Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 426(@200wpm)___ 341(@250wpm)___ 284(@300wpm)
“You figured right.” I have a seat on the barstool and start chowing down. “My God, this is so good. Thank you, thank you.”
“Good enough to thank me twice?” he says with a laugh as he sits down next to me.
“I’m thanking you for me and the baby. Trust me, he’s just as happy as I am.”
Lincoln chuckles and reaches over, his hand rubbing my bump. “Is that true, little guy? Do you love Mexican as much as your mama does?”
Him talking to the baby, calling me mama, and touching my belly shouldn’t affect me the way it does, but I can’t help the way my heart pounds against my rib cage, how my tummy tightens, and the area between my legs throb. I’m blaming it on the pregnancy hormones because there’s no way it’s normal to get choked up with emotion and turned on at the same time.
Yep, I need to move out stat, because I can’t see how I’m going to survive living with Lincoln much longer.
“Stainless steel appliances, marble floors...” When Franco, the realtor who has been showing me places all afternoon, notices I’m no longer paying attention—instead, focused on the view of downtown Tesoro—he stops rambling and steps next to me. “Not what you’re looking for either?”
I shake my head and wrap my arms around my belly protectively. Franco has shown me several beautiful, expensive, luxurious places, but none of them feel like home. Then again, I’m not sure what home is supposed to feel like. I’ve only had one true home my entire life, and it was when I lived with Sienna and Micah. I felt safe and comfortable there. I knew that no matter what went wrong in the outside world, once I was under their roof, between their four walls, I would be okay. And that’s how I want my baby to feel. But none of the homes I’ve seen today give me that same feeling. And if I don’t feel it, how will my baby?
“It’s not you,” I begin, and Franco barks out a laugh.
“Sorry,” he says. “You sound like my ex-girlfriend when she was preparing to dump me.”
I think about what I said, and once it clicks, I laugh as well. “That’s not what I meant. I just have a certain type of place in mind...No, it’s more like I’m seeking a certain feeling, and none of these houses have felt like my home yet.”
Franco glances at me and smiles softly. “We can find that place. If it’s available in Tesoro, we can find it. Why don’t we head back to my office and regroup? We can go over what you liked and didn’t like in the places we saw and go from there?”
“Or,” I say, when my belly grumbles in protest, “we can do it over dinner because I’m freaking starved. And my baby agrees.”
Franco chuckles. “We can do that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
LINCOLN
“Hey, Rita. I’m meeting with Brody Fields to discuss the hotel and casino investment proposal, and I left—” My words come to a halt as my eyes land on Ellie sitting in a booth closest to the entrance of Catch 52, one of the many restaurants that Alexander Enterprises owns. Her head is thrown back in laughter, and her hand is covering her belly—something she does often without realizing it, like she’s worried something will happen to him and she instinctually needs to protect him. She looks breathtaking, and it kills me to know that I can’t have her. That I have to look at her every goddamned day but can’t touch.
I step toward her table, figuring I’ll say hello before my meeting—that’s the friendly thing to do, right?—when I take notice of someone sitting across from her. The person who’s making her laugh. A man.
“Mr. Alexander,” Rita says, confused as to why I stopped speaking mid-sentence.
“I’ll call you back.” I click end on the call and then watch as Ellie and this guy talk and laugh, oblivious to everyone around them, seemingly lost in their own little world. I can’t see the guy’s face because his back is to me, but Ellie’s eyes are shining bright with happiness, something I rarely see on her, and it makes me want to punch something—preferably him. Because he shouldn’t be the one making her happy. That should be me. Only, it can’t, since Ellie remains off-limits. Fuck, I’m so goddamn sick of those words.
And then it hits me: she’s on a date.
I’d like to say she’s only doing this to make me jealous, playing games to get my attention. But she had no idea that I’d be here. This meeting was rescheduled last minute, the location being changed not even thirty minutes ago.
She barks out a melodic laugh that has several patrons glancing in her direction, and it takes everything in me not to yank her from that table and take her away from here.