Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 103231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
“It’s nice,” I heard Dante murmur.
I chuckled. “Calling me Magnus three times today and now this,” I said as I motioned to my run-down house. There was nothing “nice” about the peeling blue paint, loose and broken shutters and unkempt landscaping. While I hadn’t meant the comment to be negative, Dante definitely took it that way because there was a flash of disappointment in his gaze before he extinguished it all together.
“Whatever, Pop-pop,” he snapped before getting out of the car and slamming the door behind him.
“Dante,” I called, but he didn’t respond. By the time I got out of the car and called to him again, he had his gun out and was walking towards the side of the house.
“Gonna check the perimeter,” he muttered.
So much for the truce we’d somehow managed to reach.
“Fuck,” I muttered as I slammed the door closed and trudged towards the house. I pulled out my phone, dialed, and waited for Colton to pick up.
“Hey, it’s me,” I said.
“Hey, you here?”
“Yeah,” I said. I’d texted Colton the previous night from the hotel to let him know I was in town, but I hadn’t told him about the trial. As far as he was concerned, I had only returned to pack up the house and put it on the market. While my identity had been kept from the media in regards to the trial, I was going to tell Colton the truth in case the press got wind of who the primary witness against the powerful defendant really was. I’d rather he heard it from me than the news media.
“I’ll head over.”
“No, hold off,” I said as I watched Dante disappear around the side of the house. “How about you come over for dinner tonight?”
“Sure, sounds good. I had Bess grab you some groceries when she went shopping yesterday.”
Bess was Colton’s wife of nearly twenty-five years.
“Thanks. Tell her I’m looking forward to seeing her tonight.”
“She actually went to Dallas for a couple weeks – her dad’s been sick.”
I nodded to myself in understanding. The man had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just before I’d left for Seattle and I suspected he didn’t have a lot of time left. While Colton couldn’t leave their ranch for extended periods of time, I had no doubt Bess made the trek to Dallas whenever she could. The couple hadn’t been blessed with children, but Colton’s wife had numerous nieces and nephews to spoil. “Well, tell her thank you and I hope he’s feeling better soon.”
“I will. See you around six?”
“Yep, that’s good.” I hung up and then forced myself to walk up the porch stairs. My hand was actually shaking as I pulled the house key from my pocket.
Fuck, I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to fucking say goodbye to my girl. But the second I walked through this door, I’d be doing that.
I clenched the key in my fist and leaned my head against the door for a moment as I tried to get control of my emotions. It was a house, nothing more. I was here to pack it up so I could put the past behind me and start anew.
Except it was so much more than just a house. It was the place my daughter had first called me “Daddy.” Every room held so many memories of her…the living room where she’d taken her first steps, the kitchen where she’d always stand on a chair next to the counter to help me cook dinner when she’d still been too short to reach it on her own, the staircase she’d tumbled down after trying to “drive” an empty laundry basket down the carpeted steps…her bedroom where I’d tucked her in night after night and read her stories. The same bedroom I’d said my last words to her in.
I felt tears stinging my eyes as I shoved that particular memory away.
A shiver crept up my spine as I sensed I was no longer alone. I glanced over my shoulder to see Dante watching me from near the bottom of the porch stairs, his expression full of worry. I had no idea how long he’d been watching me for or how long I’d been standing there like that, but as the embarrassment at having been caught in such a weak moment flowed through me, I steeled my spine and jammed the key into the door. I left it open behind me, not caring whether Dante chose to follow me or not. I was too damn tired to deal with him.
The house smelled musty, but it was surprisingly clean. My guess was that I had Bess to thank for that. When I’d asked Colton to keep an eye on my property, I’d meant the basics like checking that the house was secure and keeping an eye on my horses. Since Colton was a busy man, I’d hired a local girl, a friend of Jenna’s actually, to come out every day to care for the two horses I owned.