Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 94585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94585 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“You know it wasn't just you, right?” I asked.
Sterling looked over at me. “But he let you and Tenn run The Inn.”
I shook my head. “Only because he thought we'd fail and he could sell it off. He told us so many times we were going to fuck it up and the whole town would know what losers we were. Then we didn't fuck it up, and he took all the credit.”
“Sounds like Dad,” Finn said. “When I joined the Army, he told me never to come back.” Finn glanced over at Griffen. “I didn't come back often, but I did come back. You could have if you wanted to.”
Griffen's teeth clenched. The fire absorbed his gaze for a long moment before he answered. “I didn't want to at first. Later—it just seemed impossible.” He was silent again, staring at the flames.
In a low voice I could barely hear, he said, “I imagined what he'd say, how he'd take all the things I'd accomplished, everything I'd made of myself, and break it down until I ended up feeling two inches tall. I should have come back. For the rest of you, if not for me. I'm glad I never had to see Prentice again, but I'm sorry for leaving my family.”
“We should have looked for you,” I said. It hurt to make the words real, to take that heavy guilt and make it concrete.
Griffen hadn't wanted to, but he'd come home. He could have ignored the will, could have stayed in the life he'd built in Atlanta with the Sinclairs helping to run Sinclair Security.
Griffen hadn't owed us anything, but he'd given us all a chance. He was giving me a shot at the job I'd always wanted, and he'd helped Sterling more than anyone had in years. He was making Heartstone Manor a home again. He deserved the truth. We all did.
“We should have tracked you down,” I said. “We should have stopped him from kicking you out in the first place.”
“Ford should have stopped it.” A crystal tear rolled down Sterling’s cheek. “He regretted it,” she said, her voice thick. “I know he did. He tried to make up for it with the rest of us, but he should have stopped it. After he divorced Vanessa, he should have found you, should have apologized and brought you back. I think he couldn't bring himself to face what he'd done. And now—” She choked out a sob. “He's not coming home, is he?”
I reached out and pulled her into my arms, holding her close as I hadn't in too many years. “He is. He's coming home. Just not right away.”
“What's going on?”
Chapter Fourteen
royal
I glanced over my shoulder to see Parker framed by the French doors of the office, looking ready for a garden party in her pink linen dress. Her brow furrowed as she stared at us, ranged around the bonfire as if we were going to pull out marshmallows to roast.
That was an idea. I wondered if there were any marshmallows tucked away in the kitchens.
Parker's husband loomed behind her, looking over her shoulder, his lip curled in disgust, then in alarm as he spotted the edge of a picture frame being devoured by the flames.
“What the hell are you idiots doing? Don't you know how valuable some of that stuff is?”
Finn shot out an arm, blocking him before he could reach in and pull out the burning painting of our father. “We're not the idiots here, you moron. That painting’s on fire. If it was worth anything before, it sure as hell isn't now.”
“The lot of you are insane. I can't wait until I can get out of this place and go back home.” He stormed into the house, slamming the French doors behind him so hard they rattled.
I couldn't help but notice that he'd said, I can't wait until I can get out of this place.
Not we.
I.
He hadn't said he wanted to take Parker home with him.
Parker had always been a good girl. She did what Prentice told her, never attracted attention. She was beautiful, the perfect image of her mother, Darcy, the only one of Prentice's wives who'd ever mothered any of us.
Parker had gone to college in New England. She'd met Tyler Kingsley in her junior year and married him the following summer. Once she was his wife, she'd never really come home again. Not until Prentice died.
I didn't know her well these days, but I'd always loved her. I wished I could say the same for her douchebag of a husband. From what I could tell, he was an asshole through and through.
Parker must have been used to his attitude because she ignored his tantrum, taking a place beside Finn. “When did you decide to redecorate?” she asked mildly, in a tone more suited to the garden party she was dressed for than a bonfire in the backyard.