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)
Joy ricocheted through the trees, and a flurry of birds flitted through the barren branches.
My heart lodged itself at the base of my throat as I watched Theo begin to haul my son through the field.
Zigzagging back and forth and winding through the playground with the gorgeous lake in the background.
“You like that?” Theo chuckled the question since Finn hadn’t stopped cackling the whole time.
“I wuv it, Feo! I go zoom!”
Theo glanced up at me from where they were in the middle of the field. Something soft and adoring washed through his features.
My stomach tumbled.
He couldn’t look at my son that way. Couldn’t look at me that way.
He hardly even knew us.
But it didn’t seem to matter.
There was this understanding scored in his being. Like he knew how desperately my son needed this. Like he knew how desperately I needed it.
A reprieve.
Rest.
A moment to tip my face to the crisp blue sky and…hope.
I could feel a spindly tendril of it try to break through the barren planes of my insides as I watched Theo and Finn frolic in the snow.
This menacing man who’d been stepping out for us since the second he found us.
He took a bit of a sharper turn, and the sled wobbled, tipping up a bit on its side before it righted itself.
Finn howled with laughter, shouting, “Wee!” as he went. “Faster, Feo, faster!”
“You’re an adrenaline junkie, aren’t you?” Theo teased.
Finn furiously shook his head and flapped his arms out to the sides. “No, I a owl.”
Theo busted up as he lifted that unrelenting gaze in my direction.
That warm sound curled through the crisp, vibrant cold.
Like maybe he was wrapping me in those arms that seemed so sure.
So confident and easy as he played with my son.
I was the fool who sank into it.
The one who allowed the deepest peace to settle over me.
But Nelly was right. We needed this. Even if it could only be for a little while.
I didn’t know how long they’d been out there playing when I felt movement from behind.
A wash of heaviness and uncertainty.
I glanced over my shoulder.
There was a woman and a little girl hovering behind me, both of them bundled up for the snow.
The child was maybe four or five, and she wore a pink, full body snow suit. You could barely make out her dainty face with the way the hood was cinched down over her head.
The woman was probably my age, give or take a few years, and she clung to the little girl’s hand.
Wariness oozed from her being. Doubt and caution woven in every molecule of her body.
When Theo noticed her, the easiness he had been wearing drained. I could almost feel it being sucked from the atmosphere.
He fumbled to a stop where he and Finn were about thirty feet out in the field.
Instantly on edge.
All his focus on the woman and her child.
My stomach tightened in a coil of distress that gathered from out of nowhere.
I scowled against it, trying to discern where it was coming from.
Jealousy?
Is that what it was? This feeling that spiraled through every one of my senses as Theo began to slowly move in our direction?
“Everything good?” he asked when he got close enough that his words could only be heard by us. His grumbly voice had deepened further.
Anxiety seemed to have the woman shifting on her feet, and she hesitated before she forced out, “We’re fine. We were just wondering if it’s okay for Lucy to come out and play?”
Finn scrambled onto his feet, standing on the sled as he waved his hands over his head. “Hi! I is Finn! You want to swed wif me?”
Theo seemed to war, and I could feel his intensity bluster through the air as his attention swept the entire perimeter.
It was as if he were a guard protecting precious property and not merely the owner of the motel.
Unease skittered underneath the surface of my skin.
He finally turned back to her, and his chin barely dipped. “Yeah, of course.”
He dropped his gaze to the little girl. “Why don’t you come and meet Finn, Lucy?”
His forever gruff voice had gone gentle, and he cautiously stretched out his hand.
“Okay,” Lucy whispered, timid yet eager.
“I is Finn!” Finn jumped and shouted and giggled, clearly not reading the mood.
But I was struggling to read it, too. My attention swung between the woman and Theo. The two of them were locked in some kind of stare as the little girl tentatively approached him.
Yep.
Jealousy.
That roil of my insides was definitely jealousy.
And I hated it.
Hated that this complete stranger could evoke this reaction in me.
It was ridiculous.
I did my best to suck it down when Theo took Lucy’s hand and turned her toward Finn.
“Do you like the slide?” she asked him.
“I wike the swed and the swide.” Finn dipped his head deep with each word, a thrill rolling off him, his little red-bowed mouth twisted up in joy.