Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114419 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 572(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
But God, he missed her. She was sitting at the same table as him, and he missed her. He hadn’t let himself dwell on it in eleven years because it would have been painfully pointless, but now, she was right in front of him, and he realized how vast the hole inside him had been since the day he’d let her go. She’d been his best friend, his everything, for as long as he could remember existing, and her absence had felt like the loss of a limb. He’d learned to live without her, but deep inside, he’d never felt whole.
“Oh, my sweet girl,” Mirabelle said, tears shimmering in her eyes when Sienna told them about not following the order to leave their version of “well enough alone” when it came to the fate of a child. Mirabelle put her fork down, stood, and rounded the table to where Sienna sat. Sienna turned, and Mirabelle bent, pulling a half-standing Sienna into her arms and hugging her. “Oh, I’m so proud of you. So incredibly proud.”
Gavin watched as Sienna squeezed her back, the expression on her face full of gratitude. He pictured her as a girl, how she’d glowed under Mirabelle’s approval, like a flower drinking up the sunshine. The way she glowed now. Her own mother had mostly been a loveless shrew too busy chasing the bottle to notice anything—good or bad—that Sienna might have done. It’d made him so mad and so incredibly protective of her.
Mirabelle took Sienna’s face in her hands and kissed her forehead as Sienna laughed softly. “Thanks, Mirabelle.”
Mirabelle returned to her chair and raised her glass. “To my girl, who is good and decent clear down to her bones, who does the right thing no matter the cost.”
“Hear, hear,” Gavin said softly, meeting Sienna’s eyes, watching as happy color rose in her cheeks.
“And if I may add,” Argus broke in before they could take a sip, “to fate bringing you back to us.”
Gavin could definitely drink to that.
“Before you get going, can I show you something?” Gavin asked.
Sienna looked at him sideways. They’d finished dinner and enjoyed dessert on the patio as Sienna told Mirabelle and Argus more about her life, Gavin soaking it in as well. Sienna had hugged them both goodbye, promising to call Mirabelle. It’d made Gavin happy to see the two women reunited. “I don’t know. It depends what it is,” she answered.
“Trust me.”
“It’s already dark.”
“That won’t matter.”
She shot him a glance, but he could see in her eyes that he had her halfway convinced. “I really should get home and—”
“I won’t keep you long. It’s close by. I think you’ll like what I have to show you. And taking your mind off the case for a little while isn’t a bad thing, right?”
Sienna sighed. “Okay, fine. But no more than an hour.”
Gavin grinned and led her to his car, parked in Mirabelle’s driveway, and opened the passenger door for her so she could slide inside. She was wearing a simple navy dress, belted loosely at the waist, and as she lifted her legs to place her feet on the floor of his car, her dress lifted, giving him a shot of the curve of her smooth thigh. The desire to reach down and run his hand along that thigh was so strong he had to grit his teeth as he shut the door and rounded the car.
“When you say close by—”
“Five miles, maybe less,” he said. God, she smelled good, her scent even more detectable in the small, enclosed space. She was wearing perfume, something she hadn’t worn when they were young—something she wouldn’t have been able to afford then—but beneath that, he smelled her, and it was a jolt straight between his legs. He swore he could still remember how she tasted.
“Okay,” she said, putting her seat belt on as the car purred to life. “Nice ride.”
“Thanks.” He was proud that he’d kept the sudden surge of desire out of his voice, and as he brought his seat belt around his body, he took the opportunity to adjust himself.
She was quiet for a minute as he turned the corner off the street where Mirabelle lived. “Did you ever offer to teach Mirabelle how to drive?” she asked, her thoughts obviously moving from his car to what Mirabelle had said earlier about preferring to take the bus.
“Many times,” he said, shrugging. “She’s stubborn about it. But I can’t force her if she doesn’t want to.” He paused for a moment, looking over his shoulder as they merged onto the highway. “I sometimes wonder if it has to do with my father.”
“How so?”
“I wonder if he eroded her confidence. She doesn’t talk about him a lot, just that he wasn’t a great guy.”
“Yes,” Sienna said distractedly, obviously recalling something. “She told me the same thing.”