Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
From where I stood across from her, I planted my palms on the counter. “The fiancé thing?”
Redness kissed her cheeks. Was she actually blushing?
“Yeah, that thing.” The words were wispy, tugging at that dead spot that once had been my heart.
I inhaled deep before I set the fantasy free.
“We met each other through Trent and Eden. I’ve secretly wanted you since I met you, and when you finally broke up with your boyfriend, I took the chance that you might feel the same. It all happened fast, our love. You came here one night, and you never left because you found the place where you belong.”
Didn’t mean to choke over the last, this lump of something gathering at the base of my throat, making it difficult to breathe.
Tessa made a tiny noise. “That sounds about right.”
My gaze ate her up, the girl sitting at the island like an artifact that had been here all along. Waiting to be discovered.
Her delicate throat tremored. “When are we getting married?”
I continued on with the delusion. “In the spring, out on the dock by the lake because you fell in love with this place, too.”
“Right, yes. I definitely did. And I’ll wear this gorgeous white dress and flowers in my hair and these crystal Manolos that I’ve wanted forever but could never afford.”
She actually squealed at that.
My stupid mind went to conjuring the vision before guilt stabbed into the picture with a violence so fierce I didn’t know how I wasn’t bleeding out on the floor.
“Oh, you’re a lucky man, Milo Hendricks. I’m going to be gorgeous.” There she was with her sweet, sassy tease, shimmying her shoulders.
“No question about that,” I told her. There was a small, twisted part of me that wished this was real.
Her expression softened, the same as her words. “Remy will be our flower girl, and Scout will be the ring bearer.”
My chest tightened, and I forced myself to smile. “The only thing I want is to be fully back in their lives.”
Reaching over the island, she squeezed my hand. “They will be, Milo.”
I slipped my fingers between hers, shifting to twine them together. “Because of you.”
A soft grin slid to her face, and those freckles lit. “I am pretty great.”
Zero arrogance.
Pure Tessa.
“That you are,” I told her.
Hesitating, she dipped her gaze to the far side of the kitchen.
“What is it?” I urged.
She slowly returned her attention to me, her eyes raging with a tumult I hated to see there. “I need to get my things at Karl’s today. Would you be able to go with me? I really don’t want to go alone.”
Possession pulsed through my blood. “That’s good, because I don’t want you going there alone, either.”
That blush was back, and she squeezed my hand again, her head tipped to the side when she whispered, “I think you and I are going to make a pretty good team.”
TEN
MILO
“Knock, knock,” the voice called from out of nowhere.
Ah, shit.
I knew that voice, and I knew it well.
I jerked around from where I was loading the dishwasher, needing something to do with my hands, all around trying to get my head on straight while Tessa went to shower and get ready to go get her things.
That right there fucked with my brain.
I couldn’t stop from picturing her under the spray.
Bare body beneath it.
Girl perfect and wet and, motherfuck, there I went, losing direction all over again.
I tamped the visions down because I had a brand-new situation to attend to.
I forced a smile just in time to catch my mother poking her head through the front door.
She gave me a giant grin when she saw me and slipped in without invitation like it was just another day.
Funny, considering there wasn’t a single thing about this day that felt normal.
“Hey, Mom, how are you?” I roughed a flustered hand through my hair as I fumbled out from around the island.
“I’m great. It’s gorgeous out, so I decided to take the long route and swing by to see how my favorite son is, you know, since he hasn’t bothered to call his poor, lonely mother in the last week.”
“Your only son,” I gruffed, though there wasn’t an ounce of annoyance to it since my mother was the best woman in the world.
She’d been there for me when no one else was.
Dragging me out from the pit where I’d fallen and into the land of the living when living was the last thing I’d wanted to do.
Reeled me back from the edge of destruction where I’d hunted like a beast.
Bloodthirst on my tongue and vengeance on my hands.
Going after it hadn’t done anything but steal the rest of my joy, and she’d been the one who’d gotten through to me, forced me to see I was only spoiling what I had left.
I had to stand for my kids.