Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
“Fucking ridiculous,” I mutter, making Christian jab me in the ribs with his elbow.
“Stop it,” he says. “It’s not ridiculous. It’s awesome. Drew and Tatum are so happy and in love. Drew’s weeping with joy, for fuck’s sake. Since when have you seen anyone in our family weep with joy?”
“Not them. They’re fine, it’s…something else,” I say, as I watch Wren with her sister, petting that contemptible turkey we should be fattening up for Thanksgiving dinner. “How can she coo over something that tried to kill her? Multiple times? The woman’s deranged.”
Christian hums beneath his breath. “You think? I think she’s gorgeous. I mean, Wren’s always been cute, but with a tan and that little sundress…” He exhales a breath. “She’s smoking hot. I was thinking I might ask her to the shelter benefit, actually. If that’s okay with you.”
“Why wouldn’t it be okay with me?” I snarl, sounding like one of the stray dogs Christian volunteers to socialize.
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I heard a rumor you two might have had a thing at some point?”
“No, there was no thing,” I grumble, managing to sound slightly less murderous, but only slightly. “And there never will be. Even if I was interested, which I’m not, I learned my lesson the first time. I’m not a man who can make marriage work and Wren’s the kind of woman you marry. That’s it. No need for you to speculate, or meddle, any further. If you want to ask her to be your date, knock yourself out.”
“Okay, I will,” he says, sliding his hands into his pockets with that effortless cool of his, the one I could never duplicate, even if I tried.
And I won’t try. I’m done trying. I’m done letting myself—and the people I want to love—down. There’s something broken in me, something that makes me very good at keeping my head in a crisis in the operating room and very bad at realizing that I’m letting people down before it’s too late.
Too late to stop my wife from leaving me for another man.
Too late to stop the woman I’m not sure I want to live without from moving on to my brother. Christian’s on his way over to Wren with his dazzling smile and easy charm. She’s going to say yes to the date. And then they’ll dance and flirt and laugh and it will be his cock she’s coming on come midnight next Saturday.
She’ll be in my brother’s bed and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.
So, I do the only thing a man with any self-preservation instincts can do. I turn and I walk away.
Except that I don’t.
I mean to turn and walk away but suddenly find myself storming down the hill toward Wren Marie Baxter, ready to kidnap her like that asshole on the dance floor last February if that’s what it takes to keep Christian from getting his hands on her.
A part of me realizes I’m being unreasonable.
But another part, the part that took Wren against the wall at her house last February, doesn’t give a shit. It wants what it wants, and it wants her, even if I know full well this is going to end in disaster.