Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
The plane hits a bump and I come back to the present to stare at Reid, his lashes lowered, his breathing steady. I reach up and trace his cheek and my lips curve when he doesn’t move. He trusts me and I don’t believe Reid Maxwell has trusted much in his life.
Reid
I wake halfway through the flight and decide I need to get the bad behind me and Carrie. I need nothing but good left. I need that with my sister, too. I’m going to tell her everything when the time is right, just as Carrie said. But right now, I need to make sure Gabe knows the real threat that my father and even Carrie’s father represent.
I message him from the plane and setup a meet. “I don’t want you to go,” I tell Carrie. “You don’t know what I told you. Denial, denial, denial. You understand me?”
“Yes. I do. When you’re back, we’ll go get a tree.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes. It will be afternoon when we land. We need to stay up to get used to the time change anyway and we’re not letting my father or yours screw up our Christmas.”
“You’re right, baby,” I say, leaning in to kiss her. “We’re not.”
“When was the last time you had a tree?”
“When I was a kid.”
Her eyes go wide. “That’s unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. And,” she turns her computer to face me. “What do you think about this kitty?”
I stare down at the sleek, thin white cat with green eyes. “It looks hungry.”
She laughs. “She’s an Oriental Shorthair and they’re skinny and sweet. They act like dogs. She will like a dog. Her owner just died. She needs a home. Let’s go meet Snowflake.”
“Snowflake?”
“She already knows her name so our dog can be Sunshine or Summer.”
“A boy dog is not going to be Sunshine or Summer.”
“Boy dogs hump and mark.”
“Boy dogs are heroes and I’m not being outnumbered with all women in the house.”
“Lassie was a girl.”
“I’m not going to win, am I?”
“Maybe,” she says, but she means no.
“Set it up. We’ll go meet Snowflake.”
She grins so big that I swear she brings a little bit of sunshine with her, no, a lot of sunshine, the kind my heart hasn’t known since my mother. God, my mother would have loved her.
Carrie
Hours later we finally step into our apartment and we both sigh. “Home sweet home,” I say. “I love being here. And that,” I add, pointing to a corner by the fireplace, “is our tree spot.”
Reid turns to me and kisses me. “Are you sure you don’t want to put the tree off until tomorrow? That way we can fuck all night in our own bed?”
“We can fuck all night under the tree.”
I laugh. “Negotiation won and only you could make me laugh at a time like this, considering what I’m about to tell my brother and Royce. Where do you want to go to get the tree?”
“Rockefeller Center, of course, and oh wow, that would have been a cool place to get married at Christmas.”
“We aren’t waiting a year. So, Rockefeller Center, yes. Christmas is too soon and too far away depending on the year.” He kisses me. “Let me go get this damn meeting over with. I’ll be an hour at the most, I hope.”
“It’s still early.” I cover his heart with my hand. “If it takes longer, it takes longer. The tree can wait if it needs to.”
“God, I love you, Carrie.” He kisses me. “I’ll put the bags in the bedroom and take off.”
A few minutes later, he leaves me to unpack and he’s been gone all of a few minutes when the doorbell rings. I frown because it can only be Reid or his siblings, and Gabe is meeting Reid, and Cat wouldn’t just stop by, but Reid isn’t one to leave his key behind. However, we did just travel across the world and everything is scattered. Certain he’s eager to get to his meeting and needs something he left behind, I rush through the living room and fling open the door only to gasp at the sight of the one person I forgot has a clearance to get to the door: Reid’s father.
Chapter eighty
Carrie
“Mr. Maxwell,” I gasp. “What are you doing here?”
He holds up a bottle of booze that I suspect is as expensive as his blue suit. “I brought you an engagement gift,” he says, his blue eyes—eyes so like Reid’s—fixed on me. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“No, actually,” I say. “I don’t think that would please Reid, who I’m certain you know is not here.”
“And why would you say that?”
“Which are referring to? Why your son wouldn’t want me to invite you in or why I know you know he’s not here?” I hold up a hand. “I’ll answer both. ‘You’re an ass’ could be used in both cases, but you’re also calculating and do nothing without a manipulative reason.”