Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I looked down at her to see her cheeks pinking.
She went back to her chair, and I wondered if she was going to sit there just to sit, or if seeing Sheriff Sunny Summers was just making her heart wonky.
Jesus, I hoped it was the former.
I didn’t want her feeling like that for any other man but me.
And now I was sitting there considering punching the sheriff for being attractive. Go me.
I opened the door to the two men, and Danyetta all but hid behind Folsom, behind us all.
Derek Shepherd, who definitely wasn’t a doctor on television but an actual real-life district attorney for the state of Florida, walked in first. Followed by Sunny Summers, the new sheriff that was instated shortly after I was released from prison last year.
Derek’s eyes scanned the kitchen the moment he breached my door, looking for the one woman that he’d likely been dying to see. Sunny’s eyes came directly to me.
He held out his hand, and I shook it.
“Just making a friendly visit to let you know that Adler Newsome was seen around town today, and he left with a warning never to show his face in the area again.” He looked at me as if he knew exactly who Adler had made an acquaintance with this morning.
Which was right.
Me.
When I’d seen Adler out and about this morning, something enraged had come over me. He was acting as if he hadn’t changed the lives of hundreds of people. As if he was just out for a cruise of the town, when we both fucking knew the only reason he was there was because he wanted to stir trouble. To let people know that he was back and wasn’t leaving.
“Imagine that,” I drawled.
“Were you anywhere near The Wharf today?” he asked, looking pointedly at the McDonald’s wrappers still on my kitchen table.
“Sure was,” I said, not seeing the point in lying.
A, it would be lying to Sunny, the sheriff of the county where I currently lived. B, he knew, and was just confirming. And C, there were a lot of witnesses.
Not that I was sure any of those witnesses would be talking.
It bugged me to no end that motherfucker could move freely through our town.
If he suffered a fucked-up face every time he went out to see the town, well, that was his own problem.
“What’s this got to do with anything?” Morrigan asked then, her arms crossing over her chest. She glared from her position sitting at the table.
“Just making friendly conversation.” Sunny shrugged, his eyes going to Morrigan, or more specifically, Morrigan’s throat. “How are you, coffee lady?”
Morrigan snorted. “I’m well. How’s the coffee shop doing this morning?”
“Exceptionally well,” he confirmed. “Your milk order arrived on time, and I got my usual cup of hot chocolate right as the doors opened this morning.”
Morrigan fist-pumped the air, and Derek finally looked away from where Danyetta was hiding to stare at my girl.
He frowned, his gaze flicking from me to Morrigan again until something finally dawned.
“You and her?” he asked.
That was directed at me.
“Me and him,” Morrigan said, answering for me. “Just like it’s always been.”
I honestly hadn’t been expecting those words. She could’ve said any number of things, and I would’ve not been surprised in the least. But her admitting it, straight out, that there was something here?
I hadn’t expected that.
Derek’s gaze went to Danyetta again who, might I add, still hadn’t come out from behind Folsom.
I shook my head and said, “So why are y’all here? If not to accuse me of a crime?”
I wasn’t trying to be rude or anything, but Morrigan had just said something that was tearing my brain to pieces. I needed to talk to her. I then needed to feel her underneath my hands.
And the best way for that to happen was for everyone to fucking leave.
“I’m here because I was going to play golf with Sunny after this,” Derek said. “And I was going to sit in the car but…”
But he saw Danyetta’s car and came in, thinking he’d get a glimpse of her. Plus, he was a glutton for punishment. Like I’d always been.
Any glimpse of the love of his life, even if she was with another man, was enough to survive on.
I’d had a few of those instances over the years.
But my mistake had been going through Morrigan’s father. He would give me an update on how she was doing—likely lying through his teeth every fuckin’ time I asked—and then would send me some photos of the last time that they’d visited her.
Had any of those photos ever been real?
If I had to guess, maybe not.
“And…” Danyetta finally came out of her hiding spot, a new determination in her spine. “We were just getting to know each other. Morrigan had a tough couple of days, and this isn’t the time or the place for this to happen with her still recovering.”