Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Delaney’s sigh echoed over the phone. “I don’t know whether to like that the two of you made friends, or …”
“I was just about to have a late dinner with my father and our lawyers to sign the final paperwork on the purchase and transfer of shares—are you okay? Tell me if this is something that can’t wait, Delaney.”
Her silence dragged on longer.
Lucas couldn’t stand it. “Did I say that wrong—is that it?”
“What could you possibly say wrong?”
“Maybe because I’m so used to somebody needing me that I keep looking for it from you, in a way. I expect you to call me and say you need me if something is wrong, but you’re already over there probably figuring it out on your own, right?”
“Lucas—”
“Let me try again, okay?”
“Okay,” Delaney muttered on the other end of the call. “Try again.”
“I’ll stop asking if you need me and start asking if you want me instead. Or that’s what you can do, if it’s hard for you to say you need me. Stop looking at it like that. Start asking yourself what you want—ask if it’s me.”
“I was better this morning than I am right now,” Delaney admitted.
A shitty justification, in his opinion, for her lack of a phone call later when she did decide to go into town to visit the hospital. Whatever the reason.
Lucas gave Delaney a bit of grace.
“When I ask myself that question,” Lucas said, “the answer is sure as hell you for me.”
Delaney sniffled, but asked, “I thought you weren’t doing that dinner until next week?”
“Lawrence is good at moving things along,” he said of his lawyer.
Otherwise, Lawrence spoke for himself.
And his work.
“I thought if I said yes and got everything done, I could come upriver sooner than we’d discussed for a week or two,” Lucas added.
“Can we start there?”
Lucas blinked at the question, but also had to move aside for a well-dressed couple that entered the restaurant. He followed the pair with his gaze as they climbed the stairs to where the host waited to take coats and greet those who entered the establishment.
“Lucas?” Delaney asked.
“Start where?”
“A week or two,” Delaney clarified. “I want you for longer than that.”
Lucas chucked, the rumbling sound easing a bit of the ache in his chest. “Okay, it can be more than that. I’ll figure it out. It’s not like I’m going to be punching in on anybody’s clock.”
Not that he ever did that before, really.
Salary all the way.
“Well, there’s still the foundation for—”
“The foundation is in the beginning stages and has another year or more of work ahead of me before it’s functional the way I envision it in my mind,” Lucas interjected. “Also, there’s nothing I can’t do over a telephone or video call for that at the moment, anyway.”
“Are you keeping the apartment in the city?”
His brow furrowed. “Are you asking me that for a reason?”
“It’s probably bigger than my little one bedroom over the garage, huh?”
“Delaney—”
“Does it sound as juvenile to you as it does to me when I want to ask you to move in?”
All at once, that pressure building inside his chest seemed to release. Finally, he seemed to grasp what she had been dancing around for the better part of their conversation.
“Is that what it is? You want me to move in?” he asked.
“You’re the one who keeps saying you can work on whatever, wherever,” Delaney returned.
Like it wasn’t a big deal.
Oh, God.
It was.
“I thought about keeping the apartment in the city,” Lucas said honestly. Because he had given this some thought, although he’d been waiting on Delaney to take that first step between them. He’d move accordingly, and so, now he could.
She cleared her throat. “Did you?”
“A part of me will always stay in Saint John,” he said, “and what if we wanted to go for a weekend? It’s there and furnished.”
Delaney grew quiet on the other end of the line again. Something about that silence seemed weighted and sad to him. So heavy, he could feel it through the speakers.
“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”
Delaney dragged in a shaky breath. “Promise you won’t freak out?”
“I can sure try,” he returned, “but no promises there. I won’t make one I might break.”
“You’re so sweet it’s fucking disgusting.”
He grinned, but the clearing of a throat made Lucas spin around to see Lawrence had come to stand at the top of the stairs. His lawyer gestured at the watch on his wrist, making Lucas nod in silent reply.
“I was going to tell you—when I knew for sure,” Delaney corrected, adding after, “But then someone else had to stick his nose where it didn’t belong before I even had some answers of my own here.”
“What?”
Lucas had no clue what she meant.
From start to finish.
“I took a pregnancy test today, Lucas,” Delaney said, “and it was positive.”