Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Y-you were shot?” She stuttered.
I fucking loved her stutter.
Hell, I fucking loved her!
Which was a startling realization in that moment.
I hadn’t loved anyone since my ex-wife.
Someone that I thought I could count on forever.
But I couldn’t, and in this moment, when I realized how deeply I felt about this woman who was so extremely upset with me, I knew I’d have to let go of the anger I still held for my ex-wife.
Oh, I could still be pissed off at her husband, but I didn’t have to be pissed off at her.
Because if she hadn’t cheated on me, I wouldn’t have Lenore. I wouldn’t have just realized I loved her in the middle of a goddamn bar.
Deeply.
I refused to think about how Tanner’s life would be affected right now.
About how much I knew he’d adore Lenore.
He always loved when I was happy, and right now, with the love, concern, and anger on Lenore’s face, all emotions she felt for me, I knew.
Tanner would’ve approved.
And that was enough for me to realize that I loved the hell out of the woman in front of me.
I pulled her in so my mouth could touch hers, and I smiled against her lips. “I’m okay. It was a misunderstanding.”
Mig snorted at my back, and I kicked out with my foot, knocking him off his barstool and causing him to laugh.
“You’ll tell me what happened later, though, right? I’m not believing it was a misunderstanding,” she breathed.
She smelled like those fruit margaritas she’d been drinking, and tasted like tequila.
An odd conversation Lenore and I once had popped into my mind about her not liking the taste of alcohol, and I hid a smile.
Tomorrow was bound to be fun for her.
She hugged me tightly before letting me go.
I let loose of her briefly to retake my seat, then pulled her between my thighs.
She fit perfectly in my arms, and I buried my nose in her neck, loving the smell of the lotion she’d put on each time she got out of the bath.
I’d have to remember to ask her which one it was and buy her some more.
She had about a gazillion bottles in her bathroom of just lotion alone.
“What. The. Fuck,” Remy suddenly snarled, pulling my attention to him.
I saw he was gazing somewhere over my shoulder, so I turned to see what caught his attention, and my eyes widened when I saw the woman drawing Remy’s gaze.
“Shit,” I muttered, as Remy stood and started to barrel his way through the crowd of dancers.
He came to a stop in front of a tall, skinny guy in jeans standing next to a horror-stricken Jenna.
Then, as if in slow motion, Remy pulled back his fist and slammed it into the man’s face that had been kissing Jenna.
The man went down like a rock, falling to the dance floor where he’d been standing only moments before, while Jenna stared on in shock.
“You bastard!” Jenna screamed.
“What the fuck, Jenna? What the ever loving fuck?” Remy bellowed in anger. “What are you doing?”
“You weren’t even supposed to be home tonight!” Jenna shrieked. “Why are you even here?”
Yeah, like that was going to go over well, I thought.
“I’m here because they moved our rig today,” he bellowed. “Not that you wanted to know since you’re out practically fucking in front of the goddamned town!”
“I would’ve loved to know! I bet she knew!” Jenna pointed at Lenore accusingly.
Lenore raised her hand to point at herself in mock horror. “Me? Don’t bring me into the middle of this!”
“You are in the middle of this! How can you not see that my husband loves you!” Jenna screeched.
Lenore narrowed her eyes and I tightened my arms around Lenore’s waist to halt her forward progress in the direction of Jenna.
“Do you see what I have right here?” Lenore yelled back.
But she was pointing at me, patting my face as she reached up with her free hand that wasn’t locked around my wrist in a death grip.
“I see you have a stand in for my man,” Jenna hissed.
Lenore laughed.
“Griffin’s not a stand in for your man. Me and Remy don’t have the kind of relationship that Griffin and I have. Griffin’s my man. Remy’s my friend. They both have my heart in totally different ways, and if you’d clear the jealousy out of your heart, you’d see that.” Lenore ground out.
I squeezed Lenore’s waist.
Although it had crossed my mind that Remy and Lenore were in love with each other, I never actually saw anything more between the two of them then a brother/sister relationship. It was a sibling-like bond that had formed between the two of them over the many years and experiences that they’d shared together.
And since Lenore and Remy had been together, as best friends, since childhood, they had that bond that most family would have.
That closeness had bothered me…until now.
When I saw the devastation on Remy’s face. Saw the love he had for his wife wither and die as he realized what he thought he had with her wasn’t real. That it was just a figment of his imagination.
I’d experienced that very same realization myself, only I’d found out a hell of a lot faster than him.
“I want you to get your shit out of our house. Make sure you get all of it, because you won’t be coming back,” Remy said tonelessly. “You’ve got an hour. How about you get your man here to help you.”
“But that’s not enough time! And I don’t have anywhere to go!” Jenna screeched.
By now the whole freakin’ bar was watching this all go down, and not one of them seemed surprised in the least that it was happening.
Something Remy was quickly realizing.
He turned woodenly to Lenore, and I could practically feel the grief welling off of him.
“You knew, didn’t you?” He asked.
Lenore’s eyes started dripping with tears, and with the whiniest of voices I’d ever heard come out of her mouth, she pointed at me with accusation. “He wouldn’t let me tell you! It’s all his fault!”
Our evening only deteriorated from there.