Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Cora poked her head out from behind me, seeing this going south just like I did.
“Why is it that my life turned to shit the moment you arrived in town?” Beatrice pointed an accusing finger at Cora. “I had the perfect life. You ruined it.”
It was at that point that the door to the restaurant opened, and Cora used it as a convenient distraction to disengage herself from Beatrice’s angry glare.
And whatever she saw coming in that door made her scream.
Scream.
I’ve never, not once in my entire life, seen her that excited.
But then again, I’d never seen her near her brother before.
“Luca!”
Then she was off and running, straight into another man’s arms.
She hit the man—who was dressed impeccably in navy dress blues—and started to cry.
Janie followed suit, hurrying toward the door. Kayla followed, too, but at a much slower rate since her girth didn’t allow her to move any faster.
“Who the fuck is that?” Beatrice asked, looking…intrigued.
I, on the other hand, was thoroughly disgusted. “He’s Cora’s brother. Now, go away.”
“You can’t talk to my daughter like that. Have some decency. This is hard on her. You’ve practically replaced her with a much younger version of herself. How do you think that makes her feel?” Amadea chimed in.
I turned to Amadea, surprised that she was being so quiet and had only chimed in a few times. “Amadea,” I tilted my head. “Beatrice and I divorced over two years ago. She wasn’t replaced with a much younger version of herself. This time around, I finally found a woman who makes me happy. Something that your daughter never, ever, not once in our seventeen years of marriage, did. Trust me when I say, I didn’t want a younger version of your daughter. I wanted Cora. The two couldn’t be any more opposite.”
“You’re such an asshole,” Beatrice snarled.
“No, what would make me an asshole would be to tell you that the things I feel for Cora are things I’ve never felt in my life. I actually want to wake up beside her every morning. I look forward to coming home. I want to make children with her—even though that ship has sailed for me. I want to live the rest of my life trying to make her happy. With you? I was biding my time until my daughter was old enough and I could get away. The only thing that I got out of our miserable sham of a marriage was a child who hates you just as much as I do…now what does that say about you?”
June coughed. “Burn.”
Johnny reached over and placed his hand over her mouth. “Shh.”
With that, I skirted around a gawking Beatrice, a scowling Amadea, and headed over to the man who was surrounded by three ladies who were coming to mean a lot to me.
***
“Dad filled me in on all of your extracurricular activities lately,” Luca said, eyeing his sister with humor in his eyes.
We’d come home—well, to Cora’s home, not mine.
Cora would spend the night at her house with her brother because tomorrow he’d be leaving to head back to his naval station in San Diego.
He’d gotten three days of leave, one of which he would spend traveling both here and back to his base.
“I don’t know about extracurricular activities, but whatever they’re called, they’ve been exciting,” Cora replied, holding a bottle of water out to both me and her brother.
We took them, and I thanked her. Luca tugged on her hair, which was precariously close to no longer being in a ponytail at all.
She looked tired—and beautiful.
She was also making my lower half do things that probably shouldn’t be happening with her brother around.
A brother who’d been watching me like a hawk since he’d sat down at the table with us.
The moment that Reagan, Kayla, Cora, and Janie had returned with Luca, Johnny had given the other man his own version of a hug—only this one a lot rougher than the ladies.
After sitting him down, Luca’s eyes had immediately gone to me.
There was zero welcome in the cool, blue depths.
He looked like a younger version of his father, complete with attitude and that dangerous air that his father had wrapped around him everywhere he went.
This kid was definitely going places if he stayed in the navy.
“So why did they give you leave?” Cora asked as she took the seat next to me and leaned into my side. “The last I heard you were on a ship.”
I absently wrapped my arm around her shoulder, and Luca’s eyes narrowed on the move.
I didn’t remove my arm.
I wouldn’t.
The kid would just have to get used to it.
I wouldn’t be leaving, and I definitely wouldn’t stop doing something just because he didn’t like what I was doing. Especially when it came to this woman at my side.
“Yeah…I’m going into BUD/s training. They gave me a few days to show my face, then you won’t be able to get a hold of me for a few weeks,” Luca explained. “But, I came because Dad’s been telling me some things.”