Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
“Got a hangover, Butterfly?”
“It could be a virus.”
“Hey, how are you feeling today?” Shaw asked as he walked over to them.
“I am never drinking again,” she moaned. “What was in those things?”
Joe snorted. “Alcohol.”
“Alcohol sucks,” she grumbled. “And I was looking forward to going on these rides.”
No way was she hopping on any of them now.
“I wouldn’t have let you on any of these rides,” Kellan told her. “I don’t know that they’re safe.”
“You used to ride them,” Joe pointed out.
“That was me, not Arabella.”
“Who are you?” Shaw asked, but he was still smiling.
“Is Laken here?” she asked.
“No, she wasn’t feeling well so Duncan made her stay home,” Shaw said.
“Oh no. Maybe we should check on her later.”
“We’ll see how you feel,” Eli said.
“Oh yeah. This could be a virus.”
“Hmm, with how many cocktails you drank last night, I doubt it,” Joe told her with a grin. “We’re off to go on the Ferris wheel. Remi, come on!”
Remington ran over from where he’d been talking to a cute blonde woman and they lined up.
“Come on, let’s find you some food,” Eli said.
As they walked along, a clown bounced past them, squirting people with a fake flower.
He went to squirt Kellan who scowled at him.
Needless to say the clown backed off.
“Arabella!”
She glanced around and saw Cole holding up a hand, waving at her.
Shoot.
She wasn’t really in the mood to deal with him today.
“I can tell him to go away,” Kellan said.
“No. No, I need to talk to him. Might as well get it over and done with.”
Cole drew closer. He gave Kellan and Eli a cool look that she didn’t understand.
“Hi, Arabella,” Keira said.
“Hi.”
“No Horse?” Julian asked.
“No, he’s with Abe today. My ex-next-door neighbor,” she explained. Heath had been busy and she thought Abe had seemed a bit lonely the last time she’d talked to him.
“Can I speak to you a moment?” Cole asked. “Alone.”
“Why would you need to speak to her alone?” Eli asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“It’s fine,” she said quickly, wanting to ease the situation. “I need to speak with Cole.”
“I don’t like it,” Kellan said.
“I’m not going to do anything to her,” Cole said, looking insulted.
“We still don’t know who broke into her place or why,” Eli said. “We don’t like her out of our sight.”
Cole nodded with a slight frown. “I’ll take care of her. And it’s broad daylight with lots of people around.”
She glanced up at her men. There was very little risk here and she wanted to get it over and done with.
“Five minutes,” Kellan stated.
“Five minutes. And we’ll watch Keira and Julian for you,” Eli added.
There was a subtle threat there that Cole certainly didn’t miss. It made her want to groan, but Cole just nodded and they walked behind a couple of temporary buildings. One of them held a spooky house of horrors.
Urgh. Sounded awful.
“You don’t look so good. Are you feeling okay?”
“Um, yes. This was self-inflicted,” she said with a grimace.
His eyes widened. “You were drinking?”
“Yes.” Why was that weird?
“You told me that you didn’t drink,” he pointed out. “The first time we went out.”
“Oh, right. That’s so I wasn’t out of control. I didn’t want to embarrass myself or my father.”
He studied her for a long moment. “You always held yourself so closed off, so in check. Were you always careful of what you did and said? Even at home?”
“Yes. Always. It wasn’t worth the yelling and lectures if I wasn’t. Or the threats against my grandfather.”
Cole blanched. “Threats against your grandfather?”
“My Pop-Pop is in a nursing home. He’s the only family I have who ever really cared about me. Maybe my mom did before my father ran her down into a shell of herself. She overdosed, I think. I’m not really sure since my father never told me. If I didn’t do what he wanted, my father would threaten to remove Pop-Pop from his nursing home. And to stop paying for his medication. He has a heart condition. He wouldn’t have survived. And I’d never had a real job. I was baking and selling my cakes, but it wasn’t enough. Not back then.”
“So that’s why you agreed to marry me? To save your Pop-Pop. You should have told me.”
“And risk you telling my father?” she said.
“I wouldn’t have done that. I’m not that sort of person.”
“But I didn’t know that,” she told him gently. “As I got to know you, I came to realize you weren’t a bad person. That’s when I started to hope.”
“Hope?” Cole asked.
“I hoped that marrying you would get me out from under his thumb. That you might be a good person and help me. It was silly and after you broke things off, I learned not to hope again. Not until . . . not until my business started to take off and I got enough followers for some income to come from my content creation.”