Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
This was very true. I was very tidy.
And okay, this was a big thing for me, especially now, when I needed my space like I needed my space.
But I also needed Harry.
Though, it was more, since I didn’t need Harry to think I was needy, latching on to him and sending what we were exploring into the stratosphere way too soon because I was raw and emotional and, well…needy.
I bit my lip.
“I can unpack, Lillian, it isn’t a big deal,” he said.
I studied him closely. “You sure?”
“Honey.”
That was all he said.
I had a feeling he thought that word communicated more than it actually did, so regrettably, I had to ask him what he thought it communicated.
“Is that confirmation you’re sure?”
“Is there something here beyond the something we both know all too well is happening here?” he asked in return.
Hunh?
“I’m not following,” I admitted.
“Lillian, we both know why I’m here. We both also know I need to be here how you need me to be here. So if you need things a certain way, there isn’t anything to be nervous about. So, is there something else that’s making you nervous?”
I was seeing why he was so good at what he did for a living.
I was also reminded how new we were, because we hadn’t gotten to the point of talking about things like this.
Or, I hadn’t.
“I dated someone not too long ago. We were together for a while. I was ready for more. He’d been burned pretty bad by someone else, and he wasn’t. I think I got too pushy and that’s when things ended.”
“How long were you together?”
“A year and a half.”
His face softened. “That’s not too long to start to get pushy, sweetheart.”
“I didn’t think so,” I mumbled.
“Who was it?”
My body gave a slight jerk, because he’d told me he was friends with Doc Riggs.
And Doc Riggs shared something important in common with my ex-boyfriend.
“Stormy Tennant,” I told him.
“Ah,” he replied.
But yeah.
Ah.
Stormy had totally been screwed over by a woman, as had Doc Riggs, seeing as it was the same woman who screwed them both over.
They each got something really good out of it. But even so, what she did was unconscionable.
“I liked him a lot.” And thought I’d loved him, but I was reconsidering that these days. “But I got it.”
“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “Though I feel for him about why he’d be skittish to commit, and it led him to doing something stupid, like letting a fantastic woman slip through his fingers. But I’m feeling selfish, so I’m glad he did.”
Right.
Time to kiss him and do it hard.
I threw myself at him and did just that.
We were still doing it when my doorbell rang.
“That’s probably Rus with the dogs,” he muttered against my lips.
That would be the only thing I’d be glad forced us to stop necking. Animals made a home.
I totally needed to hit the rescue.
Harry took my hand, led me to the front door, and he was right. He opened it and a very handsome man I knew was the FBI guy who came to deal with the Brittanie Iverson murder and then stayed, stood there next to Lucinda Bonner’s adorable daughter.
The girl had hold of Lucy’s leash. The man had Smokey’s and Linus’s.
All three of the dogs were straining toward their daddy.
“Come in,” Harry invited as he shuffled us out of the way.
A doggie fracas ensued as they did, leashes were unclipped, dogs got excited, pets and ear rubs were extended, Harry got them under control, and then finally they settled down enough to put noses to the ground and suss out their new space.
“Right.” Harry slid his arm around my shoulders. “Rus, Maddie, this is Lillian. Lillian, this is my friend Rus and his stepdaughter, Madden.”
“We don’t call me that, Harry,” Maddie informed him. “Rus is my second dad, and I’m his second daughter.” She looked to me. “On account he has another one older than me. But she and me are just sisters even though we’ve got different mothers…” A pause then, “And fathers.”
“I like that way of looking at it,” I told her.
I liked more the consummately satisfied and doting expression Rus had on his face when his “second daughter” said all of this.
“Sabrina, my sister, is graduating college next year and she’s gonna move to Misted Pines,” Maddie went on to share. “She says she likes the fresh air and all the wildflowers we get. But mostly she likes Jason Bohannan.”
“Well, those are all good reasons, on top of having her dad close, and her sister.”
I clamped my mouth shut after I said that. The feel of the room changed, Harry’s arm tightened, and I watched Maddie’s face turn sad.
And being a kid, she just went for it.
“Rus told me about your mom and dad. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks, honey,” I mumbled.
“I had another sister once,” she announced. “She didn’t have the same mom and dad as me either. Her name was Brittanie.”