Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Hi, hi, Miss Charleigh!!!” Nolan shouted as they approached. “What are you even doin’ here? I woke up and my auntie said my Daddy-O went to the bakery to pick up some goodies, but I told her I wanted to go with him, so we had to leave really, really fast.”
It was just then I was noticing my son was wearing his pajamas and slippers, and he was waving that knitted puppy over his head.
It still fucked my head all up that she’d been so thoughtful.
Raven lifted a casual shoulder as she glanced at me. “I tried to text you to let you know we were going to meet you here rather than you picking up breakfast since my favorite little man woke up, but I didn’t get a response.”
At that, my sister tipped her head like she was making an accusation. The mess of black hair that she had tied up high on her head flopped to the side. She had mascara smeared under her eyes, and I realized she had on slippers, too.
Fuckin’ hell. My sister was a damned disaster.
“But I see you might have gotten distracted,” she prodded.
Raven didn’t need to know Charleigh was the only reason I’d even come down here. Didn’t need to know I’d toiled the whole damned night. Set on edge by her fear and her kiss and her words. I hadn’t been able to sit still for a second longer, so I’d tossed out the excuse that I was going to run to the café to grab breakfast.
“Oh, yeah, I was heading out and stumbled into him, so he stopped to say hi.” Charleigh’s words were flustered.
Raven’s gaze narrowed, zeroing in on what Charleigh was holding onto. “Why do you have a suitcase?”
“Oh…I…this?” Charleigh tripped all over herself, one worried glance cast at me before she turned back to my sister. “I’d decided not to go on a hike since my feet were hurting from all the fun we had dancing last night, and instead, I cleaned out my closet and took some stuff to donation.”
She jostled the suitcase like it was empty.
“At six in the morning?” Raven’s brow arched.
“Yeah?” Charleigh issued it like a question.
Raven shook her head. “You really are a masochist.”
“Well, you’re up, aren’t you?” Charleigh punted back at her.
Raven giggled. “Fair. Fair. But there aren’t bears around here. I was worried about you taking off into the mountains by yourself, so I have to admit I’m relieved to see you standing here.”
Yeah, I was relieved, too.
Relieved I’d been here.
Relieved that I’d made it in time.
She and Nolan made it the rest of the way up, and the kid was beaming his precious smile at the woman, bouncing on his toes. “Well, I think it’s really good you woke up so early because that means you gotta have breakfast with us. My belly’s been growlin’ for twenty hours. Is your stomach growlin’? And look it, I got my favorite puppy.”
He waved the dog over his head again.
Charleigh looked down at him, and there was just something about the way she did it that flayed right through the center of my chest.
Something that both soothed the sting and made me altogether petrified.
And I thought I might fully come apart when she reached out and brushed her fingertips down his cheek and whispered, “I’m glad you like it.”
His megawatt grin bloomed. “I like it the most!”
“We’d better get to the café then,” Raven said.
She covertly glanced between me and Charleigh again, and I was pretty sure my baby sister didn’t buy our lie for a second.
Then she grinned directly at Charleigh. “Now get your cute butt over here with us.”
EIGHTEEN
CHARLEIGH
I struggled to find my breath. This little boy was nothing but a landslide. His sweetness so overpowering it nearly knocked me from my feet.
I attempted to suck the emotion down and act normal, but I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to look like when five minutes ago I’d been set on boarding a bus and never looking back, and now I was supposed to be having breakfast with the very people I was worried I was getting too close to.
A pendulum shift that made the ground tremble beneath my feet.
“Okay, just let me take this suitcase back upstairs really quick.” I needed a minute to wrap my head around what was happening.
To come to terms with what River had asked of me.
To stay.
Could I? And if I did it, was it only because of them?
River grunted and wrangled the suitcase out of my hold. “I’ll do it.”
“I can—”
“Said I’ve got it. You all go on and get us a table, yeah? I’ll take a black coffee.” With that, he looked at his sister.
“Bossy,” Raven teased.
“That’s because he’s the dad and the boss, Auntie,” Nolan told her.
“At least he likes to think so.” Raven’s words were a razzing barb, shouted at her brother’s back.