Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 140767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
“So sorry to interrupt, but Izzy is a little fussy and I wanted to make sure it’d be okay if I gave her a bottle. I already found them in her diaper bag, so you don’t have to move a muscle.”
Maria jumps forward to go in, but I stop her with a gentle hand to the elbow. She looks back at me with drawn eyebrows, but I don’t look at her—not yet. Instead, I focus on my sister.
“Actually, Win, I thought I might ask you a favor. Do you think you’d be interested in keeping Izzy tonight?”
Maria’s head whips back toward me, but again, I keep my eyes on my sister, whose face has turned downright Cat Who Ate the Cream at this point.
“A whole night with that sweet baby?” She’s over the damn moon. “Are you kidding? Both Lex and I would flipping love that! Plus, I’m sure I can convince my boss to give me the morning off to give you time to pick her up,” she says with a wink.
Ah, the convenience of having your husband be your boss.
“I have all the baby stuff I need, too, so you don’t need to worry. While Daisy was looking for a nanny, I kept the twins twice a week.”
When Maria looks at me with uncertainty in her eyes, I lean down and whisper into her ear, “Just trust me, okay? There’s a reason for this. And if anyone can take good care of our girl, it’s Winnie.”
Maria leans back to search my gaze. She’s still a little uncertain, I can see it in every fucking line of her perfect body, but she doesn’t peep a word of protest. Instead, she nods and then proceeds to rush past Winnie and into the house, no doubt to squeeze the life out of poor little Izzy for another thirty minutes or so.
I know it might seem like a big ask, having Maria go a whole night without Izzy, but it’s important. Necessary. This much, I know for sure.
Winnie raises her eyebrows and waggles them after the door shuts behind Maria. “Well, well, well.”
I shake my head, smiling slightly. “Shut up.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I will shut up. For now. For now, I’ll go in there and wrestle that baby from Maria’s arms so you can do…whatever it is…that you’re planning.”
“This isn’t about putting the moves on her, Win. This is about Isabella.”
Winnie’s eyes shutter then, remembering her vibrant childhood friend and the tragic news I shared with her not too long ago. Her whisper is solemn. “Oh hell, I didn’t even think. Did we… God, I hope we didn’t make her feel—”
I shake my head again, cutting her off before she rakes herself over the metaphorical coals. “Win, it’s not something you did or even have control over. It’s all the things we get to do that she never will again. It’s this conversation, right here, that she can’t have with her annoying little sister anymore. And she needs a night to try to work through all those things she’s been burying deep.”
Winnie nods, wiping a tiny tear as it forms in the corner of her eye. “I have a bottle of really good tequila. Take it with you when you go.”
“Thanks, sis.” I give her shoulder a squeeze on my way to the back door.
“Remy?” she calls, stopping me before I can get there.
“Yeah?”
“A word of caution from personal experience?”
I wait, my brows lifting marginally.
“The song is right, big bro.” She grins like a damn devil. “Tequila really does make the clothes fall off.”
“You realize that is the absolute last thing I want to hear from my baby sister,” I grumble as I head inside, but she’s quick to get the last word before the door shuts behind me.
“Doesn’t make it any less true!”
Remy
Maria snags the bottle of tequila by the neck again, tips it back and swallows a huge, shot-like gulp. I watch her sleek, tanned throat work around the liquid and shake my head subtly to clear it.
She’s so fucking beautiful, sometimes I have to remind myself to breathe. To blink. To stand upright and basically exist. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever known someone whose whole being shines as brightly as hers. There’s beauty at the surface and underneath, and then under that—that’s where she keeps the pain.
She wipes the excess tequila off her lips and closes her eyes, humming as the liquid burns its way down her throat.
After we got back to her empty apartment, it took about an hour or so for her to get comfortable taking shots. But now that she’s committed, she’s gone full bore. We’re nearing the halfway point of the bottle with no slowing down in sight. Shit, I might have to DoorDash another one if we keep this up much longer.
I take the bottle back, needing a distraction of some sort, and take another pull.