Total pages in book: 199
Estimated words: 200280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1001(@200wpm)___ 801(@250wpm)___ 668(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1001(@200wpm)___ 801(@250wpm)___ 668(@300wpm)
Ledger, of course, is not happy.
He’s been grumbling about it ever since I told him my plan.
But it’s testament to the fact — yet again — how much he pampers me that he doesn’t refuse. He lets me take the lead. Which means I invite everyone: all his brothers, Reign, his friend, even Riot from his team with his little girl and all my St. Mary’s friends: Callie, Wyn, Poe, Jupiter and Echo. I also invite my brother, or rather have Callie invite him,- but he doesn’t show up. Callie says it’s because he’s busy at the garage but I know the real reason. He still hasn’t forgiven me for everything.
It makes my heart ache but I’m not going to think about that right now when I have other things to focus on.
Such as how Ledger is faring with his brothers.
They already had some clue about the cabin; Callie told me it was best to ease them into the information so she had a family meeting at her house — without Ledger, which bugged me because he’s just as much part of the Thorne family as the rest of them, but I understood — and told them about the cabin. And from what I hear, Shep was very mad and very vocal about it. Stellan was quiet and pensive. But Conrad was as vocal as Shep but in Ledger’s favor. And then they all had a long discussion about how unfair they’d all been to Ledger, with Conrad leading the charge in the blame.
And God, I’m ashamed to say but I broke down crying even before Callie had reached the end of it. I can’t even imagine what they all went through at the hands of their pathetic loser dad. And how my Ledger suffered for it even after their dad was gone, and he did it all alone.
Which makes me want to break down crying once again.
But I’ve got company and as I said, I need to focus.
Although my focus does waver with the arrival of this one unexpected guest.
Isadora Holmes.
Shepard’s infamous girlfriend, and well, Stellan’s not-so-secret secret crush.
“So this is her, huh,” Callie murmurs from beside me.
We’re standing at the picnic table that Ledger put together. It’s laden with all the food Callie and I made. Since we’re both fiends for cooking and baking, we didn’t let anyone else bring anything. Plus I know how much Ledger loves the things I make for him and so I wasn’t going to give him something cooked by someone else. Not today of all days.
“And she’s stunning,” Poe says. “I love her dress.”
She’s wearing a bohemian style chic maxi dress with a loose crochet cardigan. Her dark, wavy hair’s bound in a loose bun with a few tendrils framing her very exotic-looking face. Even if Shep hadn’t mentioned that she’s half South Asian — her mother was born and brought up in India — her almond-shaped eyes and her tanned complexion would’ve given her away.
And Poe is right; she is stunning, even more so than her dress.
“Well, she seems nice,” murmurs Echo, who’s standing on the other side of Callie.
When Callie glares at her though, Echo mouths sorry.
“Okay, fine,” Callie gives in. “So she does look nice. Which is really sad because I want to hate her.”
So far, she’s been really polite, if a little reserved. Probably because she doesn’t know anyone here except Shepard. Who, to his credit, is sticking close to her side.
“You could never hate her,” Poe says from beside me.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t think you’ve hated anyone in your life,” she says with a shrug.
“Oh, like you have?”
“Yeah. Alaric.”
Alaric Marshall is Poe’s ex-guardian and her current and forever boyfriend. The term, Poe says, he doesn’t like very much. Makes him feel like a teenager instead of a distinguished history professor in his mid-thirties. Which is exactly why Poe likes to use the term.
And yes, once upon a time, she did hate Alaric.
With a passion no less.
Until fate forced his way into her life as St. Mary’s interim principal, which is where their hate story changed into a love story. He’s not here today — he’s out of town for a guest lecture at a university in Chicago — but we can all safely say that he worships the ground Poe walks on and pampers his diva endlessly.
“Please,” Callie rolls her eyes, “that was just sexual tension, waiting to explode.”
“No it wasn’t,” Poe denies it. “Not in the beginning. In the beginning I really wanted to kill him.”
“And aren’t you glad that you didn’t?” Wyn chirps in from where she’s standing on the other side of Echo.
Poe smiles. “Yeah. Very, very glad.”
“You know what, guys,” Echo says. “I think we’re staring at her and it’s extremely rude.”
She is right though.
We’re all standing over here, single file, and staring at her like she’s some kind of a zoo animal. And while it was okay before — we were all shocked at her sudden appearance; no one had seen her before this and Shep never said that he was bringing a date — it’s not anymore.