Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 103431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103431 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
My heart absolutely breaks for my sweet man. It shatters into a million pieces as I imagine him as kid, with dirt smeared on his cheek and knobby knees, thinking it’s his fault his dad’s dead. For him carrying that guilt all these years.
“Ellis, baby,” I start, sitting up so I can really look at him. “You know it’s not really your fault, right?”
“Logically?” He shrugs and then tenses as a low roll of thunder rumbles outside, long and low, like a jet plane idling overhead. Thankfully, no lightening follows. “Sure. Every therapist I’ve ever had has said as much. Beck—my current—really likes to hammer down this point. But...”
“But logic doesn’t always win when it comes to things like grief.”
“Exactly.” He leans back against the couch, dragging me with him so I’m splayed across his chest.
We both fall quiet as the storm winds down, until finally, Ellis says, “I still have him, you know.”
“Have who?” Maybe he means his dad’s ashes?
“Sauce.” It’s barely a whisper, but it hits me with the force of a sledgehammer. He blames himself for his dad’s death but still has the stuffy he died retrieving. My heart simultaneously melts and breaks for him.
“It’s not quite the same but I still have my childhood stuffy, too. A pink flamingo—Flamingy Lou—that my dad bought me for my first birthday.”
“So, you’ve always been bad at naming things?” he asks, laughing against the top of my head.
“Excuse you?”
“Fefe Fluffington. Flamingy-Lou.” He’s definitely laughing at me, but I’m so relieved to hear something other than fear or pain in his voice, that I don’t care.
“Okay, Sauce.” I roll my eyes even though he can’t see me.
“No, listen.” He shifts us so he can kick his feet up onto the coffee table. “He’s a rhinoceros, but I couldn’t actually say rhinoceros at four-years-old. So, Sauce.”
“Okay, stop.” I cup his scruffy jaw and pull his face down to mine. “That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Play your cards right, and maybe I’ll show him to you one day.” He speaks the words directly against my lips.
“I’d really like that. Maybe I’ll introduce you to Flamingy.”
“Kiss on it,” he murmurs, and I stretch up to seal the deal.
THIRTY-THREE
ELLIS
“Is it weird that our second date is at my ex-boyfriend's wedding?” Scarlet blinks up at me from beneath long sooty lashes.
My dress shirt pulls tight as I lift one shoulder in a shrug. “One man’s weird is another man’s... you know what?” I pull her in closer as I twirl us around the dance floor. “Fuck it. Everything's been a little weird between us, but I wouldn't change a single thing.”
She pretends to swoon. “What a sweet talker you are.”
“Pretty sure you prefer it when I'm a dirty talker.” I dip her low, running my fingers over the velvet of her dress, before leaning in close and drawing us both back up to full height.
“Ellis Wilder.” She smacks at my chest. “This is not the time or the place.”
I roll my eyes. “If not now, when? We're about to have James for a whole week. I have a feeling that kid's gonna be a pint-sized cockblock.”
Scarlet laughs and the sound winds itself around my heart. “Okay, but like the cutest cockblock.” Then she shivers, a look of revulsion passing over her features. “That felt wrong to say, much less think.”
I nod. “Yeah, maybe a little weird.”
We continue dancing as my eyes scan the space. I don’t want to say I’m on high alert, especially here, but everything's been so quiet with Scarlet's stalker that I can't help but worry that it’s all going to blow up sooner rather than later.
Scarlet, on the other hand, is convinced he's lost interest and given up. But I know that can't be true, because how could anyone ever lose interest in a woman like her? She's perfection.
“Are you sure you don't want me to take off work during the day?” she asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Princess, I promise, I've got it.” I press my temple to hers. “Me and my dude will hold down the fort until you get home. And then, when you’re home, we can play house.”
Her eyes twinkle at the thought, and I'm not going to lie, something inside of me lights up, too. The idea of Scarlet and me chasing after a little rugrat of our own... I got to say, I don't fucking hate it.
“Do you want a small wedding like this or a big production?”
She cocks her head to the side as she thinks about it. “I used to think I wanted a big wedding with all the bells and whistles.”
“And now?”
“Now... I just want to be loved. I want to be loved so deeply, in such an all-consuming way that nothing else matters.”
My heart stutters in my chest before kicking into overdrive as I skim the backs of my fingers along her cheekbone before reaching around and cupping the back of her neck and drawing her mouth to mine for a gentle kiss. “Do you think that could ever be us?” I ask a hint of vulnerability bleeding into my words.