Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 87275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87275 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
“I think that’s smart,” I say carefully.
“You deserve better from me,” she says. “And, truth be told, I’m not sure if I even realize all the ways that I’ve probably failed you. I’m sort of numb right now.”
I snuggle Waffles, feeling his little breaths against my neck. “What changed? I want to believe you, Mom, but this is quite the one-eighty.”
She’s never been this self-aware, which is painful.
She holds her hands out to the side to emphasize her point. “I have nothing. Just like you said. I don’t have a man in my life. I have no friends. No real job. No future. And I’m on the verge of not having my daughter, either.” She frowns. “When you didn’t call like you always do, it gave me some time to think about the things you said. It hurt to hear that, but I needed to.”
“I’m sorry for hurting you. I want to say it wasn’t my intent, but that might be a lie.”
“I understand. If I had a good man like you do and someone tried to chase him off, I’d probably be a little mean, too.” She winks. “You can be a little mean anyway. But you learned that from me.”
My lips twitch, almost forming a smile.
“I’d hung up the phone to the therapist’s office when Ripley knocked on my door,” she says, looking at him. “I understand why you love him. He’s really hard not to like.”
He squeezes my hip softly, as if he’s uncomfortable with the fuss about him.
“Yeah, he’s hard not to like,” I say, tilting my head back and smiling at him. “He’s really hard not to love.”
He places a sweet kiss on my lips.
“I don’t want to keep you two,” she says. “I know you have a lot to talk about, too. But I hope you’ll accept my apology, Georgia.” Her voice cracks. “I love you, sweetheart.”
I set Waffles on the floor, much to his chagrin, then I embrace my mother.
Her body shakes as she cries. This is a woman who feels the depths of losing everyone she loves. My heart hurts for her. She might have caused all of the things that have happened to her lately, but everyone deserves a second chance.
God knows I’ve been given enough of them.
“I love you, Mom.”
She pulls away, her eyes wet with tears. “Honey, you have no idea how much I love you.”
“I have a little idea.” I smile at her, holding her at arm’s length. “We’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out.” I hug her again. “Why don’t I call you tomorrow and we can make plans to have dinner?”
“I’d really, really like that.”
She presses a kiss to my cheek. “I have a car picking me up soon, so I’ll see myself out. Enjoy your night.”
“You can stay,” I say, although I hope she declines. I need time alone with Ripley.
Mom chuckles. “I need to go.” She gives Ripley a quick hug, whispering something in his ear that I can’t hear. It makes him laugh. “Goodbye, you two.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Waffles barks at her.
“Goodbye, Ms. Hayes,” Ripley says. “Would you like me to walk you out?”
“You stay here with my daughter, or I’ll snap right back to mean Felicity.”
We all laugh. It feels very, very good.
She goes down the hallway and we don’t say a word until the door closes. Together, we let out a sigh of relief.
I take a step toward Ripley, but he takes one back.
My heart skips a beat.
“I have something I want to ask you before you touch me,” he says, giving me a soft smile. “And it has to be in this order because, if not, it’ll take me far too long to get back to this. Because I’m going to have a hard fucking time letting you go.”
“Hurry then. You’re wasting time.”
He grins. “The last time this was proposed to you, you left the guy who asked, so, I know I’m taking a risk by bringing this up. But I love you, Peaches. And I’ve been trying to figure out how to prove to you that I’m in this for the long haul. For forever. I don’t want there to be a second in your life where you have room to remotely consider that I’m not serious about this. About you. About us.”
I force a swallow, my anticipation growing. I don’t know where he’s going with this. Part of me says to run—but a bigger part of me demands that I stay.
“I did a little renovation to one of the bedrooms downstairs this week,” he says. “I turned one of them into a reading nook. I didn’t know exactly what that was supposed to look like, but it turns out Bianca had tons of ideas.” He rolls his eyes, making me giggle. “I hope you love it.”
“You built a reading nook for me? Here?”