Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 78085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78085 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
For a moment, I was too stunned by the concern in his voice to form any words. I simply nodded.
“Can you walk?”
“Um.” I looked down at my two perfectly fine ankles and nodded. “All good now, I’m sure. Like I said, I just needed a second.”
The woman approached us and stood next to Brax, looking at me with a perplexed expression. When our eyes met, I instantly knew who she was. I had detested her for years.
She was, after all, the only woman I’d ever known who’d been in a long-term relationship with Brax.
“Harlee Tilson, right?” she asked with a grin.
Brandi Larson. Ugh.
Of all the women in Seaside, why did it have to be her? She was the older sister of Mindi Larson, who worked for the justice of the peace. And she was Braxton’s ex-girlfriend from high school. The one woman everyone thought he would end up marrying because they’d made such a cute couple. Once she’d left for college, though, she’d never looked back—which meant she’d left Brax behind like she did everything else. Addie had told me at the time that her brother hadn’t seemed too heartbroken over Brandi leaving. It was the only thing that kept me from completely hating her.
Okay, not true—I still hated her. Maybe it wasn’t a very grown-up way to act, but in that moment, I couldn’t have cared less. I was allowed to be childish every now and then.
Lord, Harlee. You sound like a teenybop girl jealous over a rival.
If I had to pick, I’d rather see Brandi hugging Brax over Jennifer, his latest fuck buddy.
“Hi, Brandi, how are you?” I asked, giving her a sweet smile.
“Good! I’m great, actually. I just moved back to town.”
“For good?” Brax asked.
“Yes! I’m going to be taking over the accounting at my daddy’s tackle shop. I got tired of playing on Wall Street and decided it was time to move home.”
I wanted to gag. “And what about your father being sick?” I asked.
She snapped her eyes to mine, and it was hard not to notice the flash of anger. “That’s what I meant. I’m here to help my father, with him being sick and all, with…um…with…”
Brax raised his brows in anticipation while I folded my arms over my chest. Was she for real? She had no idea what was wrong with her own father? Maybe little Brandi came back to wait for an inheritance.
Harlee Tilson! That is not nice! Stop it!
“Chronic kidney disease?” I prompted, not even trying to hide the fact that I was appalled she didn’t know what her own father suffered from.
“Right!” she said as she pointed to me. “I keep forgetting what it’s called.”
“And you worked on Wall Street? With people’s money?”
Brax shot me a warning look, and I simply looked away while Brandi went on.
“He has to be driven in for some treatment each week.”
“That would be called dialysis. You do know what that is, right?” I asked as I focused back on her.
Brax shot me yet another look that said to pull my claws back in, but I ignored it and smiled sweetly while I waited for Brandi to answer. Had she really graduated from Harvard?
“It cleans out his blood or something gross like that,” she stated.
I could have said plenty to that, but it was her father, after all, and I liked Brandi’s mom. I caught sight of her walking down to the ferry, not bothering to wait on her daughter. I felt sorry for Mrs. Larson, but I honestly couldn’t stand Brandi, and it was solely because she’d once had Brax. More than once, actually. She was not simply one of his one-night stands. He obviously hadn’t told Brandi after spending one incredible night together that he wasn’t interested in her—like he’d told me.
Brax had gotten the one thing he’d wanted from me. Hell, he’d even warned me about men. How all they wanted was sex. But I’d been so sure there was something more between us that I’d stupidly admitted my feelings to him. Only to have him tell me that it was nothing more than a night he would always cherish and remember.
Always cherish, my ass.
I pushed the memory away and watched Brandi turn her attention back to Brax. She did a little bounce and clapped her hands together like she was back in high school and ready to start a cheer. Yeah, of course, she was also a stupid cheerleader.
There I go being petty again.
“Brax, we have to get together for old time’s sake,” she said. “We can have a little reunion!”
Ugh. Why don’t you say ‘come on over to my house so we can have sex?’
“I’d love that,” he said with a soft smile.
I was reminded once again why I couldn’t stand to be alone with Brax. He would never change. Never.
How many other women had he spent one night with, making them feel special and cherished, only to walk away without so much as a glance over his shoulder? But with Brandi, it had been different…it would be different…and that made my chest ache.