Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91937 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
When the single mom moves in next door, it's your enemy's soon-to-be ex-wife.
Lines are drawn, and I have to remember not to cross them.
Brady
For once, my life was calm.
Behind us was the threat our distillery was going to be shut down.
Now we could focus on growing our brand exactly the way I dreamed of doing it when I took it over.
Nothing was going to stop me.
Until she moved in next door.
My enemy’s wife with her seven-year-old son.
I don’t need this right now.
But everything inside me pulled me toward her.
Even offering her a job. Little did I know, again, I was starting a war.
However, I’m ready for it this time.
Harmony
It was no secret my husband had a wandering eye.
Leaving him shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone.
For Winston, it was more about failing at something that got under his skin.
Besides, he had to make his parents happy.
Which means he’s going to make my life unhappy.
When the pounding starts at my door one night, I’m ready to ignore it.
Until the stranger next door comes to our aid.
He’s everything you want in a man.
I know I shouldn’t involve anyone else in my life.
But maybe it’s time for me to see what dreams are made of.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
Harmony
I walk out of the house into the darkness, opting to leave off the lights inside my home and especially outside of it. I look around, making sure no one is outside on their porch watching what I’m doing. It’s past midnight, so someone being on their porch would be a bit weird, but I’m so paranoid I have to take a look around. The sound of me panting as I carry the last of the luggage into the SUV is all I hear before I close the trunk as softly as I can. My heart hammers in my chest, with me feeling like I’m a thief in the middle of the night. I mean, I pretty much am.
I tiptoe back up the stairs to the front door and walk into the house that has been mine for the past ten years. A house I made into a home. A home that is broken to the core. A home I now feel suffocated in. A home I refuse to spend another night in. Turning the brass handle of the door slowly, I shut it behind me softly before heading to the formal living room. I walk over with shaky legs and turn on the side table lamp, filling the room with dim yellow light, as I sit down with my hands in my lap and look at the clock on top of the fireplace mantel. It’s just a little bit after midnight, so he should be coming in any minute. But, in reality, who knows with him? He can come in now like he can come in at 4:00 a.m. Regardless of the time he comes home, this showdown is happening tonight. Before the sun comes up, one chapter of my life will be over, and another one will start. One I will have control over this time. One I will dictate. One I will finally start living and not dreading.
My eyes feel like they fly to the clock every single minute. My body goes tenser and tenser as the seconds turn into minutes. My legs move up and down as I go over my speech in my head. I’ve been practicing this speech, and it’s been a long time coming. I’m going over it for the fifth time in my head, when I hear the sound of his car approaching. My eyes go to the windows. The headlights shine right through, lighting up the living room where I’m sitting. If I thought my heart was hammering before, it’s nothing like it is right now at this minute. I feel like it’s going to come out of my throat as every single beat echoes in my ears. The back of my neck heats as my hands in my lap start to shake.
When I hear the sound of the car door slams shut, I look toward the foyer, waiting for the door to open and then slam shut. The house is so eerily quiet, all I can hear is the sound of my heart beating and the way my breathing turns into short pants. It takes him a second to get his key in the door, and I take a deep breath, wondering if I should stand or not. But my legs are shaky at best. “You can do this.” I give myself a little bit of a pep talk before I hear the door open and then slam shut. “Asshole,” I mumble under my breath. Not giving a shit that his son should be sleeping while he’s slamming the door.
I look over at the clock one last time, knowing I have to remember the time that my life would be changing. He takes a step into the house, tossing his keys on the big round table in the middle of the foyer area, with a vase of fresh flowers I always add to it since it brightens up the dull room. I take a second to take in the man who I thought I would live happily ever after with.
His black hair is perfectly coiffed, parted on the side and pushed over. His brown eyes have deceived me for the past ten years. Eyes that promised me the world, but then quickly showed me you can’t trust them. He’s wearing a pair of beige slacks and a white button-down shirt with a blue sports jacket. Perfectly dressed for the perfect child. At least he’s perfect in his parents’ eyes. He was perfect in my eyes too, once upon a time. But that time has run out.
He looks my way and I can see the confusion on his face. “What are you doing sitting in the dark?” he asks me, turning and walking into the living room. The closer he gets, the more I smell his musk aftershave mixed with alcohol and a sweet citrus perfume that is not mine. That alone should bother me, but after the past three years of him being very, as his mother would say, “very social” and not hiding the fact that he’s social, I couldn’t care less. Once upon a time, it bothered me. But then again, he promised me the world once upon a time and failed endlessly.