Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 63601 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63601 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Good grief.
What had she done?
“Um.” Levi looked a bit like he wanted to climb under the table. “Promise not to be angry at me?”
I’d sent him soup for weeks and this was what worried him?
“Promise.”
Bracing for impact, I pointed to a butterfly pendant I thought she’d like. “That’s a pretty one.”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to get distracted or not, but he wasn’t the type to run from the hard stuff or weird stuff.
“Your mother had said a few weird things that made your housekeeper wonder if she’d stolen you…as a baby…and the fairy ring thing just made it even more confusing.” Levi was watching me like he was the one bracing for impact that time. “Nothing came up when she searched for stuff online, though.”
Great.
“Um, I’m technically adopted.” And my mother always described it so oddly I hadn’t asked many questions. “Legally I’m her son because of the adoption, and I have seen very official-looking paperwork on that.”
Macy hadn’t been the only confused person to go on an internet hunt.
“Really?” Levi looked startled. “I never realized that.”
“Oh, my mother thinks I’m hers and would never use that word in a million years. I was a gift from the fae or the fairies or from whatever god is most important at that moment, so we don’t use the A word in our house.” She was understanding about anything else I could’ve done or said…except use that word.
“She’s really irrational about it and it’s kind of cute.” The way Levi rolled his eyes made his views clear, but he didn’t say it out loud. “I talked to my dad about it in high school and he’s much more reasonable.”
Mostly because I wasn’t sure if he knew where I’d come from.
“They’re both insane, but I seem to be one of her sister’s biological child. There was a biker named Moe involved and while it was consensual, he ended up in jail somehow. I didn’t ask so don’t ask me how that happened.” I shrugged when Levi’s eyes went wide. “I think he was doing something else illegal that caught up to him, and yes, younger me was very curious and Moe does not seem to be his real name.”
Levi’s eyes went back to normal but he looked like he wasn’t sure if he could laugh or not. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Welcome to the club.” But my parents loved me to pieces so that was what mattered. “But it seems like my biological grandparents were beyond trash and my mother decided her boyfriend at the time was going to marry her and so he did.”
And Levi’s eyes went round and around again. “You sure you’ve seen adoption paperwork?”
“Yes. It was several years after I was born, though, and it was a closed adoption.” I was just glad they’d eventually gotten it done. “So no idea what really happened but I have a social security number and was real enough to get into college.”
Head cocking again, he nodded. “Yeah, that would’ve pointed out major issues like kidnapping.”
That was what I’d thought.
“You never tried to narrow it down to one of her sisters?” Before I could answer, Levi held up his hands. “I won’t go nosing around. Honest.”
He was so cute.
“There were twelve of them.” I laughed when his mouth dropped open. “Yep, and way too many of them were in the range of possible.”
I wasn’t going to poke at that can of worms.
“You seem good with everything, but I just want to make sure there aren’t any emotional minefields I need to watch out for.” His Dom side was showing so completely I had to fight the urge to smile.
“No. My parents love me and they’re wonderfully weird about it, but they’re my parents.” And I’d seen enough parents who never should’ve had kids to realize I was incredibly lucky. “My mother does think that the fairies blessed her for saving me from her family, though, so if she says something odd, that’s what she’s thinking.”
Levi sighed. “She’s going to say something odd, but just do your best to translate for me once we have some privacy.”
“Deal.” I couldn’t resist frowning at him, though. “But now I have questions about these tea parties. How do we get invited to one over Christmas without my mother knowing?”
****
“You realize I’ve run out of patience, right?” Levi managed to wait until we were sitting down for lunch to push the conversation, but it was probably a deliberate move since I was trapped.
I wasn’t moving until I ate until I rolled out of there.
“Yeah.” That didn’t mean I had to be a good grown-up about it, though. “I have to say…you’ve had more patience than I’d expected.”
“Good. Now that means you have to reward me by giving me answers to my questions.” His words were cute but he sat up straighter like we were in a job interview. “Let’s start with limits during little time.”