Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“I have Lego dinosaurs,” Arlo tells me before he scampers away, taking Mom’s hand as easily as she offered it.
I blink at the interaction, letting it soak in, smiling like the biggest idiot on Earth.
The kids must know they’re related. They all know about Arlo.
Shit, they know about me.
Salem doesn’t move, her hazel eyes fixed on my face with the same wariness as before. The egomaniac in me hoped she might throw herself at me in relief that I’m back and everything’s sorted. Though I guess she doesn’t know it yet.
“I found Evelyn,” I say. “Handed her straight to the police. They’ll prosecute her soon, and it should be an open-and-shut case with the confession I recorded. There’s a chance we might track down Mom’s jewelry, too, though the dealer who got it sold some pieces off already.”
“What about your money?” The ghost of a frown she’s wearing touches her eyes.
“I don’t give a shit. I can live without it and so can my brothers. That’s not why I went after her.”
She swallows thickly.
I take a step toward her, and to my relief, she doesn’t bolt away.
Not even when I’m standing in front of her, gazing down into hot honey-brown eyes that haven’t stopped haunting me since the day I walked out.
“I did it for Arlo,” I tell her. “For you.”
I think she’s stopped breathing. This would be a fine moment for the conversation we need to have, but if I know my brothers, they’re just waiting for the perfect opportunity to burst in and ruin everything.
Privacy isn’t their strong suit.
“Let’s talk in the garden,” I suggest, reaching for her hand, then stopping.
Slow and steady, that’s the play here. We need to smooth out the wrinkles first before I can kiss her, even if her lips are constant torture.
And those plush lips part as she takes a breath. Her gaze drops to my hand, a hint of confusion forming before she nods.
We walk together in silence, giving me time to think about how I don’t know what to say.
Feelings were never my strong suit.
I can do charm, I can do seduction, I can do grand gestures. But this—talking about what I really want and why it’s her—it’s foreign as hell when you’ve always kept a barbed wire fence around your inner self.
Before I can blink, we’re in the garden and she’s looking up at me expectantly.
I still have absolutely no idea what to say.
Fuck.
I’ve never had a beautiful woman who means the world looking at me with so much hope welling in her eyes.
“Salem, I’m sorry,” I say roughly. “For leaving. For flying off the handle and going rogue, even if I knew it was right. And I’m sorry for leaving you in the dark.”
Her eyes narrow, just enough to send ice down my spine. “Honestly, I wondered if you were coming back at all…”
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” I say, an excuse so pathetic I almost smile. Almost. “The fact is, I couldn’t say any of this shit over the phone. I had to see you. I wanted—” I stop cold. What I really wanted was to make sure I didn’t scare her away. “I wanted to see you.”
“Really? You could’ve fooled me. The way you stormed out that night—” Her throat bobs, proving this entire conversation haunts her as much as me.
And clearly, I still have a lot of explaining to do.
But the stubborn bastard in me folds his arms. I was the prick who left, but not without good reason.
“Can you blame me? After you said you were leaving for the Ozarks? All I ever had on my mind was a future together, especially after Arlo got sick.”
She looks away quickly.
“Okay, that was a mistake.” Her breath hisses out and she backs up a step. “And look, I’m sorry, okay? I should have been more open with my feelings. I shouldn’t have talked like I could just freeze you out and run. Deep down, I never could.”
Her throat ticks harshly.
“Lady Bug,” I growl, moving closer. “That much honesty takes practice. If you can learn to forgive and forget, so can I.”
“Yeah, but God, this isn’t what I wanted to talk about. I imagined this going differently.”
I nod. “There was more kissing involved in my mind.”
A fucking jackass comment, maybe, but it makes her look up at me sharply with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Kissing?” I hate how foreign the word sounds on her lips.
Truth be told, I imagined us doing a hell of a lot more than kissing, but that’s not the point.
“I came here to tell you I fucked up by leaving. Maybe I still had to, but it could’ve gone down differently, yeah. I had to chase down Evelyn. I didn’t have to freeze you out when we were in the thick of a crisis nobody should ever experience.”