Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 60852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Charlie was the very best of the human race, and the day he died of that horrible accident, is a day I’ll never forget.
“Yeah,” I grunt. “I miss him, too.”
“The lady you’re seeing, is it serious?”
Well, I fuckin’ married her so I’d say yeah.
Meeting her gaze, I nod. “Got a son with her.”
Her eyes widen. “You have a son?”
I pull out my phone, bringing up a picture of Max and Ebony, then I slide it toward her. She takes it in, her eyes sliding over the picture, a range of emotions on her face. “He’s just perfect, Brian. Who is the little girl?”
“My stepdaughter, Ebony.”
“You really have settled down,” she whispers, sliding the phone back to me.
“Yeah,” I grunt, reaching for the beer the waiter puts down and taking a few, deep gulps.
“Seriously?”
The familiar voice has the beer pausing at my lips, and everything inside me going cold as I turn my gaze in the direction it came from to see Janine standing, her eyes wide and full of hurt, as she looks down at the table where Harper and I sit. She followed me? Of course she fuckin’ followed me. She can see straight through me and she would never believe my lie, because I have never lied to her before.
“Jaybird,” I say, putting the beer down. “Not what you think.”
“It’s not?” she croaks, her voice breaking as pain washes over her face. “I’m not sure how you’d explain this one away, Muff.”
“Muff?” Harper murmurs, confused.
“Listen,” I cut in, before she can say anything else, “I’ll explain everything, just not here.”
“You lied to me.” Janine laughs, bitterly. “You told me you were going to help out someone who lost a family member. All along, you were talking to another woman.”
“Janine,” I grind out. The entire restaurant has stopped to turn and watch.
“Who is she?”
Janine turns to Harper, who is watching us with wide eyes, but I can see sympathy and understanding behind them. She isn’t a monster, and she would never want me to hurt Janine, but at the same time, she knows that what we had is important.
“I’m Harper,” she says, softly. “His wife.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
The color washes away from Janine’s face as she processes what she just heard. Her eyes swing to me, the pain in their depths almost crippling. It’s as if I’ve stabbed her a thousand times over. The betrayal is something I know she’ll never recover from. It fucking burns me to see the tears welling in her eyes as they turn glassy, and she looks at me like I’ve just upended her entire life.
“Wife?” she croaks out, pressing a hand to her chest.
“Jaybird,” I say, pushing to my feet. “It ain’t what you think. I thought she was dead. It’s a long story and ...”
She turns just as the tears slip down her face and rushes out.
Glancing at Harper, I hold her eyes briefly before rushing out after Janine.
Reaching her in the parking lot, I grab her arm, spinning her toward me. As I do, her hand lashes out, and she slaps me so hard my head whips to the side. An angry growl leaves my throat as I try to keep calm.
“You liar,” she screams, tears roaring down her cheeks. “You fucking liar.”
“If you’ll let me explain,” I grind out.
“Explain what? How you had a wife and never told me? Or that you have been lying to me for the past week?”
“It’s not as easy as that,” I bark. “I thought she was dead, then I find out she’s alive and I had no idea. I was tryin’ to work it out, tryin’ to figure things out before tellin’ you. I wasn’t out to hurt you, Janine.”
She shakes her head, the look of disappointment she’s giving me almost enough to bring me to my fuckin’ knees. “You kept something so big from me, so incredibly huge. You never told me. I thought we told each other everything and you kept this one so well hidden.”
“Just let me explain.”
“Explain? Explain what. You left such a huge part of your past out of our lives, but I could have dealt with it if you had told me. The problem is that you decided not to tell me and along with that, you threw in a lie, a big lie, one that is enough to destroy everything.”
“I had no other choice, I needed to deal with it first,” I growl.
“There is always a choice.”
“Just come with me, let me explain...”
“No,” she shakes her head. “No. We’re done here. I’ve seen enough.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
7 – Janine
“JANINE,” SERENITY PLEADS, her fingers gripping either side of my face as my eyes stare off into nothing. “Honey, you’re scaring me. Tell me what happened.”
“I think she’s in shock,” Ciara says, her voice soft. “Let’s get her inside.”
Step by step, I move toward the hotel, but nothing feels real. My body is working, but my mind has shut down. All I can see is her face, her beautiful, perfect face. He was looking at her, talking to her, and I could see something in his eyes. I watched them for a minute before I interrupted, and I noticed that he gave her a look I thought he only reserved for me.