Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I took off the foil from my plate, feeling my hands tremble. “I think I’ll take this to the sunroom. If you’ll excuse me,” I replied tightly as I grabbed a fork and walked away from him before he asked me more. About things I didn’t know and had stopped trying to find out a long time ago.
It felt as if he didn’t believe me. Like he thought I was hiding something. It was the first time I’d felt like a real outsider here.
I was ready for Maeme to get back. I didn’t like Storm. I decided I liked him less than Thatcher. At least Thatcher was blunt. Said what he was thinking even if it was harsh.
The next two days, I only received one text from King. It was to apologize for not having time to call, and he’d sent it after I went to bed. When I responded the next morning, it went unanswered, although I could see that he’d read it. That stung, and my imagination was starting to get more creative and painful as the time passed. The more he went without contacting me, the more I seemed to get nauseated. I didn’t know if it was because of the pregnancy or my own fear of him leaving me. Being done with me. Ready to move on.
Sitting at Maeme’s, I was letting my imagination run away from me. Nothing was working as a good enough distraction. So, when Sebastian returned early from Kentucky and came to Maeme’s to get me for a Derby party they were having at his house, I decided to go. Anything to get me out of my own head. My emotions were on overload.
I’d come to the conclusion I was sensitive because of my hormones. Storm hadn’t meant anything by his questioning. He was right. There were gaps in my past that I couldn’t fill in. I had once wanted to so badly. I’d even dreamed that I had a dad out there who wanted me. He’d come for me after finding out I existed and take me home with him. Give me a family. That fantasy had long since died though. It was one from my childhood. Like the one where he would swoop in and rescue me. Beat up the bad men who had been hurting me. In the end, I dealt with it myself. At least I had gotten away.
“I’m glad you came,” Sebastian said to me as we walked toward the elevator doors in his underground garage.
“Thanks for getting me out,” I replied.
I’d needed it more than he realized.
Knowing he’d been with King, I wanted to ask how he was, but I didn’t. That would be admitting he hadn’t called me but once.
“This is a small gathering. If I let too many of this bunch into the main house, Dad would be livid. The ones here are all cleared by security.”
I nodded, stepping into the elevator beside him. “Today is the actual race, correct?” I asked, knowing very little about the Kentucky Derby.
“Yeah. We have a horse in every race. If not us, then other branches of the family. The Hughes—Blaise, he has the one who is running in the actual Kentucky Derby race. We all have some racing against each other in the other races. No one in the States has a horse that can beat Blaise’s this year. There is no point in even trying.”
I didn’t care about Blaise Hughes, but I listened because this was King’s life. I wanted to understand all of it. This was important to him and the family. He had never taken the time to explain any of it, and I wondered if that was because he saw me as temporary. My throat burned as I swallowed. That thought didn’t sit well.
“We’ve got a bartender working tonight. You’re gonna need to try one of the mint juleps,” he told me as the doors opened back up and we stepped out onto a floor I hadn’t been to.
I shook my head. “I don’t feel like drinking anything with alcohol. Water is fine,” I replied, hoping he would let that go.
He looked disappointed. “You sure? The females are all raving about them.”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Go order one if you change your mind or just let me know.”
“I will,” I assured him.
The noise was slightly muffled by the two heavy wooden doors ahead of us, but not by much. Laughter and cheering filtered through. It sounded like a lot of people, not a small gathering. Sebastian stepped in front of me and opened the door on the left, then stepped back, waving a hand for me to go inside.
The chandelier that hung from the ceiling of the massive room made me think that this was normally a ballroom. Although right now, there was a wall covered in a screen with the happenings at the Derby displayed on it. Sofas, cushy chairs, a full bar, and tables full of food sat to the right of the space, and an ice sculpture of a racehorse sat in the center of it all.