Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
This included her flying back and forth to LA twice in the last six weeks, and although sometimes before pregnancy, she’d go without him, these times, he had his assistants juggle his schedule so he could go with her.
Although this flurry of intense work alarmed him, Hale didn’t say a word. If that was what she needed to do to feel stress-free and commit to their kid when he or she got there, he was behind it.
In fact, he had the same kind of thing happening, since they talked and agreed that, once she was back at work, Hale would take at least three months, but hopefully more like five or six, to take over when she returned to work. He just had a lot longer to make plans.
But all this was eating at him.
She was doing too much. He couldn’t believe he had the thought, but he frequently had to catch himself from encouraging her to stop walking, simply to free up more time to do the other things.
She’d never been a nine-to-five woman. She was out of the penthouse early, he was usually home before her (though, he made a point of doing this so he could start cooking), and it wasn’t a rare occurrence in the evenings she was working on the couch beside him doing the same.
Now, she’d added dealing with this nursery.
It was too much, and it didn’t seem to be slowing down.
“You hate it,” she said, taking his attention back to her.
He focused on the grouping of paint chips, furniture and décor pictures, and the wallpaper sample she’d assembled for his perusal.
She was right. He wasn’t sure he’d ever paid attention to a baby crib in his life, or even seen one.
But that one was the shit.
“No, baby, it’s perfect,” he replied, and it wasn’t a lie, it was.
“Your face didn’t say that two seconds ago,” she commented, her focus acute on him, as he’d been noticing often in the past six weeks it had been.
He looked to her, and again, didn’t lie.
Exactly.
“It’s just been a long day.”
“We can cancel tonight. I’m sure Jamie won’t mind.”
“They’re renaming the research facility the Rosalind Oakley Center for Breast Cancer Research,” Hale reminded her. “This is a big deal for him. And Dru, who was on the planning committee. I think he’d mind.”
She scrunched her face to concede the point.
That made some of the tension ebb away, and he bent to kiss her forehead before he lifted up and said something he really didn’t want to say, “Paul’s picking us up in an hour, sweetheart.”
“Drat!” she cried, leaned up to kiss his jaw, then she dashed up the stairs.
Frosty dashed with her.
Frosty needed the exercise.
But Hale sure as fuck wished his woman wouldn’t run up the stairs.
Cheddar jumped on the island, taking his attention at the same time scattering paint chips, then standing at the edge of the counter and staring at them as they floated to the floor.
He started purring when Hale reached out and scratched his neck.
“What’s my mind fuck, kitten?” he asked the cat.
Cheddar looked to him and meowed, but regrettably, it wasn’t an answer to his question.
It was a demand for treats.
At that point, even though it was a priority he figured his shit out, Hale had no choice.
One of the babies he already had needed treats.
So he got on that.
He’d pulled his shit together, mostly because, when Elsa emerged from transforming herself from daytime, busy celebrity journalist to nighttime socialite, he couldn’t think of anything else.
Chloe was dressing her these days, and the gown that she’d sent for this event—which was black with big bursts of shimmering champagnes and golds, strapless but with a plunging neckline, the skirt full but a slit ran up near to her hip on one side—was perfect for her. Elegant, sophisticated, but still racy and daring.
It was when Paul crept up to where they’d be let out on the red carpet, and he saw the crush and the flashbulbs popping, that something happened Hale had never experienced.
He was finding it difficult to breathe.
He saw Hudson turn his head and lock eyes with him, so he knew whatever he was experiencing he was putting out into the car.
He also knew that Rocco, Elsa’s bodyguard, was already at the event. He would meet them at their arrival, but he’d do that after he’d taken a lay of the land.
“Paul, don’t stop, keep going,” Elsa ordered.
Yep.
Whatever he was feeling, he was putting out there.
“Paul, stick with the plan,” Hale contradicted her order.
“Something’s up with you,” Elsa stated like an accusation.
He turned to her. “You know I hate this shit.”
“I do, but it’s not that.”
It wasn’t that.
“I’ll be fine once we get inside.”
She glared at him, but he knew, even in the dark car, she wasn’t missing anything.
“This is important to Jamie. It’s important we show up, have our pictures taken and bring awareness to this issue,” he said.