Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Catie had taken the money, knowing that sooner or later it’d be going back to Clive. Her father’s flush days never lasted long. “Gloria’s lovely,” she said. “She thinks she knows what she’s getting into, and maybe she does. I like her, but I’ve decided it’s still none of my business.”
“Probably a wise move. People get weird when they’re into someone.” A pause before he returned to face her. “Just so you know, I’m into you, Catie M. River.”
Catie sucked in a breath, parted her lips, but the words wouldn’t come. She knew this was Danny, the thorn in her side who’d turned out to have sticking power… but he’d just left her. Who knew how long he’d remember her? She couldn’t put her heart out there for him to discard when someone better came along.
“You have excellent taste” was what she managed to get out.
Narrowed eyes followed by a sudden wicked grin. “I stole something of yours before I left. I’ll give it back when you visit.” He hung up without any other clues.
Of course, she then had to wander around the apartment, trying to figure out what the hell he’d taken. He was probably just messing with her, she thought as she finally gave up and went to take off her makeup.
After she’d cleaned up, she stared at the bare vulnerability of her face in the mirror. No masks, no shields. Just a woman with the most fragile hope in her eyes.
“What if he can stick?” she murmured to that scared young woman. “Do you have the courage to reciprocate?”
She’d witnessed love between a man and a woman up close and personal with Ísa and Sailor. It was there in the smile they exchanged across a room and in how Sailor would kiss Ísa as he came in the door, the act seeming to be as necessary for him as breathing.
He’d spent hours and hours refurbishing an antique desk as a surprise for Ísa. When he saw that Ísa was itching to write, he’d grab the kids and take them off to the park or into the garden with him so she’d have an hour of quiet.
Catie had also seen Ísa pack Sailor a thoughtful lunch bag even though she was busy and Sailor was happy to throw things together for himself. And when Sailor had to go away for work, Ísa faithfully followed his instructions on how to water the myriad plants that turned their home into a small jungle.
Most of all, Ísa looked for him too when she walked in the door. She kissed him with just as much joy each time they came back together after being apart, whether for an hour or for a weekend.
Give and take, back and forth, generosity on both sides; that was how love thrived. Even the most bighearted person couldn’t keep giving and giving and giving without ever getting anything back. It would eventually break them—and even when he’d been her nemesis, Catie had known that Danny had a big heart.
As a boy, he’d rescued fish stranded in rock pools and shared his favorite snacks with her and Jake. As an adult, he was never too busy to throw a ball around with neighborhood kids who came by Alison and Joseph’s house when they saw Danny was visiting; he donated time to her foundation with such grace that the kids had begun to expect him to turn up at camp; and he was there for his family come rain or shine.
Danny deserved someone with a heart as generous.
Catie was terrified her own heart was too armored against pain and abandonment to ever be that open to anyone. Breathing harsh, broken, she gripped the edge of the sink, a roar of fear and need and hope in her ears.
29
DANNY, THE DASTARDLY KIDNAPPER
She was still feeling heavy when she picked up her car keys the next morning. It took her a second to see it: her demented raccoon dangle was missing. Her shoulders shook. “Idiot,” she said, affection in every syllable.
Trust Danny to choose the strangest possible thing to steal.
She said as much to Ísa when she met her sister at the café where they were having a late breakfast together to celebrate the beginning of Ísa’s sabbatical from her teaching position. “He knew I’d notice, but he also knew it’d take me a while. Smart aleck.”
Ísa’s gray-green eyes were soft with laughter. “I can’t believe you still have that. It looks like it got chewed by a rat.”
“I dunno. I guess I’m attached to it because…” Her smile faded. “Dad gave it to me after one of his trips.” Then she said something she’d never said even to her sister. “I suppose it’s a reminder of a time when he remembered I existed even when he was off gambling with his new woman.”