Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
I mean, I was a celebrity journalist.
It was my job to know all.
“And you didn’t tell me?” I demanded.
He grinned. “Baby, that would spoil the surprise for you.”
“Oh,” I mumbled.
“Yeah,” he replied.
I liked surprises, and Hale knew it.
Like when he whisked me away to Turks and Caicos for a long weekend.
That was a great surprise.
Or when I came home to a Chopard box on the kitchen counter, and I saw he bought me a floating diamond watch he’d seen somehow “in passing” (how “in passing” it could be, I didn’t know, since Hale was allergic to shopping), and he knew right away I had to have it (and he was very correct, that watch was so gorgeous, I had to have it even before I knew it existed).
The watch would be a longer-lasting great surprise, but the memories we made on Turks and Caicos would be forever.
And not only because we made a baby there.
Hale took me out of my thoughts by kissing my nose.
When he lifted up, he gave me a squeeze with both arm and hand.
“Stop worrying,” he urged. “It’s all good. Though, I would buy a new outfit if I were you. It might be a surprise, but it’s still going to be a party.”
It seemed a waste to buy a new outfit when, in two or three months, I’d start growing out of it.
But now that I’d backed myself into this particular corner, I couldn’t get out.
“It’s good Chloe’s in town then. More bonding time with your sister,” I noted.
“Perfect,” Hale veritably purred, so content was he that Tom and Mika were (more than likely) engaged, his family was all coming to the city, I got along with his sister (she hadn’t been sure about me in the beginning, but I won her over), and life was good.
I felt that purr twine warm around my heart at the same time snake sickeningly through my belly, a contrast of emotion that felt strange, and not in a good way.
Even if that purr said lovely things about where Hale was in that moment, I had to ask what I asked next. It was my job as his partner. More, it was my blessing as the woman who loved him, who he loved in return.
Even so, I’d learned to tread softly.
“Are you okay about Chloe and Judge’s diamonds?” I whispered.
I got another squeeze and a, “Yeah.”
He made to let go of me, but I held on.
“Hale,” I warned.
“Baby…”
He sighed, shook his head.
Then he carried on, “It’s like he’s still here. It’s like he’s a part of us. It’s like he’s celebrating the moments in our lives that are important to celebrate.”
When he stopped talking, I nodded and encouraged him to continue, saying, “Yes?”
“And it’s a reminder he wasn’t sitting in the front row with Genny and Tom and you and Mika, where Chloe would put him, make no mistake, when she and Judge got married. It’s a reminder of all he’s missing.”
“It’s a reminder of how much you all miss him,” I said gently.
He gave a soft grunt, which was an affirmation.
“Do you wish these things would stop?” I asked.
“And have him be really gone?” he asked in return. At my nod, he stated, “Fuck no.”
“It’s just hard,” I surmised.
“I sometimes think, ‘He gets to do the talking, but I’d give everything if I could just have one more conversation with him.’ But I don’t get that, and I never will.”
Oh, my beautiful Hale.
I pulled my hand from his so I could curve both arms around him.
He let me hold him, and later, after Hale made love to me, and I could hear his even breathing as he spooned my back, the warmth around my heart started dissipating as that snake coiled in my gut, clearly ready to stay for a while.
Because I should have told him.
Regardless that his father had come back into his life in the only way he could, and that was a hit, no matter how velvet, it would have given him the chance of dealing with it all at once.
I was lying in the bed I’d made myself of guilt and cowardice when the lightbulb lit.
Genny.
Genny was coming to town.
She wasn’t Hale’s birth mom, but there was no arguing she was his true mom. She knew him better than anybody, save Tom (and now me).
I could tell her. And she could advise how to tell him.
And maybe do some divination and share how she thought he’d react.
A path out of the dark forest I’d put myself in coming clear, I finally closed my eyes, and snug in the curve of my love’s long body, it took some time, seeing as that snake got comfortable.
But eventually, I fell asleep.
CHAPTER 3
GET REAL
Elsa
Because Hale wasn’t into that kind of thing, and neither was I, the world at large (in other words, the media) never got the official confirmation from “our people” that he and I were getting married.