Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 173733 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 869(@200wpm)___ 695(@250wpm)___ 579(@300wpm)
“Oh, come on, Mr. Summer.”
“I’ll pay you the money.”
“I don’t want your money. Just don’t cause a scene up there.”
“I have only good intentions.”
He grimaces and faces forward. The elevator opens, and he doesn’t get the chance to exit first. I am out and down the hall at Cat’s door, knocking, before he is halfway here. She flings the door open, and she’s in a burgundy dress, and mascara has smudged the skin under her eyes. “I made you cry,” I say.
“Why are you here? How are you up here?”
She tries to shut the door, and I catch it. “My mother has my phone. She showed up at my place melting down and hysterical. I left her there to go get you at the restaurant. And now I’m here. I left her to come to you. I need to go back. I need you to go with me.”
“Your mother?”
“Yes. My mother.”
“Oh.”
“Oh.”
“Ma’am, I can remove him,” the guard says.
“No,” she says, and I pull her to me.
“I’m sorry. I hate that I made you feel this.” I cup her head. “I wouldn’t do this to you. I’m not that guy.” I kiss her, a long, deep, tell-her-I-love-her kind of kiss, when I can’t tell her yet. It’s too soon and the wrong time and place. “Come home with me.”
“I shouldn’t because—”
“You should for about a hundred reasons I can’t list now. Come with me. I need you, Cat.”
“I actually need you, too.”
Relief washes over me. “Grab your things. What can I carry?”
“I just need my purse,” she says, rushing inside and grabbing it before returning.
We exit to the absence of the security guard and hurry to the elevator. Once we’re inside, I turn to her, my hands on her waist. “Cat—”
She pushes to her toes and kisses me. “It’s okay. How are you and how is your mother?”
“How am I? I don’t know if anyone has asked me that in years.”
“I am.”
“And I’m more than fine because you’re here. My mother is a wreck.”
“I might embarrass her.”
“Maybe you can help. She won’t leave him. He called, and she jumped all over that call. Cat, this is what I was going to talk about tonight. He cheats. A serial cheater, actually. And I don’t want you to think that’s in our blood. I’m not—”
“Him. Or my father. Or Mitch, or anyone else I’ve ever known. I know. And you’re right. Maybe I can help. I know my mother’s regrets. If she gives me the opening, I will talk to her.”
I kiss her. “I’m crazy about you, woman. Another something we need to talk about, because this isn’t going away.” I lean back to look at her. “What happened with your brothers?”
“One family at a time,” she says. “Yours first.”
“Speaking of family. Can I use your phone to call my sister?”
“Of course.”
She hands it to me, and I’ve finally calmed Stacey down when we reach the lobby of my building and end the call. “She wants to talk to you. We don’t have time, but beware. You’re now on my sister’s radar.”
Cat laughs, this sweet, bubbly sound that brings me down about ten notches. We step onto and back off the elevator on my floor when she stops me. “I drank three glasses of wine. Am I talking normally?”
I smile. “Yes, actually, you are.”
“Huh. I don’t get it, but good.”
We stop at my door. “Let’s hope I didn’t save my drunk talk for your mother.”
“At this point. I’d rather you use that frank talk you do with me with my mother.” I open the door and take her hand, leading her down the hall.
“Mother?” I call out.
“In the kitchen.”
We follow her direction and when we walk into the kitchen, she’s standing at the island with a glass of wine in her hand, mascara down her cheeks. Her hair is a mess. “Who’s this?” my mother asks.
“Cat. Someone who matters to me.”
“Hi,” Cat says. “You’re really beautiful.”
“Thank you,” my mother says. “You’re dating my son.”
“Yes,” Cat says. “I am. I like him when he’s not being an asshole.”
“He’s very arrogant,” she says. “But not like his father.”
“He told me that,” Cat says.
“Cat, why do you have mascara under your eyes? Did my son make you cry?”
And then Cat does the most incredible thing. “Because I thought Reese stood me up, but of course he wouldn’t, and I would have known that, but it was bad timing. I talked to my father, who I haven’t talked to in months because, you see—I hope it’s okay that I know this—he’s like your husband. He cheated on my mom, and she died of a stroke, unhappy because she never left him. But two weeks ago, he had a stroke and no one told me. And he’s still an asshole, but I don’t want him to die.”
Cat starts crying and my mom starts crying, and two of the most important people in my life are hugging and they barely know each other. But then, Cat apparently has a way of making the Summers fall instantly in love.