Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61953 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
She laughed and shook her head. “Still as well behaved as normal.”
“I gave up on training,” I told her.
“I can see that.”
“Thanks for coming.”
“I’m glad I was still in town. I leave tomorrow. Though, on the phone, you didn’t exactly say what was going on.”
A week ago, she’d walked back into my life to help me with my parents’ divorce. And I’d certainly thought that was the worst of what was going to happen before she left for Seattle. I hadn’t anticipated what had gone down today.
“I know. I’m not sure I wanted to say it out loud,” I admitted.
Her eyebrows rose. “That sounds serious.”
My eyes traveled down her body. Her feet crossed at the ankles in her signature Docs. Her long, pale legs leading up into the tiny little black jean shorts. Her head tipped back into the sun, and the column of her neck was practically begging me to kiss it.
This was what I wanted. This would help me forget what I’d just heard.
I closed my eyes and looked away from Harley. That wouldn’t be fair to her. Not in any world. I might want to roll over and bury my cock in her until we both forgot everything else existed, but that didn’t mean it was smart. In fact, it was a terrible fucking idea.
“I can practically hear you thinking,” she said.
I laughed. “Well, I’m glad you can’t read my mind.”
When I met her gaze again, she had an eyebrow raised.
“I don’t think it’s hard to guess.” She tipped her head down toward my board shorts.
Right.
I was soaking wet. And had basically nothing to cover what I was thinking.
“I suppose not,” I said and adjusted myself under her scrutiny.
Her cheeks heated, but she didn’t look away. “You can’t distract me from why you asked me here.”
“I could try,” I said with that smirk on my lips that I knew was her undoing.
“Okay. You probably could,” she conceded. She bit her bottom lip, as if contemplating whether or not she’d let me. “Don’t know how much it’d help.”
I blew out a harsh breath. “You’re right. Remember last weekend, when we talked about my parents’ divorce?”
“Of course.”
“Well, I thought it was because of my father’s cheating.”
“It isn’t?” she asked skeptically.
“Well it is.”
“Say more.” She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arm around them as she listened intently.
“I couldn’t figure out why my mom finally broke. She’d known about the other girls for literally years. Eve should have been the final straw, and somehow, it still wasn’t.”
“So, what did he do?”
I sighed heavily. “He got the new girl pregnant.”
My jaw dropped. “He didn’t!”
“Yep,” I said through clenched teeth. “The fucking idiot.”
“Wow. I can’t believe he was that reckless.”
“Neither can I.”
“Ashleigh is in her late twenties. He can’t want a newborn in the middle of all of this.”
I held my hands before me. “I said the same fucking thing. But it’s kind of too late, isn’t it? The deed has already been done.”
“Gross.”
“And now, I’m going to have a fucking half-sibling.”
“Not the baby’s fault.”
“Obviously,” I ground out. “It’s my father’s fucking fault. It’s always my father’s fucking fault.”
She sighed and touched my arm. “Do you know who the woman is?”
“No. I’m sure I’ll have to meet her at some point. And I don’t blame my mom for saying enough is enough. This isn’t something she can just ignore, like all the others. This is a very tangible reason not to be married to him anymore.”
She flopped back on the blanket and covered her eyes. “That is so fucked, Chase.”
“Tell me about it.”
“No wonder you were swimming until you almost killed yourself.”
I ran a hand down my face. “I wish that was all of it.”
She flipped open her blue eyes. “There’s more?”
“The woman works for the company.”
“Stop,” Harley gasped. “She does not.”
“Yep. And the board of directors caught wind of it, and they’re pissed.”
“Well, duh. That’s an HR nightmare.”
I nodded my head. “They want me to take a bigger role in the company. Dad would still run everything behind the scenes, but I’d be more the face of the company. They want to keep this out of headlines.”
She cringed. “Gross. So, they’re going to sweep it under the rug.”
I sighed and met her disgusted gaze. “Look, I fucking agree. The whole thing is disgusting.”
“This can’t be the first time.”
“But the first time there’s going to be consequences.”
“Barely,” she snapped. “He knocks up someone who works for him, and the only punishment is, they give his son a bigger position? Man, corporations are all the same, huh?”
“So, you think I shouldn’t do it?”
She snorted, coming to her knees and grabbing my hands. “Of course you should take the job!”
I raised my brows. “What?”
“Take the job, silly. Sometimes, the timing isn’t right,” she said. Her eyes met mine, and I could feel the double meaning behind them. “You just jump anyway.”