Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78464 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 392(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
He took it. “I’m glad you’re alright, Axel. I’m glad everyone is alright.”
I squeezed her into me again and kissed her temple. “Me too.”
“Your beautiful house is destroyed,” she said sadly.
“Our house,” I said. “And it’s fine. We’ll go on our honeymoon while it’s being fixed.”
“Ooh…” She kept her cheek against my chest. “I guess something good did come out of all of this.”
Chapter 20
Scarlett
I was working in the back office doing paperwork when Alessandra walked in.
“Your father is here to see you. Wants to know if you’re free for lunch?”
“Oh, tell him I’ll be right there.” I finished up my work then closed my laptop before I walked to the lobby. He was there, dressed nicely and looking handsome as ever, just with a slight bruise on his face. “Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, sweetheart. Would you like to have lunch?”
I had a lot of work to do, but that didn’t seem important anymore. “Sure. Where do you want to go?”
He gestured to the tables behind him. “Where else?”
“We don’t have to eat here, Dad.”
“I love it.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Honestly.”
“Well, it would be quicker than going somewhere else.” I grabbed two menus from the hostess stand, and we walked to a table together. Lunchtime was much slower than dinnertime, so we condensed our menu during the day to just the more popular lunch items, like salads, sandwiches, and soups.
He pulled out the chair for me and sat across from me, straightening his collared shirt the way he always did. He opened the menu and looked, and it seemed to take him only a second to decide what he wanted.
“Let me guess…the Caesar?”
He smirked. “I’d like to try those focaccia croutons.”
“They’re house-made.”
“Yes, I saw that on the menu.”
The waiter came over, took our drink order and, since we were ready for lunch, also took our food order. A moment later, he returned with our wine and let us enjoy it.
My father stared at his wine for a while before he looked at me, visibly awkward for some reason.
“What is it?”
He gave a shrug. “This is nice, is all.”
“It is nice.”
“I’m grateful we get to have this.” He gave me a soft smile, his affection written all over his face.
“Me too.” He didn’t deserve my forgiveness, but he’d earned it through tragedy, tragedy that put everything in perspective. If he hadn’t stormed those doors in time, my husband would have died…and I probably would have died too. “So, you’re seeing Hannah?”
Instead of skirting the question or avoiding it altogether, he answered it head on. “Yes. There’s always been this…energy…between us. There were times when I felt like she was trying to make something happen, but I avoided those compromising situations. Mixing business and pleasure is never a good idea, so it wasn’t an option. But now…” He gave a shrug. “It is an option.”
“And it does work sometimes…like it did with Axel and me.”
“Yes, you’re right about that.”
“So you like her?”
He didn’t seem uncomfortable with the questions, maybe because he was just thrilled that we were having a conversation at all. “I do. She’s always been so good to me and knows me so well. And she’s very beautiful…”
“She’s got one hell of an ass on her.”
My dad smirked then darted his eyes away, deeply embarrassed by that comment.
“I’m happy for you.”
“You are?” he asked. “I know she’s a bit younger than me…”
“A bit?” I asked with a laugh.
“Okay, more than a bit. But it works. And I’m glad that you’re supportive of this relationship.”
“I just want you to be happy, Dad. You deserve to have someone, and I’ve noticed the way Hannah has looked at you for years. It’s not like you were a creep that came on to her. I think she’d been into you for a long time.”
“Perhaps.”
“Does she want a family?”
“I imagine so.”
“And how do you feel about that? You’re still young enough.”
He released a sarcastic chuckle. “I don’t know about that.”
“You were fist-fighting a guy fifteen years younger than you.”
“When your life is on the line, you’d be surprised at what you can do. But the lack of sleep and the diapers and the baby shit everywhere… I don’t know. And besides, I have you, and I’m really not interested in having another child. I have the daughter I’ve always wanted. I’ve loved every stage of being your father, but this is the one I’m enjoying the most, because I get to be your friend.”
“It is nice.”
“So, no more children for me.”
“Well, then I guess Hannah won’t be around long.”
“I don’t know. She’s never told me whether she wants children. Perhaps she doesn’t. If she wants to be with me, perhaps she knows that dating an older man means a child-free life makes more sense. We’ll see,” he said with a shrug. “And what about you?”
“We want children.”
“It’s a long and exhausting journey, but when you reach the top and see the view…it’s all worth it.”