Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
I turned so my mouth was at Hale’s ear. “Are those rings her Mom’s from her Dad?”
Hale looked to me. “No. They’re something borrowed.”
“From Mika?” I guessed.
“No, from me, and eventually, you.”
Oh my God.
My throat closed, the wet came, and I had no chance to stop it.
It spilled down my cheeks.
“Judge picked this song,” he told me. “Chloe got to plan everything else, but Judge put his foot down that he picked this song, and Chloe didn’t get to know what it was, until right now.”
“Okay,” I whispered through my tears.
“We’re dancing to The Pogues’ ‘Love You Till the End.’”
Oh God.
He was killing me.
“Okay,” I repeated, my voice choked.
“Love you, baby,” he whispered.
“Thank you.”
He let out a little laugh and asked, “What?”
“Thank you…for loving me.”
His expression changed, his arms closed around me, and he kissed me.
Chloe and Judge’s dance was pure beauty. Tom and Chloe’s dance was incredibly sweet.
It was when Judge danced with Dru that things got interesting.
Because, before the song was over, he stopped, led Dru to a table where Nora was sitting, let Dru go and offered his hand to Nora. And it was clear Dru knew this was going to happen, but Nora did not.
Nora Ellington, of the Manhattan Ellingtons, old money, big money, and total class, blushed a pretty pink and took his hand.
Judge led her to the dance floor to finish out the mother/son dance.
My gaze flew to Jamie who was staring at his son dancing with his platonic companion, making a massive statement that not one soul under that tent missed. I saw that Jamie had a look on his face I couldn’t read, and I tried. Hard.
“Are you dying right now?” Hale whispered on a tease in my ear.
I couldn’t report this to anyone, not a soul outside people at this wedding, so I was already dead.
“You think Jamie will take the hint?” I asked.
“We can only hope.”
I loved it that he said that because that was what I thought.
The next song, Hale led me to the dance floor.
And we started to practice for our big show.
Two weeks later…
I walked into the office, and it was early. Zoey was the only one there.
She saw me and immediately hopped up and made her way toward me.
I knew why.
There was a massive stuffed lion sitting on my desk. It was a little ratty, definitely old, and from what I could see from where I stood, well loved.
And it freaked me out because I’d never seen it before, and I had no idea why it was sitting on my desk.
I stopped where I was when I saw it and asked, “What the hell is that?”
“Okay, this guy came. You just missed him. He was hot. When I say that I mean, he was hawt. I honestly think I passed out for a second standing, listening to him talk, he was that hot. He also had an accent, which made him hotter.”
“Zo, cut to the chase,” I ordered.
“He says you’ll know. He told me to take a picture of him, which was not a hardship, and that you were to give that lion to Hale, and you’d know. Look.” She was holding up her phone.
I felt a shiver when, on her phone, I saw a picture of the man who subdued Marcia Dabrowski and maybe saved my life.
Rhys Vaughan.
Rhys Vaughan had been here.
Hale had told me more than once he’d been trying to get hold of the man, but Vaughan wasn’t answering. It was beginning to tick him off.
But the man had been here.
“He said to give this to you too,” Zoey said.
She was now handing me a cream envelope that, when I took it, I realized was made of expensive cardstock.
I wandered to my office, tossed my laptop bag and purse in a chair and opened the envelope.
Sprawled on the card inside, it said,
The lion is from his father.
He’d want you to give it to him.
Hale will know.
Tell him I’ll talk to him when the time is right.
But now, there’s more work to be done.
-R
I looked at that lion and I knew it had been Hale’s favorite.
And Corey Szabo had kept something that had been important to his son, because in being so, it was important to Corey.
I was curious as all hell what work there was to be done, but that wasn’t for now.
Corey Szabo continuing to find ways to reach out to the ones he loved to share that love was all I could think of now.
I licked my lips and cautiously stepped toward the lion. I reached out and touched it.
“You’re an evil genius,” I whispered to a man who would never hear my voice. “But he needs this, so thank you.”
I set the lion somewhere safe, until Paul took me home later that night.
It was the first time Hale faltered in coming to kiss me when I got off the elevator. And when he made it to me, he didn’t dip his head for my kiss.