Total pages in book: 156
Estimated words: 157140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
“Let her explore. You’re only young once.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like I have any choice. She’s a smart cookie. I’d planned on her working for me so she could take over the company someday. No sign she’s interested, though. And maybe that’s for the best.” I sigh. “I also don’t think she’s really found her calling yet, but that’s another story.”
“She still has time. Don’t stress.”
Our shots arrive and Troy grabs one, holding it up for me. I take it with a friendly nod and toss it back.
I watch as he follows suit.
It’s almost like old times, venting over booze with a close friend. A bizarre way to end a day where I feel like I’ve lived as someone else.
“She has a couple years before she settles on a college. We’ve been joking about marine biology a lot lately. I hope she takes it seriously, though, because seals and dolphins are all she cares about besides her phone.”
“If she likes her phone so much, she could make apps or be an influencer. Lots of fat stacks in that,” Troy says happily.
“I’ll have her in a submarine with the whales before I ever let my daughter be a TikTok sensation,” I snarl.
We clink glasses and down our second shots.
“If she’s off to school on her lonesome, and you’ll be alone in a few years,” he says quietly. “You ever thought about finding another woman? I’m just asking. Maybe the R & D chick?”
Shit, we’re back to this, again?
“I told you, Troy, that’s not happening,” I say harshly.
The fire in my blood isn’t all booze. It tells me I’m a filthy liar. It burns hotter every time I think of her.
“Yeah, but—”
“She’s an employee,” I clip. As if I cared about that when I had my tongue down her throat earlier. “And you’re one, too.”
He pulls back, stricken, and I feel like shit.
There was a time when I told him everything, before the fucking sky shifted and the stars fell out of my world.
“Look. I don’t have time to get mixed up with relationshits. I’ve got my company, I’ve got my daughter, and that’s enough. I’m not sure why you don’t get it when you’ve spent the last ten years banging Bali pool girls.”
Anyone else would take that as an insult. Troy just throws his head back and laughs, drunkenly pounding my shoulder.
“Still got it, you bastard. And so do I. This boy wasn’t made to settle down.” His too-wide grin fades and he settles back in his seat with a heavy look. “You, on the other hand... I just want you to be happy, Cole. That’s all. Half your life is leaving and you’ll have a lot of free time on your hands. A long time ago—before the accident—I remember when she made you happy. Maybe someone new could, too.”
I don’t know if it’s my mood or the drinks or this damn humid night.
As soon as he finishes, I glare across the table, my lip curling.
“Troy. Drop it.”
He holds a hand up. “Okay, okay. Sorry, I didn’t mean to take it that far. It’s just...I know. I get it, man, everyone moves on in their own way.”
Moves on from fucking what?
He’s described my dilemma without knowing it, though.
Is that what I’m doing with Eliza? Giving in to temptation? Trying to prove to myself that the past is the past, over and done and buried like Aster’s ashes.
Troy isn’t the only one who’s mentioned moving on recently. So has Kate—the only person who knows me almost as well as he does.
Maybe there’s something to this.
Troy knows what kind of man I used to be before I became a workaholic husk without a life beyond Wired Cup and Destiny.
I need to keep my shit together. Especially with a lab girl whose chemistry could blow my life—and hers—to kingdom come.
I’d do well to remember that the last woman who was tangled up with me that way hurled herself into dark, dangerous waters and never came home.
No siren deserves my selfish fantasies.
No one needs to share the shadow hanging over my life.
No beautiful young woman needs my damage when damage is all I have to give.
Torches blaze overhead, casting warm firelight on every surface.
Eliza wears that lethal dotted bikini and tight cutoff shorts. She skips ahead of me, giving me the view of a lifetime. Her ass looks so delectable I want to fucking bite it.
“Where are we going?” she asks, tossing her hair over her shoulder.
I don’t care.
I just know I’ll be sad when we get there if it doesn’t involve having that ass.
“Hello? Earth to Commander Coffee?” She stops, waving her hand in front of my face.
“My beach.” I point past the lush vegetation at the edge of my property, the neat line where the soil becomes sand. “Do you want to get closer to the water?”