Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 48446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48446 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Christmas had been amazing. We stayed home, and Cy’s folks came to us. They were thrilled I was there for good, even more excited by the living arrangement of their children, and when Owen took me for a walk, his arm across my shoulders, I knew we were going to be friends. He and his wife were crazy about me. It was overwhelming but so nice.
Cy put my name on everything, which I didn’t want him to do, but to him, again, it was logical. If, heaven forbid, he died, he wanted me taken care of, as well as the boys. Plus, he liked his name and mine together on any official documents, like a deed to a house, insurance policies, power of attorney, and things like that. It made him sublimely happy. He also had everything from the storage facility in Abilene shipped to me, which I appreciated more than I could say. I had it all stored at a new place close by so that when I was ready to go through it all one day, I could. I wasn’t ready yet, but there was no rush.
In February, when he was supposed to go on his trip with his friends, he canceled, and his friends came to us and witnessed our marriage, along with fifty other people, in our big backyard. His friend Will was his best man, Lyn was mine, and she looked great in her suit. The boys got to stand up with us as well, all except Pip, who got tired. I had to carry him back down the aisle after we said our vows and pledged our lives to one another.
At the reception, Cy told his buddies that it might be a while before he was ready to go on more trips with them. He would love to see them if family trips were an option, which had to include something dog friendly, but he was the happiest he’d ever been and didn’t want to be separated from any part of his happily ever after. It was nice that they all understood. They had families too, and I was looking forward to the trip planned for the following summer.
Lyn had to move a lot of things—beds, television sets, game consoles—but a lot of it, like the rest of her old furniture, she sold with the house. To get rid of it, she made the price tag a steal, but that was fine. Her ex-husband, Mark, had signed over everything to her in the divorce. He just wanted his freedom and not to have to pay alimony or child support. She told him she wouldn’t have had it any other way. He wanted a new life, and so did she.
“Thank you, Cy,” she’d told her brother as she bawled the day the divorce was finalized, clutching his hand in the kitchen, which had become the center of our house. “If it wasn’t for you and Web, I would have had to fight him for child support, and I don’t want anything from him ever again. I just want him to stay in Vegas and never come back.”
“I know, sweetie,” he’d told her, hand on her cheek.
“I would have had to go to court if it weren’t for you and my brother, Web.” She’d launched herself into my arms. “Thank you for letting me have my life and self-respect. I’ll always treasure what you did for us. I love you both so much.”
As Cy got ready for bed that night, he grumbled, “She loves you too much, if you ask me.”
“Howzat?” I asked from the safety of the bed as he stormed around the room.
“You haven’t noticed she’s always touching you, and hugging you, and leaning on you, and staring at you… Have you missed all that?”
I chuckled. “C’mere, darlin’.”
“No, I’m serious,” he snipped at me. “I know she loves me, but I also think that if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, she wouldn’t be all that broken up.”
My laughter had to be stifled, so I used my pillow.
“Web.”
I lay down and smothered myself. When he pulled the pillow away, the tears were rolling down my cheeks.
“Weber Yates!”
“You’re jealous of your own sister.” He was glaring as I pulled him on top of me. “You know you’re the only one I see. Don’t be an idiot.”
“Nice,” he muttered, but disgruntlement gave way to passion when I kissed him.
A month after our wedding, Lyn legally made me the guardian of her children that her ex had given her full custody of. While I was deeply touched, I worried, as I was now fully there, rooted in Cy’s life, that he might get sick of me. As it turned out though, I still made the man breathless.
I had thought that domesticity would kill my allure, that seeing me entrenched in his life would make me less than hot. But that was not the case. Seeing me in the kitchen at the end of the day, finding me in the backyard watering the lawn, watching me throw the ball for the dog, all those things made the man wild for me. He loved it. And it was amazing. We were a family, one I had never dared to hope I’d have.