Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“Is he picking you up here?”
“Yeah, as long as that’s okay.”
She grinned. “Sure, I’d love to meet him. He knows about Evan?”
“He knows I have a brother I take care of. That’s all he needs to know. I’m not letting him get involved with us or you until I’m sure he’ll be around long enough.”
She gripped my hand. “Carson was a jerk.”
She was right. I had met Carson at school. He’d seemed great. We dated for a while, and I thought we were getting serious. Until the accident and my responsibilities grew. I remembered the way he looked at me the day we broke up. Cold, removed, and uncaring.
“This wasn’t in my plans, Beth. I didn’t count on a kid who needs help and a girlfriend who isn’t around much. It’s not really worth it. We weren’t forever anyway.” He lifted a shoulder. “You understand.”
“Understand what?”
He laughed, the sound unpleasant. “You were a great distraction for now. But not the girl I’d bring home to my parents. Not the one I’ll spend my life with. I need…a little more than you can offer. Someone worthwhile.”
And he had walked away as if I meant nothing. As if we’d meant nothing.
Even now, I felt a flash of pain as I recalled his dismissive voice and attitude. His painful words. It didn’t matter I had just lost my parents. That my brother was injured and needed help. The fact that my whole word had just been turned upside down meant nothing to him aside from an inconvenience. Add in the fact that he showed me his true colors that day, proving he wasn’t the person I thought him to be. And he had been wrong. He was the one not worthwhile. Still, it hurt, and it took me a while to recover.
He was the last man I had dated. He’d shattered my trust and self-confidence completely.
Paige frowned. “It was him, not you. You know that, right?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “Ronan is different. Or at least, he seems different.”
“Ronan. Unusual name. I like it.”
“I like him,” I confessed.
“I look forward to meeting him.”
I heard the patter of tiny feet, and we both grinned as Lucy shuffled into the kitchen. Her hair was a dark cloud around her face, and her pajamas were covered in daises. She loved flowers of any kind, but daisies were her favorite. And kittens. Puppies. Anything soft. Anything sweet. She was a real girlie little girl. She was affectionate, bright, and adorable. She looked like Paige with her dark hair, small stature, and sunny disposition. She had wide, hazel eyes, the irises a rich mixture of green and brown. She inherited those from her father, with one big difference. Lucy’s shone with warmth and happiness. She was impossible not to love, unless you were Paige’s ex.
The fact that she was born with only one fully developed arm had proven to be too much for the man Paige described as exacting, cold, and indifferent. “He hid it well,” she stated sadly. “I fell for the outward charm and didn’t see what lurked underneath.”
Unable to accept his daughter could be less than perfect, he had walked away the day she was born, abandoning them. He divorced Paige, signed away any parental rights, and she never saw him again. His lawyer was nasty and underhanded, and Paige had neither the money nor desire to fight him.
“Once he was gone, I realized how horrible he was. How badly he treated me,” she confessed. “I never want Lucy to be treated that way. We’re both better off without him.”
I had met her one day in a support group, and we bonded. I was dealing with the aftermath of the accident that claimed my parents and left my brother injured, and she was struggling with a toddler with special needs, on her own with no family. Both of us recognized a kindred soul, and we became close. When we needed a place to live, we pooled our resources and rented a small house together. Paige worked from home as an insurance adjuster, so she was there with Lucy and Evan during the day when I was at school or work. The days I was home, I took over to give her a break. We relied on each other, and we were our own little family.
Lucy scrambled onto her mom’s lap, holding a stuffed animal tight under her arm. She amazed me the way she coped with only one working hand. Paige explained because she’d never known any different, Lucy adapted easier than someone who lost it later in life. I knew Evan was struggling with his disability, although I hoped in time it became easier. I hoped one day a treatment could be found that would work on improving his life.
Lucy held up her stuffed animal. “We hungry!”