Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
I heard Tom speak and again looked to the door.
“Jamie, Dru, this is a surprise.”
“It is?” Jamie Oakley asked, his handsome face confused.
Well, good.
Not Paloma.
Family.
Or at least future family.
I had been to a number of parties and events Jamie Oakley had also attended. We’d met. We’d carried on a conversation or two. I’d known his wife slightly better. She was a lovely woman, and her loss was deeply felt in that circle.
Watching Tom invite Jamie and his stepdaughter Dru into his house, I saw that Tom was rugged athlete to Jamie’s chiseled industrialist. They were both immensely good-looking. They were both urbane. But there was something underscoring that, perhaps it was ferocious ambition or a wicked competitive streak that was so ingrained, it was almost a physical feature, and that was what made them so alluring.
Although it was impossible not to notice his good looks, I’d never thought in that way of Jamie. He was always Rosalind’s.
But she’d been gone for some time now, and he was adrift.
And available.
So that thought sprang directly to mind.
“Was I supposed to know you were coming?” Tom asked, closing the door behind him. “I thought we were meeting up in Prescott later this evening?”
And there were the family plans.
“Chloe told us to come here, not head up north,” Jamie replied. “We assumed you were in on whatever reasoning was behind that”—his gaze took in the room, startling when it fell on Nora and me—“and you have company.”
“Let me introduce you,” Tom said, bringing them into the sunken area where we were with the kittens, who, with all this company to help keep them contained, were not in one of their zones.
“Oh my God, Dad, look at all the kitties!” Dru exclaimed, rushing forward.
On the other hand, I’d never met Drusilla Lynch.
She had her mother’s flame-red hair, and she was stunning.
I didn’t know the story of her birth father.
I did know her stepfather protected her like she was royalty, thus, me never having met her.
Drusilla caught up Serena and was cuddling her while she was introduced to us.
Jamie did cheek touches with me and Nora, but Tom stepped away and pulled out his phone.
“Oh yes, of course, his daughter is marrying your son,” Nora declared after Jamie finished greeting her. “However did I forget that?” She turned to Priscilla and Clay. “As ever, it’s like the beautiful people have magnets under their skin, they’re so inclined to be drawn together.” She dipped her chin regally to them. “You two know all about this, obviously.”
Priscilla smiled.
“Don’t know about me,” Brayton said. “Live my life worried she’ll get an eye exam and leave me in the dust.”
“Oh, Bray”—Priscilla rolled her eyes—“please.” She refocused on Nora. “That’s your cue to keep telling him how hot he is.”
“I could spend all afternoon doing that.” Nora placed her hand on her chest and assured, “But only as a connoisseur, of course.”
“Please don’t, his head barely fits through the door as it is,” Priscilla replied.
“I’ll just go over there while y’all talk about me, that good for you?” Brayton asked his wife.
“Perfect,” she answered.
Nora chuckled.
Brayton caught Venus before she fell off the step she’d managed to climb.
“Chloe isn’t picking up,” Tom shared.
Jamie took out his phone. “I’ll call Judge.”
The front door flew open.
We all jumped.
“Where’s my baby?” a beautiful woman who happened to be Tom’s eldest child exclaimed dramatically as she strutted cross Tom’s floor with a rat-a-tat-tat of her high heels and more swagger than Naomi Campbell on a catwalk.
Behind her walked a handsome man who, even though their coloring was different, bore more than a striking resemblance to Jamie Oakley.
This was because it was his son, Judge.
“There she is,” Chloe said, making a beeline to Brayton. She held out her hands when she arrived, saying, “Hello, handsome stranger. Please give me my precious.”
Lips twitching, Brayton handed over the cat.
Chloe held Venus out on front of her, inspected her like a jeweler would a diamond before they picked up their eye loupe, then she snuggled the kitten to her neck, cooing, “Don’t worry, Mummy’s finally here.”
“Did I have a fourth child whilst in a coma and she was whisked away from me?” Nora asked, eyeing Chloe.
“Oh. Em. Gee. She’s, like, so totally you, Aunt Nora, but not blonde,” Cadence proclaimed.
“Rich brown to caramel balayage, my love,” Nora good-naturedly drawled her correction which made Cadence scrunch her nose and smile at the same time.
Chloe took in the room, and the instant she caught sight of Nora, she declared, “Mon dieu! I’m in the presence of greatness.”
“Of course you are, darling,” Nora purred.
Chloe then looked at me and registered zero surprise I was there.
None.
Did her father tell her about me?
“And Mika Stowe, my high school hero,” she said, her tone now oddly subdued.
Not knowing what to do, I executed a little bow.
“You’ve got company.”