Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90337 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“Unless you fall in love with him,” she warns.
I roll my eyes. “I’m not going got fall in love with him.”
“Said the girl who was so mad at this guy, she couldn’t stop grouching about him for weeks,” Grace reminds me, proving she’s the no-bullshit friend I need right now. “You were really mad. Which means you really liked him. At least a little bit.”
I groan as I flop back against the cushions again. “No, I didn’t like him. I was just…annoyed. And the sex was good. It’s hard to have good sex taken away with no warning. A girl wants a last hurrah, you know?”
“Well, you’d certainly get a good amount of ‘hurrah’ if you two are trying to get pregnant,” she says dryly. “I mean…if you’re sure you’re not going to develop a soft spot for this guy, and the contract is ironclad, maybe it’s only a partially crazy decision? What does your gut tell you?”
“That’s the problem.” I stand again, resuming my pacing. “My gut is confused. On one hand, Hunter is exactly the kind of arrogant, emotionally unavailable, smugly annoying jerk I should run screaming from. He’s controlling and bossy and clearly has more baggage than a major airport, even if he thinks he’s got his shit all sorted out.”
“But?” she prompts after a moment.
“But…” I pause by the window, glancing down at the street where my girls will be appearing in about an hour with their other halves. We’re all hitting the lobster boil at the community center tonight, treating the New York boys to a classic small-town Maine tradition.
Another night of pretending not to mind being the third wheel…
“But he’s not cruel,” I continue. “Or even mean, really. He’s just blunt and prefers to cut the bullshit and get to the point. Which I honestly kind of like. He says what he means, even if he knows you’re not going to like it, and there’s something refreshing about that. I have no doubt that I could trust him to honor the contract and treat me fairly, which is more than you can say about a lot of men.”
“Well, yes, I guess…” Grace’s voice softens. “But I hate to think of you compromising or giving up on your dreams, love. If you want a big, beautiful romance and a real family, then that’s what you deserve.”
“Thanks,” I say, secretly thinking about how often people get things they don’t deserve.
Like cancer and inoperable tumors.
I’ve been through enough by now to know that life isn’t close to fair and dreams don’t always come true, no matter how deserving you are.
Though occasionally Fate will step in and make a wish a reality, just in a way you didn’t originally expect…
“But I think this could be big and beautiful, too,” I say. “I’ll get to be a mother now, instead of waiting and hoping to find a partner who wants kids before my eggs dry up. And I’ll get to be closer to the people I love most, who always make me feel loved and cared for. It might not be a family in the way I once imagined it, but it’s real. And with a little help from our friends, I think me and the baby could build an amazing life for ourselves in the city. She’d be able to go to the best schools, do any extracurricular activity she can imagine, be surrounded by culture, and just have so many more opportunities than I had growing up in rural Maine.”
“You’re already thinking of a little girl,” Grace says, her voice warmer. “Oh, my friend, I think it’s too late. I think you’re already a little pregnant.”
“I think I am, too,” I say, wincing. “Is that awful?”
“No, it’s not awful,” she says. “And you’re right about being closer to your friends. They’ll be there for you no matter—”
Her words are drowned out by a firm knock at the door.
The back door, the one that leads to a small deck and the rickety stairs Hunter used to slip away after our three days of hedonistic bliss…
“Hold that thought, someone’s at the back door no one uses,” I tell Grace, my pulse picking up.
Is it him? Has Hunter come to plead his case again, despite assuring me that he wanted to give me time to think?
I confess I wouldn’t hate that, especially if he’s here to remind me how much fun we’d have baby-making…
“Oh?” Grace makes a worried noise. “Well, be careful. We had a killer on the loose for a while who would sneak into homes through a back door while people were away. Then, he would lay in wait and murder them when they went to bed.”
“No one murders people in Sea Breeze,” I say, but her words convince me to grab the baseball bat I keep by my shoe pile—just in case.