Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 145574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 728(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 728(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
“Well…” Hazel grimaced. “It’s your mom.” She quickly sipped at her iced tea.
“True.” I felt my sigh in the depths of my bones. Hazel did her best not to go negative when it came to Mom, and truthfully, she was probably the only one I’d allow to, since she’d been around through the worst of it. That was the thing about Mom—I could criticize her, but no one else was allowed to.
“How is it? Being home?” she asked. “Not that I’m not personally psyched that you’re here, because I am.”
“You’re just happy to have someone else around you trust to babysit,” I teased.
“Guilty. But seriously, how is it?”
“Complicated.” I watched her children splash in the mid-shin water and contemplated my answer. “If I close my eyes, I can pretend the last six years never happened. I never fell for Damian. I never met Damian’s…fiancée—”
“Noooo!” Hazel gasped, her mouth dropping open. “He’s engaged?”
“He is, according to the seventeen text messages I’ve gotten today. Thank God for do-not-disturb.” The future Mrs. Damian Ellsworth was now a twenty-two-year-old blonde with much bigger breasts than the ones filling my healthy C cup. I shrugged. “I expected it, seeing as she’s due any minute now.” Didn’t make it hurt any less, but it wasn’t like I could change anything that had happened.
“I’m sorry,” Hazel said quietly. “He never deserved you.”
“You know that’s not true, not at first anyway.” I wiggled my ringless fingers at her two-year-old, Danielle, who gave me a toothy smile in return. “He wanted kids. I didn’t give him kids. In the end, he found someone who could. Does it hurt like a bi—” I cringed but caught myself. Hazel would never let me live it down if her kids started swearing because of me. “That he didn’t exactly wait for our marriage to end before hooking up with his lead? Or that it was on one of Gran’s movies? Sure, but we both know she wasn’t the first girl in his trailer, and she won’t be the last. I don’t envy her that.” I’d been the launchpad for his career. I just hadn’t admitted it until the last few years. “Besides, we both know the love was long gone.” It had died little by little with Damian’s affairs that I’d pretended hadn’t happened, hollowing me out until all I had left to hold on to was my pride.
“Fine, you can be all zen about it. I’ll hate him enough for the both of us.” She shook her head. “If Owen ever did something like that…” Her expression fell.
“He never would,” I assured her. “Your husband is wild about you.”
“He might not be too wild about the twenty pounds I’m still hauling around from Danielle.” She jiggled her belly, and I rolled my eyes. “But in my defense, he’s working up to a dad bod, so we’re even. A sexy dentist dad bod.” She smirked.
I laughed. “Well, I think you look great, and the learning center turned out phenomenal! I passed it on the way into town.”
She grinned. “That’s been a labor of love made possible by a very generous donor.” She sipped her tea and looked over her sunglasses at me.
“We need more Darcys in the world,” I answered with a little shrug.
“Says the woman with a thing for Hemingway.”
“I have a thing for the broody creatives.”
“Speaking of broody creatives, you didn’t tell me that Noah Harrison is drop-your-panties gorgeous!” She swatted my shoulder with the back of her hand. “I shouldn’t have to web search him to know that! Details!”
He was exactly that gorgeous. My lips parted, remembering the intensity in those dark eyes. I’d probably spontaneously combust if he ever touched me…not that touching was even a remote possibility. I’d heard more than enough from Damian over the years to know Noah was also a cocky jackass.
“I was a little busy absorbing the fact that my mother tried to sell the manuscript behind my back,” I argued. “And honestly, that man is an arrogant know-it-all who specializes in emotional sadism. Damian tried more than once to buy the rights to a few of his books.” Though I should have probably started questioning anything Damian had told me at this point.
“Fine,” she grumbled. “Can we at least agree that he’s a hot emotional sadist?”
A corner of my mouth lifted. “We can, because he is. So hot.” Heat crept up my neck just thinking about how good-looking that man was. “Add that to his career, and his ego is almost too big to fit through the door—you should have heard him in the bookstore—but yes, ungodly, impossible levels of hotness.” I wasn’t even starting in on the intensity with which he looked at me. The guy had the smoldering gaze down to a fine art.
“Excellent. Are you going to give him the goods?” She raised her eyebrows. “Because I’d give him whatever he asked for.”