Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 81867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“He has no say in it, Juniper. You want a divorce, you get a divorce. There is no fight.”
“If you say so,” she replies dismissively, dropping her hands to her lap.
It irritates me that she’s not ready to fight. I pulled her out of that house, removed the obstacle of her father’s care. Why isn’t she happy about this?
And then it dawns on me and I can’t hide the condemnation in my tone. “Unless… you want to stay with him. Do you like being in that type of relationship?”
Juniper’s eyes slam into mine, incredulous and condemning. “Are you saying stupid things because you’re stupid or callous?”
“Excuse me?”
“You know me, Callum. Do I seem like the type who likes getting knocked around or being treated like a servant in my own home or being belittled all the time? Do you think I’d ever choose that life if my dad’s own life wasn’t in the balance?”
“No,” I say without hesitation. Juniper would never stand for that.
She should have fucking called me, except I gave her no reason to think she could. When I ended things, I ended it swiftly. Once she started seeing Joshua, there was no way we could ever be friends.
Juniper takes a deep breath and then releases it. “Thank you for taking care of my father. It was the only barrier to me leaving. I’ll figure out a way to repay you.”
“You don’t have—”
“I’ll repay you,” she says in a tone that’s not to be argued with.
But I don’t intend to debate with her. I’m not taking a dime in repayment as I have more money than I know what to do with. I change the subject and bring it back around to satisfy my curiosities.
“I want to understand something,” I begin softly, hoping the gentleness of my tone alerts her to the fact I don’t want to fight. “How did you end up with Joshua? It never made sense to me.”
“Does it really matter?” she asks.
It shouldn’t, but it does. It matters because Juniper was my one true love and I lost her. A man I despise and who doesn’t deserve her moved in. I need clarity.
“Yeah… it matters a lot. Always has, but I was never in a position to ask. So I’m asking now.”
CHAPTER 6
Juniper
It matters a lot.
So I’m asking now.
Callum and I had what I thought was the most perfect love story ever created. I was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks—raised in Kings Beach. He was the stepson of Preston Willard, one of the wealthiest people in Incline Village.
I’ll never forget our first meeting. I was working in my dad’s shop, running the front desk. He was a watercraft mechanic and very good at what he did. But Lake Tahoe was flush with people who knew how to fix boats, so business was never booming. Dad could work on engines and still handle anyone who happened to stroll in.
I didn’t work there because he needed it but because I loved hanging out with my dad. I loved my mom in equal measure. Coy and Olivia Ryan were the absolute best parents in the world. My mom loved small kids and ran a daycare out of our home. As a teenager, I was not as enamored of the little beasties, so I worked for my dad as well as waited tables during tourist season.
One gloriously sunny day, the bell on Dad’s shop door chimed and in strutted Callum Derringer. I knew who he was—every single girl on the north side of the lake did. He was the star in all the sports he played, including club hockey, and he had the looks and swagger to make him seem like a god. The dark hair, dark eyes, and tanned, ripped body of a young man who took working out seriously had all the girls drooling. He was seventeen and already sporting a trim beard that he still wears to this day.
His younger stepbrother, Joshua Willard, walked in behind him. He always tried to emulate Callum, including the confident walk, but he never quite managed it. And because he was not Callum and it was obvious he was nowhere close, he always had a chip on his shoulder. He was my age… just fifteen… but God was he a douche.
Joshua’s WaveRunner wasn’t cranking and they hauled it over to my dad’s shop since it happened to be the closest. Joshua approached the counter first and looked down at me imperiously. “I need to see your best mechanic. Got a job for him.”
“There’s only one mechanic but he’s the best. He’s busy right now, though. What type of craft do you need looked at?”
Joshua leaned an elbow on the counter and ran his eyes over me. I could tell he found me attractive, but he was irritated I wasn’t hopping to do his bidding. In hindsight, maybe that was a warning flag.