Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
She nods but doesn’t say anything. I know she’s feeling confused about my lashing out. I owe her an explanation.
“Jamie. Her name’s Jamie.” I let out a heavy sigh. “My dad’s wife.”
“Okay,” she murmurs. “And you don’t like her?”
Not in the least. There was a time when I thought I loved her, but if she could forge a secret relationship with my father behind my back, then love was never a part of our equation.
“She’s my ex-girlfriend.”
This gets her attention. Her head snaps my way. “What?”
“I really, really liked her,” I say as we turn into my driveway, “but she was seeing my dad. It all blew up in a messy as fuck way when she turned up pregnant. She wasn’t even eighteen yet.”
“Wow,” she breathes. “I’m sorry.”
I pull into the garage and hit the button to close us inside. Once the car is turned off, I glance over at her.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s just a touchy subject with me. My dad…” My voice breaks off as anger seeps in.
“He betrayed you.” She brings my hand to her lips and kisses it. “You didn’t deserve that. You were just a kid.”
Her words are a salve to my heart, softening the edge of the painful bite. Besides my brothers, I’ve spent a lifetime shutting people out. Letting someone—not just anyone, but her—in, feels right.
“Come on. Leave your bag in the car. I’ll show you around and then cook us a couple of steaks.”
We climb out of the vehicle and head inside. She marvels over the décor, smiling as she takes it all in. I know my house is nice, but I don’t ever take the time to appreciate it. Willa takes the time, slowly roving her gaze over every detail.
While I give her a tour of my house, I add in the generic bits about my family history. How the Parks were some of the first settlers in this area long ago and commandeered most of the property, including Park Mountain and the surrounding acreage. I tell her about Grandpa and Jude, Hugo and Spencer, my uncle Theo, and of course the twins. I even tell her about my mother and the gaping hole her death left inside each of us.
“So you have three brothers and one sister?” She stops, pausing to look at a painted family portrait. “Him?”
It’s a picture of all of us when we were kids. When Mom was still alive and Jude wasn’t so…destroyed. Jude actually smiles in the picture even though we were supposed to look serious. I’m not sure he’s smiled since Mom died.
“The picture you showed me on your desk in your home office just had you, the twins, and Hugo. Why wasn’t Jude in that picture?”
“You can barely get Jude out of the house once a week for Sunday dinner at Dad’s. A picture is an impossibility. He’s not exactly happy with the way he looks.”
She frowns at me. “What’s wrong with the way he looks? He’s a cute little boy in this painting.”
“That night,” I say softly, “when Mom died, Jude had been the one to try and save her.”
“How did she die?” She flinches. “I shouldn’t ask that.”
I take her hands in mine, peering down at her. “You can ask me anything. I want to open up to you, sweetheart. Just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”
Her smile is breathtaking. “I like learning about you and your life.”
Dipping down, I press a kiss to her supple lips. “Then I’ll tell you everything. Let’s get dinner started first.”
Willa moves around my kitchen like she belongs there. While I season the steaks, she starts pulling out vegetables to prepare a salad. A deep ache forms inside my chest. I like having her here. This thing between us feels so damn right, despite how it’d seem to everyone else.
“I think Mom tried to burn the house down with herself inside,” I grit out, unable to meet Willa’s stare. “She and Dad had already split up, but after learning how he’d gotten my girlfriend pregnant, I think it was too much.”
“That had to be awful for everyone.”
“The fire department ruled it as a kitchen grease fire. They claim she didn’t do it on purpose.” I close my eyes, remembering the smell of smoke that stayed with me for months after. “Her body would have completely burned up in the fire, but Jude happened to be skipping school and was at Park Mountain Lodge. He saw the smoke. By the time he made it to the house, it was engulfed.”
“Oh no,” she murmurs. “He went inside?”
“He did.” I swallow down the ball of emotion in my throat. “The firefighters found him passed out from smoke inhalation. He’d been dragging Mom’s body away from the kitchen, trying to get her outside, when he succumbed to the smoke.”