Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 177(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
She tastes like cinnamon. She must have found the items in the toiletry items I set out for her.
I can’t deny the satisfaction that providing for her brings me. Over the years, I’ve bought things for her. Taken her shopping, bought her the car on her sixteenth birthday.
I took some shit for that one from Scotch. He and I are the same, but managing money has never been one of his strong suits. I’ve helped him out over the years. What’s mine is his, but he didn’t have the chops at the time to get her a car so I said I’d help.
He gave me a few grand he had and I guess he expected me to get her some beater but when I showed up with a black Mercedes S580 with a pink bow on the top, I guess it hit him in the pride nuts a little bit.
Too fucking bad. Man up. It was about Elodie, not him. He got over it. In his heart, she’s the most important thing to him as well.
Another thing we have in common.
I work her little mouth with mine. Kissing is something I never enjoyed before. I don’t remember kissing a woman since I was probably twenty. I’d fuck. Do other things, but kissing…it was personal.
But, with Elodie?
Fuck, I’m like a teenager in the backseat of the car parked at make-out ridge. I could kiss her for hours. Days. A lifetime.
When I finally pull back, she gasps. “Wow.” Her eyes unfocused. “I’ve never really kissed before. I like it. I want to do that a lot.”
I chuckle, an unfamiliar sensation flipping around in my belly knowing she liked it as much as me. “Me too baby. Me. too.”
She helps me with the cooking because, I’m helpless when it comes to that.
I feed her sitting on my lap, another joy that has already taken root inside me. She waves me off after about a half a portion and I don’t push.
“Two more bites.” I say, “Then you can be done.”
She mounts a small protest but in the end, I win.
Daddy always wins.
CHAPTER 6
Elodie
Her mother's face fills the screen and I arrange mine into something neutral before she can read anything useful in it.
"Rye." A smile that doesn't reach anything. "Thank you for being there."
"Happy to help."
She has no idea how much.
Adrienne moves on from me immediately, which suits us both. I lean against the counter with my coffee, watching and listening.
"You look tired," she tells Elodie.
"Good morning to you too, Mom."
"Sophia notices everything, just something to keep in mind." She shifts the phone and I catch the hotel room behind her. She’s in San Diego somewhere above their budget I’m sure, but I’ll pick up the tab, no questions in order to keep stress off Scotch. "Your father's group session went beautifully this morning. Dr. Hale says his progress is encouraging."
Elodie lights up, genuinely. "How is he?"
"Fragile." The pause is more dramatic than necessary. "He's doing the work, he really is, but he needs to know things at home are as they should be. He needs positive reinforcement right now." Her eyes settle on her Elodie with the particular warmth that always comes with strings. "He was asking about you, wanting to know if you were ready for your trials, and I told him you were at the top of your game ready to make him proud."
Make him proud.
I take a long, slow sip of coffee.
"I can’t wait to call him tonight with good news." She lets that sit exactly long enough to do its job. "I know you won't let him down."
"She won't," I say, and both of them look at me. I hold her mother's gaze with the most pleasant expression I can muster. "She's ready. Tell Scotch everything's handled on this end."
She doesn't entirely trust me but she'll take what I offer when it suits her. "Thank you, Rye." Back to Elodie, her voice dropping into the register she reserves for her motherly manipulation. "Call me the second it's finished. Don't let anything distract you today. You know what I mean."
She means me.
"Love you, baby."
"Love you too, Mom."
The screen goes dark and the kitchen settles into quiet and I watch Elodie do what she always does. Play the perfect daughter part. Eighteen years of being the thing this family points to when they need to feel like everything's going to be fine, and she still absorbs it without flinching, sets the phone face down with one of those smiles I’ve seen too often.
I set down my coffee and cross the space back to her, planting both hands on the counter on either side of her. She doesn't retreat. She just tips her chin up and looks at me the way she does, like whatever's coming, she was already waiting for it.