Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” He cupped her chin, tilting her face back. He wiped away her tears with his sleeve. “It would be impossible.”
“You don’t know everything, though. What if . . . what if you hate me after hearing it all?”
“Are you some secret assassin come to murder me and my family?”
“No!” Sheesh. Some days she could barely walk without tripping over.
“Then I think we’re good.”
“That’s it? That’s the one rule you’ve got? I can’t murder you or your family.”
“Well, I mean, we probably wouldn’t object if you took out West—”
“Tanner! Be serious.”
He gave her a puzzled look. “Huh? I was being serious.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You can’t tell me that I’m allowed to take out one of your brothers.”
“But he’s the one that no one likes.”
“Isn’t he married?”
“Well, yeah. I guess I see where you’re going. Flick might care.”
Might care? He was crazy.
“I’m not here to kill anyone. But I do have secrets.”
“We all do.”
Not like hers.
“Eventually, I’m going to want to know all these secrets of yours. But for now, all I want from you is your promise that you won’t run again.”
Shit. She bit her lip.
“Promise me, Lilac,” he said in a low voice.
“And if I can’t?”
“Then I guess you just found yourself a 24/7 guard dog.”
She closed her eyes. “You can’t be with me all the time.”
“Wanna bet?”
Lilac blew out her breath. It was a terrible promise to make. Because could she keep it?
Then again, it wasn’t like they could run at the moment. And maybe . . . maybe this time they’d be safe.
“What’s going on, baby?” he asked.
Crap. How to answer him?
There was a knock on the door, and she glanced up to see Lemon standing there. “Sorry to interrupt, but we need you out there.”
“Of course, I’m so sorry.” She got to her feet. “I have to go back to work.”
“If you’re in trouble, I need to know. I get you don’t want to tell me yet. But you have my number on your phone now, so if something happens, the first person you call is me. Got it?”
Jeepers.
“Yes. Got it.”
“Good girl. Now, get back to work.” He slapped her ass as she turned.
Lord. He was too much.
But also . . . he was just enough.
23
Lilac stumbled along the footpath.
She was completely wrecked. To her surprise, Peggy had called her this morning and demanded to know why she hadn’t turned up to work at the diner on time.
So . . . that had been fun, trying to explain that she’d been late because she thought she didn’t have a job anymore.
Peggy had told her that she was an idiot and put her to work.
Which was both horrible and a relief.
She needed the money for Sugar. But she wasn’t sure how long she could work night shifts at Dirty Delights, then morning shifts at the diner.
At least she only had two morning shifts a week. That wasn’t so bad. In fact, she could sleep in tomorrow since it was Monday, and she didn’t have to work at the bar tonight or tomorrow night.
After he’d driven her home last night, she hadn’t heard from Tanner again.
Not that she needed him to be in constant contact, of course. But she guessed a part of her had thought he might have at least texted her this morning.
Demand that she give him the explanation he wanted.
She was dreading it, if she was honest with herself, but she also wanted to get it off her chest.
It was silly to be sad that he wasn’t sticking to her like Velcro. He had a life to live and so did she. He couldn’t be with her all the time.
She’d given him her new number, but that didn’t automatically mean that he would start messaging her.
Still, she kind of felt down. She stepped into the guesthouse. She was starting to feel weird about staying here when Linc didn’t seem to like her all that much.
As soon as she opened the door, she heard Opal singing to Kye as she rocked him back and forth.
Opal had the best voice she’d ever heard. Lilac could sit and listen to her forever. She should have been a country-western star, not on the run with her and Ryleigh.
“Hey, I just got him to sleep,” Opal told her. “Let me put him down. We need to talk.”
Shit. That sounded ominous. Sitting on the sofa, she toed off her shoes and sighed in relief. God, her feet hurt.
“I’m sorry you’ve had to look after Kye so much,” she said as soon as Opal reappeared. “I’ll look after him when he wakes up.”
If only she could get off the sofa by then. Well, she’d figure it out.
“Kye is fine. He’s easy to look after.”
“I need to go check on Ryleigh too.” Lilac was super worried about her friend. She’d never been apart from Kye this long.