Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 146666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 587(@250wpm)___ 489(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 587(@250wpm)___ 489(@300wpm)
“At least if I’d flown down, we could have shared the driving back,” he pointed out.
“Shared the driving? Really? So if we were in a car together, you’d let me drive?” That was something she didn’t believe.
He sighed. “Yeah, there’s no way you’d be fucking driving.”
That’s what she’d thought.
“Daddy, language!” Livvy scolded.
“Sorry, Bubbles,” Aidan said. “I’ll put some money in the swear jar.”
“The F-word is double. Sorry, I’ve got to go check on Wyatt. That kid is getting into everything at the moment.”
“Bye, Livvy!” she called out.
“See you soon, Greer!”
Aidan sighed. “I still don’t like you driving here on your own.”
“That’s because you’re a control freak.”
“And you’re a sassy brat,” he countered.
Aww. She could feel the love.
“I’m most of the way there now, big brother.”
He grunted. “How far away are you, exactly?”
“Um, about eleven hundred miles.”
“And when did you leave?” he asked.
“I have gifts for the boys,” she said hastily. “Can you tell them?”
“Greer, you need to slow down and take more breaks,” Aidan said sternly. “I want you to drive to the nearest hotel and stay there the night.”
“It’s only three in the afternoon! I can drive for at least another ten hours or so.”
“Greer Savage, you will not!”
“Joke. It was a joke, big brother. When did you get so serious?”
“When everyone around here turned into a smart-ass. Oh, and maybe because one of my siblings is driving halfway across the country alone and the other one has just come back from the dead.”
Okay. So that lowered the mood.
Shoot. She knew he had to be super stressed. It wasn’t every day that your younger brother turned up alive after having disappeared for so long.
Damn Cash, anyway.
Aidan had always been protective of her. But that protectiveness had gone into overdrive after what happened to her. And it had been made worse by the fact that he’d been in jail and unable to take care of her. That he’d had to ask Duke to help her relocate to Savannah and keep in contact with her.
She’d wished so many times that she was the one in jail, that she could have taken the blame somehow. That she’d never called him in the first place to help her.
But Aidan had told her that the best thing she could do for him was to make sure that she was safe and happy.
That hadn’t worked out so well.
“If you want me to turn around, I will.” She’d do anything for him.
“I don’t want you to turn around,” he said roughly. “I want you here. Christ, if I hadn’t thought that it would do more harm than good, I would have moved you back here as soon as I got out of jail. But I don’t want you upset, Squirt.”
“I’m not going to get upset.”
“Greer . . . ”
Shoot. She couldn’t ignore that tone of voice.
“Okay, so this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
Emotion threatened to overwhelm her, and the urge to try to purge everything was so strong.
But she could do this.
She wasn’t going back to that dark place.
Not ever again
2
“It’s time, Aidan. I can’t hide from what happened to me forever. I think eight years is long enough, don’t you? You’re in Billings. And Livvy. The boys. And now Cash. And I’m on my own . . .” She had to break off before she started to say anything more.
Or to cry.
Aidan would lose it if she cried.
“I want to come visit you and the family. I also need to see Cash. And then I’ll go from there. I might hate it and wimp out, turn around and come straight back. But I want to try.”
“You’re so brave, Squirt.”
She really wasn’t. If he knew all the things she’d done . . . if he knew there was another reason for this sudden decision . . .
Nope. She was a big girl. She didn’t need her big brother to solve all her shit.
Or at least that’s what she told herself.
“I wish I’d known you were coming earlier, though.”
“I’m not going to come crash your place or anything. I know there’s no room for me. I’ll stay in a hotel.”
“Excuse me?” he whispered.
“Uh, well . . . I . . .”
“My sister is not staying in a fucking hotel. You’ll stay here. Where I can keep a fucking eye on you.”
“The hotel is starting to sound really appealing,” she muttered.
“That’s two F-words!” Buster called out. “Livvy! Sav just swore twice, and it was the F-word! He’s going to owe the jar lots and lots of money. I’m disappointed in you, Sav.”
Aidan groaned, and she couldn’t help but giggle.
“Don’t you laugh,” he told her. “That was your fault.”
“It’s my fault you swore?”
“Yes, because you just made it sound like you wouldn’t be welcome in my house.”
“I didn’t mean it like that. I know you’ve got a full house.”