Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107352 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 429(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Closing the tab, I lay down on the bed with my feet on the floor, listening to the rain on the roof and against the windowpanes. It was soothing, and I wondered if it would be really terrible, and cowardly, to simply stay where I was. They didn’t need me down there anyway. I was feeling, already, like a third wheel.
“What are you doing up here?”
I hadn’t realized I’d closed my eyes, and now I opened them, to see Tatum standing there scowling, arms crossed.
“Your grandparents are staying in the guest room.”
“No, I know, but I thought you were going to sleep with Dad.”
Thank God I was not drinking anything. I would have choked to death right there. As it was, I sat up quickly and regarded her.
“What?” She sounded annoyed.
“I’m sorry, where was I supposed to sleep?”
“With Dad in his room. When we had a leak in my ceiling a long time ago, I had to sleep in Dar’s room with him,” she explained. “You could sleep with Dad.”
“Maybe the woman would like to sleep with your father,” I said, fishing.
Her stare turned from a scowl to a glower. “Why would he want that? From what he told me in the car, he knew her when he was growing up, but he was surprised to see her with Nana and Grampy when we picked them all up outside on the curb.”
“If you picked them up, why did they rent a car?”
“For some reason Grampy doesn’t like the Jeep, even though it’s awesome, especially in the summer when we take the doors off.”
“Okay.”
We were both quiet for a moment, listening to the rain, and when I lay back down, she did the same, lying shoulder-to-shoulder with me, and yawned loudly.
“What’s the lady’s name?”
“Quinn.”
“That’s a cool name.”
She had no comment.
“You should go back downstairs.”
“I will in just a minute.”
It was the rain’s fault that we dozed off, and I was vaguely aware that Darwin was there, talking, trying to get me to move, but I ordered him to beat it, rolled over so I was comfortable, moving Tatum with me, and when she resettled, she was facing me with her head on my bicep.
“Aren’t you guys hungry?” Darwin whined.
Tatum shushed him.
“You should go back downstairs,” I suggested.
Apparently, he didn’t want to do that either, bumping me when he lay down on my other side, yawning big. I was a goner after that.
Fingers threaded gently through my hair, and it was so nice, I made a rumbling sound of appreciation before slowly opening my eyes. Luke was standing over me, shaking his head.
I tried to speak, couldn’t, cleared my throat, and that time there were words. “What’re you doing up here? You have company.”
“Which I should have warned you about.”
I squinted at him. “I had plans to murder you.”
“I really am sorry I didn’t tell you. It’s interesting that I wasn’t the only one, though,” he pointed out. “None of the kids said anything either.”
“Because you’re all cowards.”
“We just didn’t want you to go anywhere.”
“Speak for yourself.”
He stared down into my eyes. “I didn’t want you to go.”
All I could do was gaze into all that blue.
“And I’m up here,” he began with a smile, “because my whole family seemed to have disappeared, so I had to find where you all were. Since looking for you is always the easiest thing, that’s where I started.”
“What?”
“My kids love you, Nash. Where you are, they are. Easy.”
I was confused until he gestured to the wingback chair where Griff was sitting with his feet up on the ottoman, eyes closed, Wink in his lap and his Switch by his side, having slipped from his hands when he nodded off.
“I’m sorry, we’ll get up,” I assured him, about to move.
He put his hand flat on my chest, pressing gently. “Wait. I have something to say to you.”
“Okay.”
“I had no idea my folks were bringing Quinn Gordon with them. We dated in high school, broke up when she left for college, and then I came here, met Caitlyn, and got married.”
I grinned at him. “I appreciate the history lesson.”
He flicked my forehead, and I did not have a free hand to rub the sting away, as there was a kid on either side, pinning my arms down. When that had happened, I had no idea. “Oww,” I growled at him under my breath, since I didn’t want to startle the kids.
“She’s recently divorced,” he went on like he hadn’t wounded me, “and moved back to Maine. Her folks went on a cruise to the Caribbean, her sister is in New Jersey with her in-laws, so she had no place to go except to see friends in Manhattan, but she really didn’t want to cross paths with her ex.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“Our circumstances are similar,” he continued, ignoring me, “since her ex left her for the woman he was having an affair with.”