Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
So, I tell her. I tell her that the deal I had with her dad was simple. I get his house, and he gets an entry-level spot in the property development I have in the works down here.
“What I didn’t know, not until this morning,” I’m quick to educate her, “is that half that house is yours legally. So yeah, your dad was asking me—begging me—to soften you up on the idea. I didn’t know, Melissa. I swear it, and honestly, I couldn’t care less about the deal. I want you, Melissa… just you and me. I don’t need his blessing, anyway.”
The look in her eyes has put all that behind a cloud for me. She looks away, out the window, and away from the view of a city I want her to see every day with me, away from my searching gaze.
Thinking of the only place I know she could be thinking of right now.
Home.
But her home is here now with me.
Us.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Melissa
I should be shocked, which I guess I am. Of course, I am.
I knew Dad was pussy-footing around something. He has been for months now. Then the brain wave to come to Australia, and there’s mysteriously a business deal with his friend Mark as well? I didn’t connect the dots. How could I?
I would never have expected my dad to use our house as the capital for anything. Our solemn promise to my mom was that the house would always stay in the family, no matter what. He said coming to Australia was just a holiday, cheaper than my idea of a gap year in Italy or France.
A part of me wants to believe that Mark’s just covering his ass. He knew about the house being half mine and has probably been trying to butter me up, so I’ll go along with his business plan with dad. I know deep down he didn’t know until today, and he’s just as disappointed in my dad as I am.
It still hurts. I wish Mark would’ve said something as soon as he knew, so I could be somewhere I could curl up and process it. Being out? Mark wanting to have this “big day” of ours? It’s not exactly something I feel like now and not because of Mark. It feels like my dad’s betrayed me somehow and betrayed the memory of my mom.
I just wanna go…
Don’t cry. Do not cry.
Home… but where is home now?
Having met Mark and having had the most amazing night of my whole life, I can’t picture myself going home to the States. Seeing my dad now is the last thing I want. The one place I feel safe and feel like I wanna be is with Mark. Once he makes it clear he couldn’t care less about some business deal, I double wish I’d given myself to him last night. I triple wish we didn’t have to worry about my dad or his dealings, so we could’ve spent the day in bed like I know Mark wanted as much as I did.
“Do you mean it?” I sniff, finally turning to look him in the eye, knowing I won’t be able to contain my emotions if he keeps giving me that longing look of his. “About you and me, I mean? You don’t just wanna get in my pants so I’ll sign over half a house?” I hear myself asking. I feel like it’s a stupid question, but right now, it’s the only one I want an answer to. I want Mark to want me for me.
He leans over swiftly, gripping me gently but firmly and kissing me just how I need it. He answers everything for me by reminding me how he feels and how all of this feels. The only feelings that matter now.
Wait. Did he just say something about dad’s blessing? Blessing for what?
I can’t help but think about it as he kisses me. I can’t help but feel an extra thrill in my chest as well as the one being this close to him gives me, even if we were kinda just having an argument of sorts.
If he means what I think he means… If he really is as serious about this “us” business as I think he is… Maybe I do have some thinking to do about the house and about a future that might not be as lonely as I thought before coming to Australia.
Coming up for air, I open my mouth to ask Mark a dozen different things, but he silences me with a look. His face is still close to mine. I see how he’s trying to keep a lid on his feelings about my dad and trying to be here for me.
“Tonight, remember?” he rasps, smiling naturally and making me do the same, shifting all my emotions back to him in a second and making all of them good again.