Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
I’d told him about Pogo and how he liked to hide when I had guests. “Probably behind the curtain. If you call him, he might come out,” I said.
Rex looked around. “I like your place. Cozy.”
“Small, you mean.”
“No, it’s cozy. I like a girl who buys a green couch.”
“Hey, I love my green sofa.”
“And I’d love to see you naked on it.”
“That can surely be arranged,” I said primly.
Kayden was making cooing noises next to the curtains while Rex and I went to the kitchen with the bags of food.
“Tiffany was here,” I said.
Rex’s face registered surprise. “Why?”
“She wanted to stay here with me.”
His eyes widened. “Wow, that’s a turnaround for the books.”
“Actually, I felt quite sorry for her. She lost her baby.”
Rex was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry, but I don’t like your sister. She’s selfish and stupid, and she was never pregnant.”
“What? How did you know?” I asked, astonished.
“She told me.”
“When?” I demanded.
“When we were at the lake.”
I shook my head in wonder. This was incredible news. The whole reason for the rushed marriage was for the pregnancy. “Wow, and you never told me all this time?”
“What good would it have done for you?”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because I don’t want you to waste your pity on her. She is totally undeserving of it.”
The more I found out about Tiffany, the more convinced I became that she was a headcase. Someone with no boundaries. What Tiffany wanted, Tiffany wanted no matter what she had to do to get it or who suffered in the process. No wonder he never fell for her ‘poor me’ act.
“You bought enough to feed an army,” I commented, opening yet another container of delicious smelling food.
“I didn’t know what you liked,” he said simply.
I served the food onto three plates, and we carried the heaped plates over to the living room.
“I can’t find Pogo,” Kayden said from the couch.
“He’ll show up once he knows he can trust you,” I said.
We chatted as we ate. No one could tell that we had our differences the previous night. Rex and I felt perfect for each other.
“There he is!” Kayden shouted, startling all of us, including Pogo who promptly returned to his hiding spot.
“Oh, don’t go, Pogo,” he begged.
“He’ll come back,” I said. “Give him more time.” I crossed my fingers that Pogo would come back.
After the late lunch, I left Rex and Kayden sitting in front of the television and went to make some coffee. When I returned carrying two hot mugs, I found Kayden petting Pogo. He looked up at me with triumph in his eyes, and I could see the same blue light in his eyes that I saw in his dad’s.
“He came out,” he announced proudly.
“I told you he would. He just needed to know that you’re his friend.”
Kayden had a thing with animals. They instinctively trusted him. I’d seen it at the zoo and now with Pogo. It took Pogo weeks to leave his hiding spot when there was a new face in the apartment.
“Have you told your parents about Kayden yet?” I asked, wrapping my hands around the hot mug.
“I’m telling them tomorrow and taking Kayden to meet them this weekend.”
“Are they… um… a bit snooty, your parents? It’s not an insult or anything, it’s just with them being Rothermeres and everything.”
He laughed. “No, not at all. You’ll like them. They’re down to earth people. My father broke off from his family before I was born because my grandfather didn’t approve of his choice of bride. He wanted my father to marry into another banking family, but my father was in love with my mother, so he refused. My grandfather did the thing that very rich men do when they can’t get their way with their children, he threatened to cut my father out of his will, but my father told him he would rather eat gruel with my mother than caviar without her. I believe it was the best thing my father ever did. He became his own man that day.”
“So, you didn’t have a billionaire childhood?”
“No way. When I was growing up, I had to earn every cent I got. I mowed lawns and finished the other kids’ homework to make extra pocket money, but it was a good thing. It taught me the value of money and how to be self-reliant. Eventually, when my grandfather died, he left everything that had been meant for my father to me. If I had been spoiled as a child, I probably would have done what my cousins did. They blew whatever they could blow, and all that’s left are the trusts that they can’t actually touch. As for me, I tripled my fortune, and I’m going to teach Kayden those same lessons my father taught me about money and abundance.”
Later in the afternoon I baked some chocolate cupcakes. Both Kayden and Rex loved them. It was funny watching Kayden’s face covered in chocolate icing.