Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
I glanced away because Mitchell had come to Mason Creek for one reason alone. His daughter. She’d been dropped off by her grandmother, who’d declared it was time for the Bowmens to take responsibility for their own. Only, according to Nate, neither he nor his brother had known of the little girl’s existence.
Here I’d made it through nursing school without falling for anyone. There had been guys who had asked me out, only I’d been singularly focused on my degree.
Now I wondered if there was such a thing as perfect attraction because I knew now I’d been wrong about not wanting a guy. With Mitchell only feet away from me, I realized the right guy hadn’t asked me out.
I’d never understood the meaning of butterflies until I laid eyes on him. The problem was, with Nate leaving, Mitchell was now my boss and totally off-limits.
THREE
Mitchell
Though I was ashamed to admit it, the news my brother laid on me shook me to my very core. ‘I’m a father’ kept reverberating in my head. Part of me hoped it was a cruel joke, but Nate would have never let it go on this long. Plus, he’d left several angry messages on my phone I hadn’t yet returned.
I’d needed time to think, to process. I was a father. How could that be? I’d been so damn careful. Except…
My phone rang again. Nate’s name popped on the screen. I ignored it. How could I possibly answer? Here I’d been preaching to him about keeping his shit wrapped up tight and I was the one with a kid.
I reached for the nearly empty bottle of whiskey on my nightstand. I couldn’t face reality while sober. Not yet.
I was a father…
When the hour hit that I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, I threw some shit in a bag and went downstairs to meet the driver. Nate’s assistant, Jean, had arranged a private jet to get me back to Mason Creek. I appreciated that, considering I wasn’t feeling up to the social interactions that would come on a commercial flight. It was hard enough going home without my mother being alive. Add to it, I was going to meet a daughter I’d never met. It was going to be a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
Somehow I arrived. I’d drunk nothing but coffee and tonic water on the plane. I couldn’t meet my daughter smelling like a brewery. Only not drinking gave me too much time to think. And when we pulled up to my childhood home, I felt something break inside me.
Nate looked ready to blow when he met me halfway. “What the hell, bro? You haven’t answered my calls.”
“Is she mine?”
Nate looked unsure. “You really didn’t know?”
I shook my head slowly. I’d spent the past day or two replaying my memories. There had been rumors that the girl I’d been hanging out with at a summer party before I went back to college was pregnant, but when she hadn’t come around looking for me, I’d assumed the rumors weren’t true or it wasn’t mine. “I didn’t. I swear,” I said. Dad had a lot of explaining to do.
Nate eyed my carry-on bag, the only thing I’d brought. “You know you can’t leave, right? Her mother is missing, in case you didn’t read all my texts.” Haley had gone on vacation with her boyfriend, Agan, to a remote island and hadn’t returned. “I’ve sent you all of Haley’s contact information, including her mother’s name and address, and that Agan guy’s cell and sat phone information. Jean has done a lot of digging, but we need boots on the ground. Did you hire the private eye?”
I shook my head because I hadn’t been thinking clearly since his call. I’d canceled all my appointments and hadn’t left my apartment until today.
“Fine. I’ll get Jean on that, but you have to answer his calls, bro. This is your problem, not mine. Your daughter wants her mommy. Oh, and the dollhouse I got her.”
I aimed a narrow gaze at my brother. “You bought her a dollhouse?”
“Long story. One I could have filled you in on if you’d answered your damn phone. But yes, and she thinks Santa got it for her. Leave it that way. It’s at Haley’s and Avery’s got a key. She won’t give it to you. You’ll have to get with Haley’s mom to get the dollhouse and bring it here. Do you know your daughter has lived in a tiny trailer all her life while you’ve been in your six-million-dollar condo?” He didn’t give me a chance to answer. “Of course you don’t, because you haven’t read my text or emails and probably haven’t listened to my voicemails either.”
I glared at him. “I didn’t know.”
“Whatever. We are late.”
The door opened, and Avery walked in hand in hand with my daughter. I’d met Avery briefly when she was in Chicago with Nate. And I’d felt so righteous giving him shit for knocking her up. Now here I was, an instant father.