Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 347(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
I sat on the bed, widened my thighs, then said, “Lean against it.”
She did, putting her body crazy close to mine.
I held out the rubber bands to her, and she smiled. “Green and red. Very festive.”
“I try,” I teased as I reached for her hair. “I’m assuming that you don’t want me to brush it.”
“I don’t mind, but I don’t think a brush would go through it,” she admitted. “It’s dried too much.”
“Hmm,” I mused as I sank my fingers into her hair, causing my heart to lurch inside my chest.
As I braided her hair for the next ten minutes, I relished the way her body relaxed further and further. I liked that she was getting more comfortable around me.
I liked even more that she was here, and staying, for the foreseeable future.
It was a bad thought, but I was happy her dad had driven her away.
I hated—no, despised—that she was hurt, for a long fucking time might I add, but I wasn’t upset that she’d run to me.
“While you were showering,” I said, my gaze taking in my t-shirt that engulfed her body. “I got an email from my lawyer friend.”
She stilled. “Yeah?”
“He said that he would get right on the work that it would require to sue him for damages,” he said. “He already started to freeze your credit and that of your daughter’s, too. I just need to send him her social security number.”
She gasped and turned, and if I hadn’t just tied the band onto the end, her hair would’ve fallen out of the braid.
“I never even thought of that!” she cried.
I squeezed her hand. “It looks like, from what he’s been able to find, that he hasn’t done anything in her name. But he’s just going to make sure when we send out the social security number.”
Her head dropped.
“You know, none of this is your fault,” I pointed out. “Not the way that she whispers. Not the way that you tiptoe around, expecting the worst. Not the life that you’ve lived. None of it. It’s his fault. All of it. And you need to forgive yourself. You did the best you could.”
She shrugged. “I feel like such a failure.”
“You aren’t,” I said fiercely. “You’re a fighter.”
She swiped away a few tears that’d dripped from her eyes and said, “I’m glad I left.”
I pulled her into my arms. “I know we’re new. I know that you’re uncertain about everything. But it’s going to be all right. I won’t let it be otherwise.”
She leaned into me heavily, and when I felt like her legs were getting tired of standing, I shifted us so that I was still holding her, but in the bed now.
She buried her face into my neck much the way her daughter did, and that was how she fell asleep.
Only when I knew she was well and truly asleep did I reposition us and cover us with the large blanket.
I reached out and turned her alarms off on the watch that was connected to her wrist, then held her until the first alarm on my phone vibrated on the bed beside me.
After checking on Anleigh and finding her fever-free, I went back to the bed, gathered Merriam back into my arms, and fell asleep.
The next morning dawned, and the sun practically blinded me when I blinked open my eyes.
It was barely morning, but the way the sun reflected off the snow made it blindingly bright in the loft.
I seriously needed to invest in some blinds.
Groaning, I pulled away from Merriam—who was still cuddled close—and went in search of the little girl.
After finding her still fever-free and sleeping peacefully, I went to the kitchen and started some coffee.
After using the bathroom, I grabbed a glass of coffee and headed back to the bed where I would read until someone woke up to entertain me.
I was about four chapters in, and seriously getting into the dragon riders, when the woman who had her face plastered to my hip stirred.
I looked at my watch and found it was barely six in the morning.
An early riser, like me.
She blinked open her eyes and stared at my hip for a long moment before she turned over onto her back and said, “Hey.”
She was too fucking sweet.
“Morning,” I replied. “Merry Christmas.”
She smiled a soft smile that went straight to my heart and said, “I slept through my alarms.”
“She’s fine,” I assured her. “And I turned them off. You seriously needed some sleep.”
She stretched, and my t-shirt shifted as her body bowed.
I resisted the urge to reach for her and said, “I’m honestly kind of surprised that Anleigh isn’t up yet.”
“She won’t be,” she admitted. “She sleeps late. If you let her.”
All kinds of thoughts poured through my mind at that.
The things I could do to her before her daughter woke…
She must’ve been thinking the same thing, too, because her cheeks flushed a bright red, and she glanced back down at my hip.