Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“Uhhh, Santa works all year making the toys.”
He shrugged. “I thought the elves did all that.”
“What happened after you found out Santa wasn’t real?”
Ford abruptly stopped in place, and his eyes bulged. “Santa’s not real?”
The two of us cracked up. When we started walking again, Ford said, “You’re going to think I’m full of shit, but after I realized the Santa thing wasn’t going to work out, I wanted to be an astronaut.”
I shoved his arm. “You’re just saying that because I told you I was obsessed with space.”
Ford drew an X across his chest. “I swear. But it does make sense why our connection is so strong. We’re both space nerds at heart.”
He was teasing me, but he wasn’t wrong. Our connection was strong. Even before I knew his personality came attached to a gorgeous face and ridiculously hard body, I’d felt it, too. Ford made me laugh and feel good about myself.
I tamped down that thought and steered our conversation to safer territory. “So how did you wind up going to school for architecture if you were such a space nerd?”
“I was actually a dual applied science and architecture major in college the first two years. But dropped the science in my third.”
“What made you focus on architecture?”
He looked over at me, and it seemed like he was debating how to answer. Finally, he shrugged. “Life. I’d been living away in Boston at college, and after the accident, I wanted Annabella to stay in New York and finish school with her friends. We have a pretty small family—my dad was an only child, and my mom has one sister. My Aunt Margaret lives in Ohio and offered to take us both in, but we’d just lost our parents and experienced enough change to last a lifetime. So I moved back home, and Bella and I stayed together in our parents’ apartment while I finished my degree and started to work full time in the company. The change to one major just seemed more practical. I didn’t have as much free time to do the work for two difficult majors.”
Oh. Wow. I hadn’t thought about the logistics of them losing their parents—what had happened immediately after his parents died. Naturally, I’d assumed it had been a life-changing event—to lose both young parents unexpectedly in one day. But Ford had sacrificed so much for his little sister. He’d become a parent with a teenage daughter and an inherited business to run overnight. The choices he’d made were noble and mature.
I reached out and touched his arm. “Not every person would have given up what you did.”
“Trust me, I had my moments where I didn’t do the right thing. A few years back, my aunt had to step in and set me straight. One morning I walked into the office and sat at my desk, and it hit me that I was a forty-five-year-old man at twenty-two. I had a sixteen-year-old kid, lived in my parents’ house, and was even sitting in my father’s chair. I felt like my own life had disappeared, and I’d literally become my father.”
I understood some of how he felt. Getting pregnant at seventeen meant the abrupt end of my youth in a lot of ways. “I get it. I vividly remember being home one Friday night when I was twenty. My husband was sleeping on the couch at eight thirty, and I had a two-year-old sleeping in the other room. I flicked on the TV, put my feet up, and started to watch Family Feud. My mom used to watch it all the time, but with a different guy hosting the show. I looked down, realized I was in my pajamas at eight thirty on a Friday night, and it hit me that I’d turned into my mother.”
Ford looked over at me. “What did you do?”
“I got dressed in clothes that no longer felt right to wear, put the baby monitor next to my sleeping husband, and went out with Eve.”
I smiled, remembering that weekend. I’d stayed out for almost two days, but in the end, Eve had to practically carry me home because I was drunk and crying so hard because I missed my son.
“I partied for two days, then was in bed sick for three. But I definitely wondered if I’d made the right choices a few times.”
“Yeah, I did something similar—except my rampage lasted almost a year. I’d started to screw up at work, was bringing women home while I lived with my little sister, and I blew through a boatload of money from my parents’ life insurance. My aunt finally called me on it. She told me to get over myself, because while being my father might not be what I’d planned, I should be honored to stand in the man’s shoes at all.” He nodded. “She was right. Plus, Mrs. Peabody called me about fifteen minutes after my aunt finished reading me the riot act and told me to get my head out of my ass.”