Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Will do,” I agreed.
Rook started to walk away, then turned back. “Hey, question.”
“Shoot.”
“What ring size are you?”
“Oh. Uh, a six.”
He nodded at that. “What are your feelings on metals?”
“I guess just… not yellow gold? I mean, it doesn’t matter, though.”
“It’s your engagement ring, babe; it matters.”
With that, and nothing more, he turned and walked out. Leaving me standing there feeling another little rush of gratitude for his consideration, for giving a shit what I liked or didn’t.
It was so new.
And so welcome.
I spent a few more minutes in the common area, greeting the new dog, getting to know Everleigh a bit.
When she, Detroit, and the dog made their way upstairs to their room, I felt weird hanging out in the common area all by myself.
Besides, I had office supplies to buy.
I was riding the elevator up when I got a ding on my phone notifying me that someone had sent me money to my digital wallet.
Just in time.
I was still smiling as I opened the door to my temporary room.
“What is this?” I said aloud as my gaze landed on a massive basket sitting on the bed, jam-packed full of stuff.
It couldn’t have been Rook. He’d been downstairs with me the whole time.
One of the girls, maybe?
I mean, who else could it be?
Though I was still struggling to wrap my head around one of them being kind to a new, strange woman in their midst.
Either way, there was a basket.
Just for me.
There was this warm, gooey feeling moving across my chest as I closed the door and crossed the room to the bed to see what was inside it.
There was a little card sitting proudly in front with my name scratched on the front in a handwriting I was reasonably sure didn’t belong to a woman.
But, hey, my own handwriting wasn’t swoopy and feminine either, so I opened the card, finding a simple one with the word Welcome on the front and nothing inside but more of that same handwriting.
Welcome to the club - Colter
My hand was on my phone automatically, finding the text chain from Rook, and hitting the call button.
My insides felt sloshy and shaky. Hell, my hand holding the phone was trembling slightly.
“Miss me already?” Rook asked, tone light.
“I need to tell you something,” I said, voice close to frantic.
“Okay…” he said, his voice a mix of concerned and curious.
Not angry.
Yet.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I rushed to assure him.
“Ask for what, babe?”
“It was just here when I got to my room.”
“What was there? What’s going on? You okay? You sound freaked.”
“I was with you all day,” I reminded him.
“Tessa, what’s up? You need me to come back?”
“I was at your side the whole time. I couldn’t have said anything to anyone without you hearing.”
“Alright, babe, you’re starting to make me worry. What are you talking about?”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
“I came into my room, and there was a basket on the bed.”
There was a long pause after my words, making my shoulders go up near my ears, anticipating the yelling.
“Christ. That’s it? You were scaring me. Fuuuck,” he said, exhaling hard. “Yeah, that’s Colt. He gives everyone baskets. Didn’t I mention that?”
Actually, now that he reminded me, he had said that.
“Oh.”
Rook was silent for another second.
“Wait, did you think I was gonna be mad about you getting a gift basket?”
“Well, it wasn’t, you know, from you. And I didn’t want you to think I was, like, encouraging one of the other guys on or anything...”
“Yeah, no. That never crossed my mind. You okay? You sound upset.”
“No. No, I’m fine,” I said, sitting off the side of the bed, sucking in a steadying breath, trying to ground myself.
I needed to get a grip.
I couldn’t keep having knee-jerk trauma responses, or Rook was going to suss out that I was keeping a lot more from him than he realized.
“It’s just been a strange day,” I told him.
“Yeah, I guess. You want me to come over for a bit? Or want to come here? You feeling weird being there alone?”
“No, I’m okay. I just think I need some sleep.”
“Alright. I won’t keep you then. Have fun going through the basket. Colter is a weirdly good gift-giver.”
With that, he hung up.
I sat there for a long moment, taking calming breaths, before reaching to pull the basket closer to start going through.
Sitting right in the front was a really gorgeous mug with a golden handle. The rest of it was made to look like aquamarine mermaid scales.
I knew he picked it just for the color, which was sweet enough, but I just so happened to be obsessed with mermaids as a little girl.
Stuffed inside the mug was a bag of chocolate and caramel candies.
I set that on the nightstand, knowing it would be gone in two-point-five seconds once I opened it.