Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142976 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 477(@300wpm)
When they finally made it down to the water’s edge, the fake grimace of a smile disappeared from her face to be replaced by a wide, beautiful showstopper.
It was similar to the smile she’d bestowed on his father the other day… only this one glowed with delight and wonder. If he didn’t know better, he’d say she’d never set foot on a beach before. But that couldn’t possibly be true. She kicked off her sandals and curled her cute little toes in the wet sand, her smile settling into contented bliss.
Cade stared—arrested—wondering how she’d look in the throes of an orgasm if that’s how the feel of sand between her toes made her look. He felt another sharp pang of remorse that, while he should know what that looked like, he didn’t.
And that was on him.
“This is amazing,” she practically squealed, sounding like a repressed Disney princess who’d only recently escaped her stepmother’s evil clutches.
Which, well… accurate.
“When were you last at the beach?” he asked.
“Not since before my mother died,” she said, staring down at her toes, which were still curling and uncurling in the sand. Her smile was now bittersweet and tinged with nostalgia. “I have this perfect memory of her, on a beach somewhere—I can’t remember exactly which one—I was only seven or eight at the time. She’s standing there with a shell held up to her ear and smiling at me. She told me to listen, that the ocean had whispered all its secrets to the shell and if I held it up to my ear, the shell would tell me—and only me—those secrets as well.”
She lifted her gaze to his and his breath caught. Her eyes were bright with tears, love, and longing.
“I felt so special. So honored to have been chosen. That was our last visit to the beach together. My mother met Granger not long after, and she and I didn’t spend as much time alone together after that. She felt it was important to bond with her stepdaughters. And thereafter all of our mother-daughter activities included Antonia and Allegra. And they weren’t interested in going to the beach or having picnics. They preferred spa treatments and manicures. Shopping. Because they were older—more sophisticated—than I was, my mother encouraged them to help me choose clothes. She thought it would bring us all closer together.”
Cade’s eyes dropped to what she was currently wearing. Another shapeless knee length skirt—this one white—combined with a silky yellow top, neither of which did anything for her complexion. The entire ensemble reminded him of a soft-boiled egg and aside from being the absolute worst color choices for her, they were ill-fitting and baggy.
Fern laughed when she caught his look—the sound was edged with bitterness.
“I know right,” she said, plucking at the hem of her top. “Halfway through every school semester, I’d received a care package from Toni and Allie. Some toiletries, snacks—most of which contained peanuts to which I’m deathly allergic by the way—and new clothes.”
“God, what fucking bitches,” he gritted out unthinkingly.
“Absolutely. But I don’t want to talk about them. I want to enjoy all of this splendor,” she said with an infectious grin, before twirling in the sand, arms outstretched, nearly taking out an influencer type dressed in a tiny white string bikini who was making pouty faces at her phone.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she instantly apologized to the woman, who gave her a flat stare of dislike in return. Fern turned toward Cade and gave him a discreet eek face and he felt the corners of his lips tug upwards in reluctant amusement at the goofy expression.
It didn’t suit her earnest, plain features but it charmed the hell out of him for precisely that reason.
Fern exuded so much childlike excitement as she tripped along the beach—dodging waves with delighted laughter, inspecting shells and at one point nearly poking at a washed-up man-of-war before Cade leaped forward to stop her—that he couldn’t help but be reluctantly fascinated by her.
“Aren’t you getting sand in your shoes?” she asked him, after he cautiously led her around the man-of-war’s two-meter-long tentacles.
“What?” he asked, still wholly focused on ensuring her bare feet got nowhere near those tentacles.
“Sand? In your shoes? You should remove them.”
“Remove the sand?” he asked, completely losing his train of thought after looking up to find those dove gray eyes finally meeting his gaze head on for the first time since they’d left his apartment.
“Remove your shoes,” she clarified.
“I’m fine,” he dismissed and she cast a skeptical glance down at his feet before pursing her lips and shrugging.
The beach was filling up rapidly and soon—in addition to picking up and discarding dozens of shells, and inspecting washed up seaweed —Fern began staring at the people around them in rapt curiosity.
“I love this,” she breathed, then turned her eyes on him again. “Don’t you love this?”