Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
There was a pause on the other end. “Okay... clearly, this girl isn’t a one-night stand. If she were, you wouldn’t be so concerned.”
“She’s not,” I said with a swallow, lifting my head again to search the park for her. We’d decided to meet in a neutral place for my first time being around Sebastian. She’d be here any minute now.
The week had passed in the strangest blur.
From the moment she crashed back into my life, I couldn’t escape my thoughts of Madelyn. Add in the fact that I’d seen her almost every morning to look at houses, and that I’d had to endure the sweet torture of watching her try on evening gowns, and you could say I was going a bit mad.
Part of me wanted to hold onto the anger I had for her for so many years.
The bigger part of me couldn’t even remember why I’d been so mad.
I’d blacked out that chapter of my life long ago, but I never forgot how Madelyn had been acting weird toward me even before my parents’ party, before the incident... and I’d been upset with her for not talking to me, for not coming to that party when I really needed her to.
Then, my father had crossed a line in his drunken, asshole state of being, and Madelyn had sided with her parents, writing me off before I even had a chance to talk to her.
I’d been so pissed back then.
But now that I was older, I could understand.
Madelyn was a family girl. She always had been.
“Okay...” Giana prompted. “Is that all I get?”
“For now? Yes.”
She huffed. “If it’s someone you want help in protecting, I can’t do that if you leave me in the dark.”
“You’ll meet her at the wedding.”
“Ah, so that’s why Clay added a plus one for you,” she mused. “You know, that was a pain in the ass to do. We already gave final numbers to the caterer.”
“Hey, you’re the one throwing a wedding in two weeks. Don’t blame me for your mistakes.”
“That’s fair,” she conceded. “Okay, fine, so I’ll meet her then. For now, my recommendation is a security team with decoys ready to confuse any greedy paparazzi that might want to stick on you. Especially for the airport when you and Braden head this way with your mystery guest.”
I groaned, scrubbing a hand over my five o’clock shadow. “I hate this.”
“Welcome to the NFL. It’s not just your social media that gets to tell the story anymore. Any bastard with a camera gets to weigh in, too.”
I nodded. “Thank you, G.”
“You know how you can thank me?”
“I’m not telling you who she is.”
“Ugh!” She pouted. “Fine, but can you give me something? Tell me how you know her, or what level of serious it is. Oh, tell me your tropes!”
I blinked. “I am not going to even pretend to know what that means.”
“Okay, so, in romance books, a trope is—”
“Gotta go, G. See you next weekend,” I said, cutting her off when I noticed Madelyn across the park. Giana whined a bit when I ended the call, which made me smirk.
That girl and her damn smutty books.
She was going to have a field day with Madelyn. I needed to prepare my fake date for that.
But right now, I wasn’t thinking about the wedding.
Right now, I was too focused on where Madelyn was smiling and walking toward the swings we’d agreed to meet at, hand in hand with a little boy who looked just like her.
For a moment, I let myself sit in the privacy of my car and watch them. Madelyn released Sebastian’s hand, letting him run full speed toward the slide while she hovered close to the swings. She folded her arms over her chest and looked around.
She seemed as nervous as I was.
My gaze floated to Sebastian, to the way his smile lit up his entire face as he zoomed down the bright yellow tube slide. He tumbled into the wood chips at the bottom, and then popped up on a laugh, running right back up the stairs to go again.
He looked so much like her, it was like an ice pick to my chest.
Even from this distance, I could see how the shape of his nose mirrored hers, how his hair had the same coppery tone to it — though his was a bit browner. And I knew once I got closer, I’d see more and more evidence of their relation.
She was a mom.
I couldn’t explain why that made my next swallow harder to take, or why my chest fired up with the need to protect them both. But I didn’t overanalyze it before kicking my door open and climbing out of my Aston Martin.
Madelyn noticed me when I was twenty or so yards away. She didn’t smile, but she did offer a slight wave of her hand in greeting. It was a warm summer day in Seattle, the kind the locals wait all year for. It was just after noon now, seventy-eight degrees with not a single cloud in the sky.