Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53717 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 269(@200wpm)___ 215(@250wpm)___ 179(@300wpm)
He looked at the brother who traveled the world but had recently hinted that he might want to give up the danger.
“Aiden… I’m going to need help at work.”
“Good, because I want to come home.”
Jared let out a relieved breath, the tightening in his chest loosening at his brother’s intent. “Thank God. I’m tired of worrying about you. You’ll come work at Sterling?”
“Yeah. You’ve been bearing the brunt of Dad’s illness alone and for too long. I need time to wrap up some things abroad but I’ll be back. This time for good.”
With a nod, Jared said, “I have one more favor.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t tell the family about Charlotte until I’m ready to do it myself.” He didn’t know if she was going to tell the twins and he wanted to talk to her before he blurted it out to everyone. Especially Fallon and Noah. She might want to handle that herself, since it involved telling her girls.
“You got it,” Aiden promised. “Same for me coming home. I need to do it in my own time and my own way.”
Jared grinned. “Whatever you need. I’m just glad to have you back.” And not just because he wanted help at work. He’d really missed his brother.
* * *
After leaving Jared’s, Charlie went to her hotel and took a nap, something she’d needed more frequently lately. She remembered the exhaustion from her pregnancy with the twins and when she could, she gave in to the need and slept.
As soon as she woke up, feeling more refreshed, the morning’s events came back to her and her dilemma with the apartment swirled in her head.
Not wanting to think about it and torture herself with what to do, she called her BFF, Leo Watson. They’d met when sharing a table at a coffee shop, both working on their laptops. She’d been on a break from the museum, pre-dig, and Leo, a financial analyst, had also been taking a breather from the office. They’d gotten to talking and had been friends ever since.
Their relationship had always been purely platonic and he was like the brother she wished her sibling, Dan, could have been. Leo had been her first call once she’d returned to the States. After the twins, that was. Though she had girl friends from her old job at the museum where she’d worked before going to Egypt, she felt closest to Leo. She’d even told him she was pregnant when her own brother didn’t know.
She’d tried calling Dan and left a message, but she still hadn’t heard back. It was just like her sibling not to call. He was too self-absorbed and always making wrong choices to be there for her or to give her the chance to help him. He worked when he could as a salesman or delivery guy, but usually got fired because he didn’t show up on time or at all.
Tonight, she needed a shoulder and a wise opinion, so she’d called Leo and said she needed a friends’ night, sweetening the deal by promising to bring ice cream for her and a six-pack of beer for him. He could drink; she couldn’t. So vanilla fudge it was.
She took a taxi to his building, walked up one flight, and knocked on his door. He greeted her, immediately pulling her into a hug.
“How’d it go with the baby daddy?” he asked, concern in his tone.
“Jared was so nice,” she said and burst into tears.
Leo wrapped an arm around her, patting her back, then bringing her into him. She absorbed the much-needed hug before stepping away. “I’m okay. Just overly emotional.”
He nodded in understanding, taking the bag with the six-pack and the ice cream. “Come in and we’ll talk.”
She followed him into the apartment and to the kitchen, where he grabbed a bowl and spoon. He scooped out the ice cream, handed it to her, took a beer, and they settled in the family room on the sofa across from the massive TV.
“Tell me about what happened this morning,” Leo said.
Skipping the part about how she’d blurted out the pregnancy news before Jared could kiss her, she explained what a gentleman Jared had been and how she’d lucked out twice.
“Then why the tears?” Leo asked.
She dug out a spoonful of ice cream and savored the flavor before answering. “I’m overwhelmed. The apartment issue is hanging over my head. Either I’m on a corner bordering a not-so-great area or I’m in a luxury building in an apartment Jared knocked the rent way down on, doing me a favor.” She continued to eat as they spoke. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful and I’m aware of how fortunate I am. But I hate feeling like a burden.”
Leo shrugged. “Is a favor really so bad? It doesn’t seem like it’s an issue for him or he wouldn’t lower the price. And same with Noah, who you said offered to help out.”