Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100750 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100750 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Ever,” Nadia said as she tapped the tip of Lynnea’s nose with her index finger. “Your daddy is irreplaceable. He will always live on in your heart.”
“I miss him.”
“I know you do, sweetie. I miss him more than words can even describe.”
They sat there hugging until Gemma came upstairs. She was covered in dirt, head to toe, after spending some time in the flower beds. Ever since she’d taken charge of the weeding, it had become her thing. Nadia appreciated the help and loved that they all had a thing to do together.
“Looks like you need a shower,” Nadia said to Gemma.
She nodded. “Look, I have dirt under my nails, and I wore gloves. I just don’t get it.” She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.
Nadia laughed and reached her hand out to her, pulling her into her side. “I love you girls so much.” She held them as long as she could, thankful that neither of them squirmed. Somehow, they knew when she needed their love and affection. Their lives easily could’ve gone south, down a hole of depression, but somehow the three of them were pulling through.
“Come on,” Nadia said as she stood. “Gemma, you go hop in the shower while your sister and I go make dinner.”
“Uncle Reuben and Kiran are making it.”
“Kiran’s here?”
Gemma nodded. “Yep, he brought beer and steaks,” she said, shrugging. “We can’t have his beer, though, so he brought us our own beer.”
“I want beer!” Lynnea shouted, while Nadia cringed. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind, or Rafe’s, for that matter, that Lynnea would end up being their wild child, the one to keep them up all night when she went on her first date or lied about going to a sleepover when she was really going to a party. Nadia knew all the tricks, thanks to Sienna, and she hadn’t forgotten a single one of them. The bonus when Nadia and Rafe had bought their house was that all the bedrooms were on the second floor, and while the girls had emergency fire ladders, she hoped they wouldn’t use them to sneak out. Because sneaking out was exactly what Nadia had done. Maybe it was a rite of passage.
With Gemma in the shower, Nadia and Lynnea headed down to the kitchen and out to the back deck, where Reuben sat at the table and Kiran grilled. He looked over his shoulder at her and smiled before she could even say hello. Reuben smirked, let out a quick chuckle, picked up his bottle, and took a sip.
“This is a surprise,” Nadia said.
“I was in the neighborhood,” Kiran told her.
“With dinner?”
Kiran smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
Did Reuben’s smirk mean something?
Nah, there’s no way. Kiran was Rafe’s best friend.
But what if?
Nadia shook her head and rejoiced as her phone rang. She pulled it from her back pocket and then showed the screen to Lynnea, whose eyes widened. “Hi, Grayson.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes, I’m sorry Lynnea pranked you.”
“She and Gemma can call whenever they want—you know that.”
Nadia did but didn’t understand why. How had he bonded so quickly with her children? “I know. She still should’ve asked for permission.”
“It’s fine. I just want to make sure everything’s okay.”
“Yep, we’re good. You?”
“Things are good,” he told her. “Listen, if it’s okay with you, I’m going to come up next weekend. I’ll take Lynnea to the father-daughter dance, and I’d like to get a head start on the swing set.”
“Grayson, you don’t have to.”
“I know,” he told her. “I want to.”
“Reuben can do it,” she told him. Or Kiran.
“Anyone can do it, Nadia. Lynnea asked me.”
She couldn’t fight with that logic, and if it made Lynnea happy, so be it. Grayson said he’d text her with his travel details later, and she was to let him know what color dress Lynnea would wear so he could order a matching corsage.
When she hung up, she looked at her daughter. “Grayson is going to take you to the dance.” Lynnea jumped up and down. “However . . .” Nadia’s voice had a stricter tone to it. “If you are not on your best behavior, I’ll hide his number in my phone, and you won’t get to talk to him again.”
“Okay, I’ll be good.”
“Thank you.”
Lynnea ran off to tell Gemma about Grayson coming back to visit. Nadia sighed and sat down at the table, between her brother and Kiran, who continued to man the grill.
“Who’s Grayson?” Kiran asked. At first, his question caught Nadia off guard, but then she remembered he hadn’t been around a couple of weeks back, when Grayson had first come over.
“He’s an ex from high school,” she said. “He’d heard about Rafe and was in town, so he stopped by.”
Kiran looked from Nadia to Reuben. “An ex, huh?”
“Yeah. The girls took a liking to him.”
“Is that what we call it?” Reuben asked. “He was like a candle, and they were the moths. It was weird.”