Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
With the irresponsible confession, Meems settled the bowl onto the counter. She turned around. When she did, tenderness had fully taken her over.
Affection and care brimming in the aged lines of her expression. “You’re right, Brinley. He’s been broken and traumatized. He’s been struggling to survive since before he was even a man and doing his best to protect his family while he did it.”
My spirit flailed and thrashed.
I wanted to know that part of him. To understand what all of it meant.
“And he’s made some bad decisions. Horrible ones. No question about it, and he counts himself as to blame for all of it. Thinks he’s unworthy when he’s probably one of the worthiest people I’ve ever met.”
My chest stretched to the point of exploding, listening to her talk about her grandson with unflinching admiration.
It was only more difficult to stand beneath the weight of it since Elena’s expression morphed into that tortured innocence that promised she had endured the same trauma, too.
So much more appalling than the tidbits I’d gleaned.
“But that man is good, through and through,” Meems continued, love gushing out on a river of awe. “I’ve seen it time and again. His sacrifice. And that’s not being biased. It’s just the plain and simple truth.”
She inched forward, and she reached out and touched below my chin, her gaze penetrating as she stared me down. “So good and beaten down by the world that he’s always trying to stay one step ahead of it, forever putting up a fight. Broken, but refusing to surrender.”
She tilted my chin up further. “I’d bet a whole lot like you. And maybe I’m wrong, but I’m thinking those broken pieces just might fit.”
A tremble rolled through me. “I’m not sure about that.”
Elena reached out and squeezed my hand. “Your heart will know.”
I choked over a strangled sound. Man, was that one coming back to bite me in the ass.
“I don’t think Silas nor I are ready for any of that, but maybe we are what the other needs right now.”
While I was here, like he said.
It was going to have to be enough.
I could see the red flag waving in my periphery.
A warning tolling at the back of my mind.
If that was the way it was going to be, then I needed to stop allowing myself to get attached.
Easier said than done when I was surrounded by these amazing people.
Elena and Meems.
Kai at my feet.
Silas’s ferocity vibrating from someplace outside the door.
The home I didn’t have.
FORTY-ONE
BRINLEY
King
How are you feeling this morning?
I glanced down at my phone that sat on the bathroom counter for what had to be the twentieth time, wondering how in the hell he expected me to respond to the text.
Talk about a loaded freaking question.
What words were there to say when last night had shifted an intrinsic part inside me? Set something that had been wronged back to right?
Like I know how to dream again seemed like a really imprudent way to start the day.
I leaned back toward the mirror to finish applying mascara, figuring no response was better than the one I wanted to surrender.
My phone vibrated again.
King
If you don’t respond to this in thirty seconds, I’m going to leave the clubhouse to come check on you, and I have important business to attend to. Having to walk out of here on my crew is not going to make me happy.
I couldn’t help but grin.
Surly bear.
Me
So grumpy at 7:45 in the morning. It seems you must be feeling a little less satisfied than me.
I pressed send before I could think better of it. They say not to poke the devil and, here I was, trying to rile the beast.
King
I’ll take it that you’re feeling extra good this morning, then.
Gone was the intensity that we’d fallen asleep to last night. The chaotic storm of emotions that had swelled and throbbed as he’d stared across at me while I had Kai tucked to my chest.
Now? I felt a surge of electricity strike all the way from the clubhouse.
Me
You can rest assured that I am quite chipper this morning.
There I went, laying down bets on a clearly unfavorable hand. Clearly, I was at the disadvantage. No chance of winning.
King
Glad you feel that way because I already miss the taste of you on my tongue. This coffee is not going to do.
Need sailed through my senses. A tumult of butterfly wings that flapped haphazardly in my belly.
Me
Are you thinking about me when you should be paying attention to that “important business” you were attending to?
King
That’s the whole problem, Brinley. Can’t get you off my mind. You’re becoming a distraction that I can’t afford, and I think I’m willing to pay the consequences, anyway.
That time, the butterflies that toppled and turned were of an entirely different variety. A different breed.
Foolish ones that wanted to fly right into the flames.