Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
A careless smirk hitched the edge of his mouth as he stared down at me through the driver’s side window while I just sat there like I’d become one with the seat. When I still hadn’t moved after five seconds, he unlatched it for me, and he slung an arm onto the top of the roof as he inclined down to peer inside.
“You coming, or do I have to carry you?” Amusement filled the coarse words. Like he hadn’t bared himself to me the way he had last night. Like he hadn’t left me reeling in uncertainty when he walked out the door.
“Feo!” Finn shouted, kicking his feet. “You come pway, too? You can cawy me.”
A low chuckle skated out of Theo and slipped over me like a caress.
Affection and warmth.
“Sure am, little man. What do you think about that?”
“I wike my Feo come,” Finn drawled out.
That easiness faded for a flash, and I could so clearly see the impact of what Finn called him ripple along the strong line of his jaw.
“I like being here, too, little man,” he said.
His gaze dipped to me for a beat.
A dark night kissed in glinting moonlight.
“Get me!” Finn squirmed as he pressed his chest against his restraints.
Theo seemed to have to tear himself from the chains that held us, then that easiness resurfaced as he stepped back to Finn’s door so he could unbuckle my son. His movements were sure as he pulled him out and into his arms, and he grabbed his owl backpack from the floor and slung it over his shoulder.
Emotion swelled from the depths.
God. He looked so good with my son in his arms, backed by the blue horizon that felt so close but just out of reach.
“Oh, my heart. Is that our Little Finn?”
The voice coming from above jerked my attention upward to Raven. She stood out on the upper patio, and she clung to the metal railing as she grinned down at us.
The front part of her black hair was twisted up with a bunch of dainty white flowers tucked into the knot, and she wore this long, fuzzy black coat that she had wrapped around herself like a blanket and went all the way to her feet.
Lips painted red and face full of mischief.
From where she stood, she looked like some kind of dazzling, reigning queen gazing down on her kingdom.
Theo turned with my son hooked on his hip, and Finn’s hand shot for the sky. “I is Finn.”
Raven’s low but tinkling laughter rolled through the air. “Well, I am Raven, and I have been so excited to meet you.”
Reaching over the console, I grabbed the bowl of potato salad I had nestled on the front passenger seat then coerced myself into climbing out of the car.
A raucous commotion suddenly came crashing out through the glass door that sat open behind Raven, and two of the most precious little faces I’d ever seen scrambled for the patio railing.
“Hi, Finn, hi! I’m Nolan!” Nolan was barely taller than the railing, his wavy blond locks blowing around his face as he hollered down.
The little girl at his side was shorter. Her warm blond hair was braided, though it was wrapped in a halo and had the same flowers that Raven wore in her hair adorning it.
Holding on with her tiny hands, she stretched up on her toes as she attempted to see over the top. “I’m Maci! We got a lot of toys up here for you to play with because it’s real cold outside and we better be by the fireplace so we can stay really warm. But we got two stairs in here, and my mommy said we have to be really careful and not play rough so you don’t fall and get hurt, but don’t worry ’cause I’m gonna take really good care of you.”
My chest squeezed.
Fondness racing in and gripping hold.
Instant and complete.
But that’s what I’d worried would happen. I’d fall in love with these people, and they’d only become another loss.
“Okay,” Finn agreed, bobbing his head and kicking his heels into Theo like he was a horse.
Theo chuckled. “What, you think you want to play with them?”
“I pway with Maci and Nowan.” More of that bobbing.
Theo glanced at me, a beat of need ripping between us, before he gestured with his head for me to go ahead of him. That cool arrogance rode back to his delicious mouth and his voice turned all kinds of gravelly as he murmured, “Ladies first.”
The tattoo on my inner forearm throbbed.
In sorrow we must stand.
It was time.
A chance I had to take.
Because love was always worth the risk.
I wanted this. I wanted to feel. I wanted the loneliness not to ache so badly.
Shoving off the questions evoked from last night, I gave him a little roll of my eyes.