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 actually remember that.” Danyetta looked sad for a second. “I wish he’d loved me.”
I blinked at her, surprised that she’d admit that.
“Or that I loved him, for that matter.” She grimaced. “Being in love with someone that isn’t willing to put in the effort, and scale back on his efforts to further his career, is a punch to the gut.” She looked at me then. “When he left you, I think that broke Aodhan’s heart. I think he was just counting the days until he could get you back.”
“What’s your full story, Danyetta?” I asked. “Wake hated me pretty hard. So y’all must’ve sold the lie really well.”
“Amen.” Dutch shook her head. “That first night when he found out about you, Morrigan? I think he might’ve killed someone to protect his sister’s heart.”
I grimaced.
Dutch winked.
“I met the man I won’t name, because I feel like if I say it he appears, when I was sixteen. We fell in love hard. And two years later, he was gone. Poof. Right out of my life as if he was never there to begin with. But I was never able to stop loving him just because he was gone. And then he moved back.” She grimaced. “Which was when I started being petty. I wanted him to see what he left behind. Which was where Aodhan came into the picture. Plus, my biological clock was ticking. I wanted a baby. And I felt like seeing that I was moving on would really hurt him. And it did. But that didn’t make him make a move. It only made him further his career. Now he’s the assistant DA, and likes to come into my life at the worst times.”
“Like when he found out your son burned the coffee shop down and wanted to rub it in your face?” Diana asked.
I gasped. “He what?”
“He didn’t necessarily do it, but he definitely gave me shit about it.” She shook her head.
That was the thing that confused me about Danyetta. To love someone that completely, through everything that she’d loved him through, he would have to show himself worthy of that love. And from what I’d seen, and heard, he hadn’t done that.
“This him?” Folsom asked curiously.
We all looked at the assistant district attorney. The man that apparently Danyetta was deeply in love with, even after all these years.
“Yeah,” she nodded, her face dropping a little at the sight of him.
He was attractive, I’d give him that. He had this air of untouchability about him that practically screamed “stay away.” He carried a gun at his hip, he was dressed in what I thought might be a three-piece suit, and had his hair perfectly styled.
“I’ll give him a computer virus.” She tapped away on her phone. “It’ll do nothing but cause pop-ups. Then when he runs a virus test, it’ll cause more pop-ups. It’s not damaging to his computer or anything. Just annoying.”
Danyetta burst out laughing.
We all followed suit, because she sounded like a strangled kitten when she did.
Breakfast was fun, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
That was, until, the incident.
I’d been drinking coffee for two straight hours. Coffee, usually, didn’t affect me in any way other than to make my heart rate elevate slightly.
But pairing that coffee with excitement—such as getting to know the people that were closest to Aodhan—had all but caused me to put myself in the perfect storm of readiness.
My afflictions loved excitement, elevated heart rates, and things that otherwise put my body in a state of unrest.
So when Aodhan came in and stuck his face into my neck over the back of my chair, that was my final straw.
So when I tried to stand up to give him a hug, I felt my knees get weak, and the planets aligned.
“Whoa,” he said when I fell into him.
Luckily, or unluckily this time, I didn’t pass fully out. I was embarrassingly aware of every single second as he caught me up in his arms, sat down in my chair, and cradled me like one would an overgrown child.
I stared up at him as the tingling sensation started to overtake my limbs.
“This a mild one?” he asked as he ran his nose along the bridge of mine.
I blinked, unable to form words.
“She’s had two coffees too many, and has been sitting here in the heat. Sadly, it’s not unexpected,” I heard Folsom say.
Aodhan’s eyes were thoughtful as he stared at me, his beautiful stormy ones taking in every inch of my face. Not saying a word, but just looking at me while the conversation at the table continued as if I hadn’t been having one of my many episodes.
His eyes eventually trailed down to the gap in my shirt, and that’s when I realized my mistake.
“What do you have in your shirt?” Aodhan asked.