Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 129084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
I lean closer again. “And secondly, I will always be a man you can depend on. I will do anything for you, babe. Thirdly, we fit like a glove together. Not just sexually, though that too, but soulfully. I have no doubts that you’re my other half.”
Melting against the seat, she sighs so sweetly. When she pops up suddenly, she playfully rolls her eyes. “Dammit, you just one-upped me again.”
I shrug. “Oops, sorry.”
The tips of her nails scratch gently along the back of my neck. “It’s okay. I’m happy to be romanced by you any day.”
We share another quick kiss. I’m about to shift into drive, but a voicemail notification pops up on my phone. I play it back. Fuck. I missed a call back from Leslie. I push play and hold the phone to my ear. “Hello, I’m returning your call. Unfortunately, I won’t be available to answer any questions regarding the Torres account, Bancroft & Lowe, or Chip Lowe. If you have further inquiries, you can contact my attorney, David Speckle at Speckle Manhattan. Good luck.”
I look back at the screen, wondering why I would need to contact her attorney to ask her questions . . . And then it dawns on me.
“Everything okay?” Liv asks, settling in next to me.
Since I have a few attorneys in the family, I know if someone redirects you to their lawyer, they have something to hide. I put my phone down and shift into drive. “All good.”
My brother is the best attorney in the city with an impressive track record. I’d trust him with my life, but more importantly, I trust him with the love of my life’s entire future. Her life is what matters most.
Liv plays peek-a-boo with Max until he falls asleep in his car seat. She angles forward again and says, “Fear has always been a driving force behind so many of the major decisions I’ve made.”
“What did I miss?” I ask as the statement hits me out of the blue.
“I was always trying to please my father and not disappoint him. I followed a path I desperately wanted him to approve of and dated a vile excuse of a man because I knew it would make my father happy. I even stayed at the company and endured so many years of toxicity for fear of losing him.” She laughs, but I haven’t missed the tremble in her tone.
Nothing I can say will give her back the time she’s lost trying to win his love. I’ll do what I can to help her recover from him, though. “Most people would have stopped trying a long time ago. You have such a loving heart, Liv. It’s his loss that he’ll never get to experience your sunshine.”
I find she nods when she’s too overwhelmed to speak. She looks down at her fidgeting fingers and takes a few shallow breaths. “Everything I do now is with Max at the forefront of my decisions.” Turning to me, she adds, “If anything bad ever happened to him—”
“I’ll never let that happen.”
She pulls her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around her legs. “Or if anything happens to me . . .” She allows that to lie between us long enough for me to know she’s worried.
Liv is an intelligent woman. She can connect the dots from this morning without me guiding her through each step. I reach over and take her hand in mine, our fingers falling together. “Nothing will happen to you, Liv.”
“The sudden emergency meeting with your family has to do with the files I sent to the cloud.”
I once omitted some details of what was happening in the office to protect her. I can’t do that again. I won’t. She needs to know everything, but the only way we can make sure she’s as protected as Max is to have the full picture of what’s been happening. “Yes.”
She goes quiet, eventually dropping her feet back to the floorboard again. Turning on some music, she keeps the volume low enough for me to hear her say, “I’ll cooperate.” There’s no tremble to her voice anymore. She sounds surer than I’ve heard her. “What do I need to do?”
Wanting Loch to represent her, I walk her through the same steps I took this morning to establish the attorney-client relationship. I feel better knowing she’s being advised by the best.
Watching Max run free without worrying about strangers grabbing him, or invading someone else’s space, or having to contain him even in the wide-open parts of Central Park rewires an aspect of my heart.
I want this for him.
I want to give him what I had growing up—the freedom to explore, to make dumb decisions without major repercussions, to know the feeling of grass under your feet, and allow him to be a kid without teaching him the rules of living in a concrete jungle.