Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 314(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Either way, I couldn’t help it, I loved seeing her every day. Even if it was just a friendship rekindling between us, it brought a certain sense of wholeness to my life that I didn’t realize I was missing.
“Is there anything else you need?” she asked as I scooted back from the desk and tucked the chair under it.
The memory of her lips on mine, her body pliant beneath my hands swarmed my vision and filled my head so much I could barely breathe around it. I needed more of that, more of her.
“No,” I said instead of voicing the truth. “That’s all. I’ll see you after Thanksgiving.”
She nodded, heading back to the training room to collect her bag, I assumed.
“You’re in so much trouble,” Ridge’s voice sounded from behind me, and I spun around from where I’d been staring after Anne to find him standing there with his arms folded over his chest.
“Who says?”
“That look on your face says.”
I rolled my eyes. “Where are we going tonight?”
“Pasta.”
“Cool.”
“Have you decided if you’re coming over tomorrow or not?” Ridge asked.
“I don’t know…”
“Come on, a Blackstone Thanksgiving. You loved it last year.”
“I know, I just—”
“You don’t have plans for Thanksgiving?” Anne cut over me as she came back into the room, her purse in her hands.
Ridge glared at her. “Dinner with me is a plan.”
Her eyes fluttered downward, and I wanted to punch Ridge. He had a grudge against her since he met me shortly after we’d broken up, but that was years ago. Couldn’t he drop the overprotectiveness for five minutes?
“Right,” she said. “Sorry, I just…” She straightened her spine, a breath restoring her usual confident exterior. “If you two would like to come to my house for Thanksgiving, we’d be more than happy to host you. We’ll have plenty—”
“I’d rather get my balls tattooed in front of an audience than spend an entire evening with a house full of people whose only concern is who has more offshore accounts than the other.”
“Jesus, Ridge,” I chided. “Lay off it, will you?”
Anne laughed, and my eyes widened at how delightful and genuine it sounded. She was within rights to be in tears over Ridge’s asshole comment, but she was laughing. “You sound like my brother-in-law,” she said, swiping beneath her eyes.
“Him I like,” Ridge grumbled.
“That’s right,” she said. “You did Cannon’s most recent tattoo didn’t you? The one with Persephone’s name? Not on his balls of course,” she added. “Not that I know of anyway.”
Ridge grunted in response.
“The details of the pomegranate seeds were amazing. Seriously, you’re a fantastic artist.”
I cocked a brow at Ridge, who shifted on his feet.
“Thanks,” he said, but no less gruffly.
“Anyway,” she said. “The invitation stands. If either of you want to come.” Her eyes met mine, and I swear I felt an electric charge the second we connected. It’s like my heart jolted every time she looked at me like that, but she blinked, smiled at me, and headed out the door before I could say anything back.
“Fucking hell, man,” Ridge groaned.
“What?”
“Trouble,” he said. “So. Much. Trouble.”
“Relax,” I said, following him out. “I’m fine.”
“I hope so, man,” he said. “You were in a bad state when we met, and every road led back to her. I don’t want to see you go through that shit again.”
“That was years ago,” I said. “It’s not like that between us.”
“Sure, and that’s why you owe me twenty bucks, right? Because it wasn’t two days before you tracked her down.”
“Technically, she found me when she volunteered here.”
He cocked a brow at me, but dropped it. “Well, if anything, there will be more for me tomorrow.”
“What?”
“There’s no way in hell you’re coming to my Thanksgiving when you have an open invitation to hers.”
I opened my mouth to argue, to tell him he was wrong, but closed it and shook my head. “You don’t know me.”
“This was a bad fucking idea,” I grumbled to myself as the security guard waved me in as the gates to the VanDoren estate slowly opened.
I pulled through them, driving up the winding path toward the multi-million-dollar house, and I was sixteen again—awestruck and intimidated as hell. Back then I’d been an optimistic and hopeful teenager in love, never once thinking our differences in upbringing would come between us because Anne had never treated me differently.
It wasn’t until she introduced me to her family—in this very house—that I realized we were doomed from the start.
That was the beginning of the end, no matter how hard I tried to fight it.
“That was rough,” I said as we walked the grounds of Anne’s estate. The lush greens seemed to go on forever, but I’d rather get lost in these trees than deal with her father another second.
Her mother was awesome, her little sister too, but her dad? I’d never been hated before, and I wasn’t sure if he actually hated me or just disliked me, but it sure as hell wasn’t good either way.