find the punk within before he asked bitterly, “You gonna press charges?”
“Absolutely,” I replied. “I hear the fines in these parts for trespassing are pretty harsh, and carry jail time, so I hope you didn’t have any assignments due on Monday. And I hope your parents aren’t too pissed that they’ll probably have to dip into savings to deal with your crap.”
The red in his face got redder.
Yes, his parents were going to be pissed.
I was done so I stood and turned to Riggs.
“Ice cold,” he murmured, his lips tipped up in approval.
I wanted to think my return smile was lethal, but it was probably just normal.
“I’m going to go inside,” I shared. “It’s chilly out here. Do you want me to bring a throw out for you or something?”
“I’m good,” he replied.
“I’m just going to put on some more clothes. I’ll be back out in a second.”
“You got it, honey.”
I rolled up to my toes to brush my lips on his.
Then I walked on my cute Birks inside to change clothes, pleased as punch the ghost of Roosevelt Whitaker (or Sarah) was finally laid to rest.
THIRTY-ONE
Thousand-Piece Puzzle
Riggs
It was Tuesday, early evening, and Ledger was out somewhere in the woods, showing Gia the lay of the land.
Riggs and Nadia were in the kitchen, making dinner.
And he hadn’t asked her, but he knew they were both riding the wave of three days where no irritating shit went down.
On Sunday, after they fucked, cooked breakfast and ate it, they went out into the cold and threatening wet to start looking around her cabin for evidence of trespassers.
They didn’t find anything, and Riggs marked trees so they wouldn’t waste time going over old ground.
Considering their convo about Angelica the day before, he and Nadia made a deal, so he alone headed back to his place around the time Kirk was returning Ledger from his sleepover.
So it wouldn’t be all Nadia all the time, he took his son out on the boat for some bud time, but they had to go in when it started raining. They hung out in front of the TV, until Riggs got a call mid-afternoon from his mom asking them over for dinner.
He called Nadia and had a chat with her about whether she should come or not, since his mom invited her, with Riggs pushing for her to come. She’d be moving back to the cabin the next day, and although they had plenty of time during the day while Ledge was at school to connect, he’d lose her beside him in his bed at night, and he wasn’t looking forward to that, for more than one reason.
She wasn’t sure, but she caved, walked over, and as was his way, Ledger showed how excited he was to see her the second he saw her.
At that, Riggs had raised his brows to her, because she was the one who suggested she back off and give the Riggs men some time. In response, she had rolled her eyes.
And they went to his mom’s.
Monday, they met Hutch at the cabin so they could accept delivery of Gia, and Hutch took that opportunity to do some more training.
This meant Riggs got to see how hopeless those two females were with that.
They had “sit,” “down,” “stay,” “close,” “here” and “heel” all set.
But they sucked at anything that started with “go,” seeing as going meant Gia couldn’t be with Nadia, and being highly trained, Riggs figured part of that was because Nadia wasn’t committed to the command because she didn’t want her dog to go.
So “go inside,” “go ahead,” and “go out” were all a bust, though the canine did all of them for Hutch no hesitation, even if she was leaving Nadia standing beside Hutch.
In the afternoon, Riggs had to leave her to get Ledger from school, and they’d decided again to give his son a break from all Nadia all the time. This meant they spent last night without her, even if Ledger was dying to meet Gia. Riggs had told him they needed some time alone to get to know each other and for Gia to get the lay of the land.
The next morning, Ledger was done with waiting and asked in a way that was more like a demand to meet “their” new dog when he got home from school.
And Riggs was done with not having Nadia around.
His head wasn’t fucked up about it anymore. He didn’t have to consider how she was after Lucille spilled. The way she literally and then verbally took his back when Bubbles showed. Her hilarious fake chartering of a plane after Storm and him talked. How good her stout cake was. How good she was with Ledger. How much his mom liked her. How cool-headed and ice-cold she was with the two dumbasses who were screwing with her. How real she was about how she was dealing with her mother’s death. How she hooked her thumb in his beltloop when they walked close. How mind-blowingly phenomenal she was in bed.