Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“I’m so sorry, Felix.”
He squeezed me tight, as if I was a lifeline right now in his turbulent sea of sadness.
And we stayed like that for so long that we lost track of time.
It wasn’t until my phone started to ring over and over again that I realized the time.
“Shit, I was supposed to be Madam Val today,” I murmured. “Fancy a trip to the circus?”
I hoped he said yes, but I expected him to say no.
When he nodded once, and then stood up with me in his arms and said ‘of course,’ I was a bit stunned.
But then I remembered that Felix loved me.
The last few years might’ve been crazy for us, but neither one of us had been able to stop those feelings from shining through. Time and distance, you couldn’t break a love like this.
You could try to stop it, but in the end, love won.
“You’ll probably hate it,” I said, remembering about his social battery. “But I have a really great office you can escape to, and the food truck my brother-in-law runs is the best thing ever.”
His eyes started to gleam at the mention of food.
“You haven’t eaten today, have you?” I asked.
His eyes sparkled with mischief as he said, “Nope.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you haven’t.”
He caught my hand, and together we walked out the door to my car.
I didn’t hesitate to give him my keys, and when we both showed up at the circus, not a single member of my family gave him shit.
It was… perfect.
CHAPTER 18
Parenthood is really about accepting the fact that you will be permanently worried for the rest of your life.
-Pops to Felix
FELIX
“You called,” I said stiffly.
Had I heard her correctly?
She’d called?
“Yes,” she replied. “I called a lot.”
My automatic response was not to believe her.
But she was already pulling out her phone.
She swiped a few times, then handed it to me.
I swiped.
And I swiped.
And I swiped.
For six whole months, she texted me every day.
Every. Single. Day.
I bet she’d called just as many times.
Stomach now cramping, I pulled out my own phone so I could compare.
I, of course, still had her number pinned. Even though I hadn’t opened the text thread in over a year now.
I turned it around and showed her.
She blinked.
“I called, too. A lot,” I promised.
I woke from the nightmare with a cat sitting on my throat.
I groaned and pushed Cyclone off, but he came right back.
Last night after the circus, we’d decided to both stay at her place.
It was closer, and her cat was there.
A cat that had gotten impossibly more annoying since I’d first met him.
“Get off,” I growled, pushing him off again.
I became aware of the bed shaking and turned over, again dislodging the cat, and looked at the woman at my side.
“What has you laughing so hard you’re shaking the bed, Poppet?” I narrowed my eyes at her.
Her mouth pinched together, but the shaking didn’t stop.
“Come on,” I teased. “Tell me.”
“It’s just,” she snickered. “You’ve always hated this cat so much.”
I had.
It wasn’t a secret.
“He’s worse than when I left him,” I replied, feeling that sharp pang of anger that once again reminded me that I’d left.
I’d left her.
She might’ve been the one to physically walk out the door, but I’d been the one to leave her.
I could’ve tried harder.
I could’ve put forth more effort.
Yet, none of that had happened.
Before I could continue on that train of thought, the woman at my side stopped laughing, then crawled over until she was straddling my lap.
The cat left then, his anger palpable as he sashayed away from the bed.
But my mind was now on the woman straddling me, and the way she felt pressed against me.
“You are being bad again,” she said. “We agreed. We would stop feeling bad about this and start living again.”
We had decided that.
That didn’t mean I could just forget about it with a snap of my fingers.
“Are you going to HR today?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
I would start my day with talking to them.
Day off or not.
“Good.” She smiled, her eyes dragging lazily over my face. “Can we have morning sex now?”
I chuckled. “A man would never say no to morning sex.”
Her eyes twinkled as she leaned back, then reached for the hem of her shirt.
I caught said hands and stilled them before saying, “Allow me.”
Eyes alight with excitement, she held her hands up for ease of removal.
I slowly slipped it up the length of her torso, stopping right under her unbound breasts.
The sight felt like a gut punch.
I pushed higher, exposing her perfect breasts, and barely resisted the urge to lavish them with attention.
Only when it was up and over her head did I drag a finger down her nipple and say, “These are so pretty, Poppet.”
She shivered, and her nipples pebbled to perfect little peaks.
“They’re boobs, Felix,” she said.