Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Those pretty, wet-spiked-lashed eyes got wide. “Wow, you’re wise.”
“You will be too in twenty more years.”
It was shaky, but she grinned at me.
It was a sweet, happy, uncomplicated grin, the first I’d had from her.
So I relaxed.
And grinned back.
* * *
Tom called when I was in bed, reading.
Sasha was in Nora’s room.
She and Cadence had gotten on like a house on fire.
They had then gotten drunk.
This had included a FaceTime call, and on a phone screen I got to meet Duncan Holloway’s handsome son, Gage.
I feared Cadence would regret meeting Gage while she was slurring, snorting and giggling, but that was a worry for another day.
Between our courtyard time and now, we’d not only had the cats meet, the daughter meet, made dinner, ate it, and they got drunk, Tom had called Sasha.
She sat in my back garden and talked to him for an hour and a half.
Which might be one of the reasons she got so drunk, living it up after the big release.
She’d come in from that to say, “Dad said to tell you he’d call you later.”
And now it was later.
I answered his call with a soft, “Hey, baby.”
“Honey.”
He said no more.
I felt his emotion beat into me from the phone.
I gave it time and then I shared, “She’s spending the night. She and Cadence tied one on.”
“Good,” he replied. “I don’t want her alone in her new place tonight.” A loaded pause and then came the explosion I was expecting, “Fuck! I feel like the world’s shittiest goddamn father.”
I knew that was where he’d go.
Because that was where I’d go.
“Tommy, I’ll point out she wasn’t forthcoming she was wrestling with these things.”
“Chloe had a meltdown. Matt shut me out. I should have known.”
“You did. You showed patience. And then when you couldn’t break through, you tried another avenue to get her to open up. I’ll point out, Tom, even if I’d feel precisely like you do right now, that avenue worked. She not only started to get her shit together, she let out what was messing it up in the first place.”
He didn’t respond to that.
He said, “She told me she wants to go back to school to be a nutritionist.”
“She shared that with me too.”
“I think she thinks that’ll make me happy.”
“I think you might not be exactly correct about that,” I contradicted carefully. “She was very emotional when she shared that with me. Lots of stuff was pouring out. I believe that’s her genuine desire, and she lost track of it in all the rest. It’s lovely it’ll make you happy, but it’s also incidental. It’ll make Sasha happy.”
“I shared my concerns with her that she was doing it for me, and she said much the same thing, just not that way,” he replied. “She also said something odd. She said she tripped over where she needed to be when she came to you. Do you know what she means by that?”
Oh, I so very much did.
I was choking on emotion, so I couldn’t answer at first.
“Mika?” he pushed
My voice was husky when I replied, “It means she wants to be a nutritionist, honey. Don’t worry. It’s for her. It’s just a bonus that it’s also for you.”
“Why do you sound like you’re crying?” he asked gently.
“Because I really like your daughter, and I’m so fucking glad she was looking for you, but she found me.”
There was another loaded pause before he replied, “I am too.”
We both let that sit for a moment before I changed topics.
“How did your talk go with Sampson Cooper?”
“He’s pissed as shit about Core Point, and he’s all in. He’s got a lot of friends in athletics. Judge and I are bringing him in. We’ll knock out a plan tomorrow, then be on a plane tomorrow night.”
“I’ll pick you up.”
“Honey, that’s a drive for you.”
“I’ll pick you up, Tom.”
He gave in easily. “You’re spending the night at my place.”
I loved my bed. I loved my bedroom.
I did not like it that I was in it alone.
I could do alone, I knew that all too well.
But it was so much better having Tom with me.
“I so totally and completely am.”
He chuckled.
It died when he said, “Thank you for being there for my girl.”
“It’s already one of my life’s most precious treasures, honey. So the gratitude is coming from me.”
“Fuck, you’re everything,” he growled.
Oh yes.
So totally and completely spending the night with him tomorrow.
“So are you.”
“Then you’re more than everything.”
I smiled and did it wide before I said, “I’ll let that lie, because if Nora ever found out we started to get gooey-lovey, she’d never speak to me again.”
And at that, he burst out laughing.
* * *
I took him deep.
“Mika,” Tom snarled. “Up. Here. Now.”
Tom being bossy while I was sucking his cock, I released him and clambered into his lap.
It was less I bore down on him than he impaled me.