Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Sounds good,” he says and then smirks. “I’m glad you're home.” I nod because all the emotion of the night has come crashing into me. “You make her happy, and that’s all I can ask for.”
“You love her.” I don’t know why I say it, but the words come out of my mouth.
“More than my next breath,” he confirms. “More than I’ve ever loved anyone before. Not that I compare it, but…”
“I get it,” I say, and my mind suddenly goes to Brock. “You have that once-in-a-lifetime love, and sometimes you are lucky enough to have it look you in the eyes every day. It fills your soul and your bones, and you know you’ll never be cold a day in your life.”
“Everleigh,” he says, “you should know.”
“I don’t want to know.” I hold up my hand, knowing he was going to say something about Brock. “It’s over; he made his choice.”
“Trust me, no one knows more than I do about holding a grudge.”
“It’s not a grudge,” I inform him. “You hold a grudge against someone when you care about them. I don’t. It’s over. He made it that way.” I get up on my tippy-toes. “Thanks for tonight, Charlie.” I cut off the conversation before heading over to my mother and getting into the car.
“Are you okay?” I ask while I put my seat belt on. My mother doesn’t say anything; instead she shakes her head and looks out the window. “It’ll be okay, Mom,” I say, my eyes looking at the bakery. “We’ll make it okay.”
Chapter Twelve
BROCK
“Daddy,” I hear from my side and then feel the bed dip. When I look over, I see Saige putting her knee on the bed as she rubs sleep out of her eyes. “It’s morning.” She gets under the covers with me and lies down on the other side before grabbing the remote from the bedside table.
“Is it morning?” I ask, turning my head to the side, keeping my eyes closed as I try to wake up. “How do you know?”
“The sun is up.” She snorts. “And it’s nine thirty.”
“Is it that late?” I lift my head and grab my phone from the bedside table and see she is telling the truth. I also see I have a couple of missed texts from the guys at work, and then the last one is from this morning, and it’s from Charlie. “We slept in.” I toss the covers off me and get up, making my way to the bathroom.
When I return, Saige is still in the middle of the bed with the pillows propped up behind her. “Are we getting out of bed?”
“Maybe,” she says. “It depends. Are we going to the park?”
I raise my eyebrows at her. “I don’t know. It depends. Are you going to get out of bed?” I don’t wait for her to answer. Instead, I walk out of my bedroom and head to the kitchen to start my coffee before anything else.
“Can I have a cupcake?” she shouts from my bedroom. I look over at the white box on the counter that holds the extra cupcake Everleigh placed in there the day before. Something that made Saige extra happy when she opened it when we got home. It irritates me she did that for my daughter. All night long, I kept thinking of her face when she met Saige. Something I never thought would happen, if I’m being honest.
“You aren’t eating a cupcake in my bed,” I say as I grab a mug and fill it with coffee. I hear the sound of her feet hitting the floor before seeing her walk into the kitchen. “Good morning, sunshine.”
I watch her grab the box and then go to her stool and pull it out as she opens the top of the box. “She gave me a special one,” she repeats what she said the day before, and instead of answering her, I just grunt.
Grabbing my phone and going through the messages, I see Tony’s message at the top.
Tony: Have you heard about the bakery?
Ryan: It sucks big-time.
My neck tingles as I read through the messages, but no one has said what has happened. And I’m not about to ask about it until I get to Charlie’s text.
Over the years, we’ve drifted apart. We each had our own shit to deal with. To be honest, I wasn’t close to anyone and preferred to be by myself.
Charlie: Hey, not sure if you heard, but there was a fire at the bakery last night.
I have to hold on to the counter with one hand as the image of Everleigh stuck in the fire feels like someone just kicked me in the stomach. I close my eyes, the hiss comes out of my mouth, and I ignore all the feeling in my chest. When I open my eyes, I continue reading the text.