Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 111086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111086 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
There were multiple pens with everything from goats to pigs to chickens. A horse and a pony were in a paddock near a larger barn. Drying laundry hung from several lines strung between a couple of huge trees. But what really caught my eye was the huge garden directly behind the house I was currently in. It was terribly overgrown, but flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors were prolifically blooming throughout it. Beyond the flower garden was a second garden that was surrounded by some mesh fencing – a vegetable garden. Like the flower garden, it had clearly gone untended for a long time.
“I saw Vincent this past weekend at family dinner at Dom’s house. Looks like he and Nathan are getting settled in.”
I nodded and felt a smile drift across my mouth as I thought of my friend. It had only been a couple of days since Vincent St. James had “died” and Vincent Dorfmeyer had been born. When Vincent had told me about his crazy plan to escape the danger of his former life by faking his death, I’d thought he and the plan’s creator, Dominic Barretti, were insane.
But damn if they hadn’t pulled it off.
Because from all the chatter I’d been hearing through my old sources in D.C., everyone was buying it. They actually thought Vincent really had been killed in the explosion that had leveled his house.
The explosion that had been attributed to an accidental gas leak.
But killing Vincent had only been step one. Dom and Ronan had done what they did best and worked a big enough miracle that had given Vincent the life he should have had all along. They’d created a new identity for him, including an extensive work history, and he’d been given the opportunity to buy into Dom’s successful security business. It was the same offer Dom had made him years earlier when Vincent had been forced out of the military for his sexuality, only this time, Vincent was going to take him up on it.
And he had Nathan by his side.
“That’s good,” I said. “No one deserves a second chance more than those two.”
“Second chances are good,” Gage murmured. I sucked in a breath when I felt his body just behind mine. He wasn’t touching me, but it didn’t matter because I could feel the heat coming off him. Puffs of air tickled the skin behind my ear when he spoke.
“Vincent told me what you’re doing for him.”
My belly was practically doing cartwheels in response to how close Gage was to me. All I had to do was turn around and he’d be right there. The need was overwhelming, but I managed not to move.
And I had the insecurity bubbling up inside of me to thank. Not to mention the bone-jarring guilt.
“He’d do it for me,” I managed to say.
There’d been no hesitation on my part when Vincent had come to see me in Montana right after he’d broken up with Nathan to tell me about the crazy plan Dom had cooked up so Vincent and Nathan could have a life together. I’d readily agreed to play my role of the grieving friend and to spread the word that Vincent St. James really was gone as I planned his funeral and handled his estate. In fact, I was scheduled to return to D.C. later in the week to “bury” Vincent and settle his affairs.
“You’re a good man, Everett Shaw.”
I laughed at that as a wave of despair washed over me. “You’re buying into the image, Gage,” I murmured. “President Shaw was a good man, a good leader. Everett… Everett is a fucked-up mess of a man who failed the only man who ever loved him and the son who needed him.”
I tried to step away from Gage, but one of his arms wrapped around my waist. The other curled around my shoulder to rest right above my heart. The embrace had my body screaming in relief, and I found myself reaching one hand up to fold over the muscular forearm resting near my collarbone. Despite the way the embrace probably would look to someone else, I knew it had nothing to do with physical attraction or sex.
It was about Gage giving me something I needed more in that moment.
Something to hang onto.
No, not something.
Someone.
Gage’s lips skimmed over the pulse point on my neck and I involuntarily shuddered. “Second chances, Everett,” he said softly, his breath whispering over my skin. He didn’t say anything else – he didn’t need to.
I didn’t want him to.
I just wanted to hang onto him until I reached a place where I could believe his words.
Chapter 8
Nash
They were beautiful together.
There was just no denying it.
Gage was taller and heavier than Everett so if I’d been seeing them from behind, I probably wouldn’t even have been able to see Everett. But the view I had was from the side, so I could see not only Gage’s mouth near Everett’s ear as he spoke, but it was next to impossible to miss how Everett was clinging to the arm that Gage had wrapped around his upper chest.