Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Something was holding me back. Or, more accurately, someone was holding me back.
What would Rose think of my staying? Would she want me to stay? If I could get her to admit that she was mine, that she would love me, I would absolutely give up my unencumbered life in Rome.
Though the idea of keeping her as a pet, a dirty little secret, was no longer nearly as appealing as it had been. For some reason, I wanted more. I just didn’t know what that meant.
Still, at the dinner table surrounded by the siblings that I had grown apart from, their spouses who I didn’t know, and my father, a man I should have hated with everything I am, I still just looked for Rose. There were a few sets of empty seats, one between Luc and Stella. I assumed one was for Amelia and the other for her sister. Amelia wasn’t here yet, so maybe she and Rose were just finishing something up at the school.
So I relaxed, I drank, I ate, and I enjoyed the company of people that I didn’t realize how badly I missed. People who had changed so much I hardly recognized them. Father was laughing, laughing like with genuine, light-hearted laughter.
“I didn’t think it was possible,” I leaned over and whispered to Charlotte.
“No, he’s been like this for weeks, months now. Being with Stella has really brought something out in him. I don’t think any of us knew it was possible. He’s like a completely different man,” Charlotte whispered back.
“It’s true,” Luc said, leaning over to me. “At first, I thought it was some kind of switch, like Brown-Forman sent in some kind of body double to learn the secrets of our whisky—”
“Like Jack Daniels could ever measure up to Manwarring,” I snorted.
“Facts,” Luc said, clinking his glass with mine. “Even so, he’s been a completely different person. Now, my money’s on alien abduction.”
“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘facts’?” I asked, dumbfounded. Luc didn’t use teenage slang when he was a teen.
He hung his head, and Charlotte started giggling.
“Amelia is picking up a few things from the kids she works with, and certain words have just worked their way into his daily vernacular. It’s hilarious.”
“My point,” Luc interjected. “Is that clearly Father has been replaced by a pod person.” As Luc said that, a roll flew across the table and hit him in the head.
The entire table sat in stunned silence trying to figure out where it came from when my father stood, straightened his tie, and looked at Luc. “I would like to remind you that you were a power-mad asshole before you met Amelia, and she straightened you out.”
“He’s got a point,” Marksen said.
“And you were a petulant child who kidnapped a girl because Mary Quinn was so easily able to manipulate you,” Father shot at him, making Marksen duck his head a little. “If it wasn’t for my Olivia straightening you out, who knows where you would be, probably in some Middle Eastern prison hoping your daddy comes to rescue you.”
The entire table broke out in laughter.
“This one”—he pointed to Reid—“was flat out ignoring his responsibilities and inheritance to go play soldier in a foreign war just so he had something more interesting to do, until my Charlotte reined in his wild ways.”
“I don’t know if—” Reid defended himself when Father threw another roll, this time at Reid’s face.
“And that one over there was running around like nothing mattered other than his entitled sense of justice while working out his daddy issues in the DA’s office.” My father pointed behind me and I turned to see Harrison walk in with his bride on his arm.
“What the hell did I do?”
“You’re late. Take a seat,” my father said, pointing to a few other empty chairs on the other side of the table. “I’m simply pointing out that the love of a good woman can change a man in unexpected ways.”
“He’s right,” Harrison’s bride, I think her name was Eddie, said.
Harrison narrowed his eyes at her for a moment, then kissed her forehead and led her over to the empty seats.
A few moments later, Amelia came downstairs looking a little frazzled as she smoothed down her hair and her dress and practically floated into the dining room.
“I am so sorry I’m late, everyone. I was stuck on a parent-teacher conference that was… challenging.”
“Everything okay, honey?” Luc asked, standing and pulling her chair out for her.
“Everything will be,” she said with a serene smile.
“Is Rose coming too?” I asked, trying to seem conversational and not like I was desperate to know where my angel was.
“No,” Amelia said with a smile. “She was going to be here, but she found an earlier flight, so she could settle into her new apartment before school starts.”
She left. She left again, and she didn’t tell me. My heart pounded in my chest, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. She was gone, again. I couldn’t get to her. How was I going to make her admit she loved me if she wasn’t here?