Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 96284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
She sighed and placed the knife and cutting board in the sink. “You’re right—I…I do test you. I don’t mean to, and I’m gonna stop. You’ve given me no reason to doubt you.”
All right, cool, but we’d leave it at that. The guilt within me couldn’t accept apologies. Let’s just move on. I hated being a fraud. I hated harboring those feelings for my best friend. I hated turning inward to indulge in fantasies, however rarely I allowed it.
“It’s okay.” I rose from my seat and sat Casper on the floor with a couple toys, and then I walked over to Sandra and gathered her in my arms.
I did love her in my own way. I was protective of her and loathed seeing her insecure. She’d been so energetic and outgoing when we’d met—to the point where I had been the mellow one. And that was fucking bananas. But I wasn’t going anywhere. I had vowed to spend the rest of my life with her, and that was what I was gonna do.
Sandra sniffled and squeezed my middle. “I’m sick of feeling like an outsider, but I know it’s not on you. I know you try to include me.”
I really did.
She peered up at me, and I brushed my thumbs under her eyes. “Yesterday, I saw Haley posted a photo of you and her on Insta, and I started obsessing—wondering if there was more than—”
“Don’t even,” I choked out. Oh my God, I wanted to laugh. The mere thought. Holy fucking shit. “Honey, she’s like my sister.”
“I know,” she whined. “I don’t know why I get this way.”
Christ, Haley? I adored the woman, but we had nothing but sibling-like banter between us.
“Maybe because you never show up.” I had to remind her, and she needed to hear it. Whenever Nikki stopped by the house, during work hours, I texted Sandra and asked her to join us. It could be lunch or coffee in the afternoon or pizza for when we worked late—and even though Jake and I were balls deep in work mode, those days forged us together just a bit more. He and I could sit on the patio and discuss travel dates while Nikki and Haley were in the pool with the kids. Stuff like that.
Those moments mattered.
“It would mean the world to me if you made more of an effort to become a part of our misfit family,” I admitted. I combed my fingers through her hair and then cupped her face. “I think we all kinda got off on the wrong foot before. They were under the impression we were breaking up, and then I came home and announced our engagement and that we were expecting a baby.” Maybe not in that order. “I’ll talk to them, you know. It’s not all on you. But they have absolutely nothing against you—just so you know. You just have to take the first step and come to us, hon. You have to join us. They’re my family too, and you should be part of it.”
She sniffled once more and nodded. “You’re right. I’ll always feel like I’m missing something if I keep alienating myself.”
A rush of relief swept through me, and I hugged her to me.
This was good. If I could just unite our two families, maybe I could have the best of both worlds. We could wrap up a day with a barbecue at the pool every now and then instead of always coming home to a quiet dinner with stilted conversation. Sandra and I didn’t have too much in common; she wasn’t a big fan of hearing about filming, and I didn’t give two shits about her girlfriends and what cosmetic surgery they’d had done that week. Or which snobby restaurant’s server they’d found rude.
CHAPTER 2
2016
“You’re Off Topic with Roe Finlay and Jake Denver. I’m Roe, and Jake’s giving me shit for freaking out about turning twenty-nine today,” I said.
Jake grinned and leaned back in his seat across the table. “You big baby. Try turnin’ thirty-three.”
No, thanks. I was good.
Since our birthdays were like four days apart, we’d hosted a combined celebration this weekend, and I was still a little hungover. I wouldn’t mind postponing my next birthday at least five years.
“I remember when I was a teenager and thought my cousins were so old,” I chuckled. “I think I called Cullen a granddaddy when he was twenty-nine or thirty.” But that’d been old to a…whatever I’d been at the time, thirteen or fourteen? My memories from that period were hazy.
“I reckon now’s the perfect time to apologize to him on air,” Jake proposed, amusement dancing in his eyes. Fucker. “You should obviously include Angus since he’s older than Cullen.”
“Or we just go off topic and get our frustrations out about schedules being fucking impossible to keep in this town,” I suggested smoothly. “We have a lot of viewers and listeners in the film industry, so apologies to the rest of you when we get ranty about Tinseltown.”