Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70607 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 353(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
But that hadn’t been where I wanted to go.
Because I knew the moment that I saw Donna that she wasn’t the one.
Sure, she was a great lady. She was wonderful inside and out. She was sweet and nurturing.
But she didn’t make my heart pound. She didn’t make me want to grab her into my arms and never let go.
She didn’t inspire me to have long chats with a man that hated my guts just to explain what I’d done and to tell him his daughter was in danger.
What the hell was I thinking?
I couldn’t do this!
“Are you okay?”
Donna’s voice had me looking at her in surprise.
She was worried for me, and she was having trouble hiding it behind that neutral mask she’d picked up the day that I’d told her it would no longer work for us.
“Fine,” I murmured, walking toward her. “Is he ready for me?”
Donna shook her head. “He said that he’d have to reschedule. That—”
“That’s not going to work for me,” I interrupted her, holding out my hand. “He needs to see me today.”
Luke Roberts suddenly filled the door.
“Step away from Donna,” he said as he pulled his office door closed. “I can’t stay. I got a call from my wife telling me dinner was ready.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Well she can hold dinner,” I cut him off as I crossed my arms over my chest. “I need to talk to you.”
Luke’s annoyed glare found mine.
“No can do,” he shook his head. “Go home. Get rest. Go to work tomorrow. Do your job,” he grumbled as he slipped his keys into his pocket. “Do those things and you can keep working for me.”
I ground my teeth.
“Donna, darlin’,” Luke said. “You can head home now.”
Donna immediately turned and walked to her desk. A desk that had a picture of her and her dog on it. One that I knew for a fact used to have me and Sister in the picture standing right beside her.
We’d met at the running trail of all things. I’d been coming down our shitty stairs toward the trail, and her dog had escaped his leash and started running in my direction.
I’d caught the dog and handed the leash back just as she’d come running up with a wide smile on her face.
“Why are you not doing as I asked?” Luke grumbled as he skirted around me.
I turned and followed him.
“Well then, can I come to dinner?” I asked.
“No,” he replied shortly. “I don’t like seeing you at work, what makes you think I want to see you after work?”
I snorted.
“Because I have something important to tell you.” I paused. “A few things that are important, actually.”
“Unless they involve why you’re a dumbass, I don’t want to hear them,” he countered.
I ground my teeth and refrained from calling the man an asshole.
That wouldn’t allow me to keep my job.
It also wouldn’t get me anywhere.
I had bills to pay.
Those bills didn’t get paid if I didn’t go to work.
“Fine,” I said as I passed him. “Then I won’t tell you why I saw a woman sleepwalking in the middle of the night.”
With that, I got onto my bike and started it up.
I also ignored the fact that the big asshole had changed directions from heading to his cruiser—a cruiser that he got to take home.
Not that I wouldn’t love to be able to take my bike home, because my piece of shit bike really needed some work, but when I’d gotten in trouble, I’d also lost my ability to take my police-issued vehicle home. Meaning I was stuck driving my parts bike to work despite it never being intended for that.
Leaving the parking lot, I drove through the quiet streets as fast as my bike would carry me—which wasn’t fast at all.
I also contemplated why I hated everything about life right then.
It all started with my ex-wife, Tasia.
From the moment that Tasia and I had met, we’d been it for each other. Until late in the year two years ago she’d suddenly just…changed.
She wanted kids.
We’d been trying to have them for years, and after a few of those years had passed, we’d both gone to the doctor to find out why.
Turns out, my sperm count was low.
Also turns out, pairing that with Tasia’s endometriosis, well, it made it almost impossible to have a kid.
When Tasia had begged me to do fertility treatments, I’d agreed.
When she’d begged me to do more, I’d agreed.
When she’d suggested we use someone else’s sperm…I’d disagreed.
I didn’t want that. I wanted my own kid.
Wanted someone that was my own flesh and blood.
What I did not want was Tasia ignoring my orders and asking my best friend to donate his sperm to the cause.
Her getting pregnant on the first try had been the icing on the cake.
Though she’d tried to play it off as it was mine, I knew it wasn’t.