Series: Lee Savino
Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 66414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
“What do you want me to do?” I snarl. “She asked me not to contact her.”
“I want you to be worthy of her.”
I say nothing. I’m not. I never was.
Axel shakes his head and walks to the door. He opens it and turns to look at me. “Get your head out of your ass, Matthias. Maisy needs you, whether she admits it or not.”
It’s a full bear-roar that comes out of my throat as he shuts the door. I shove up from the chair and pace the room, considering Axel’s words.
He might be right, but I’m not going to railroad her into this mating. It’s the one thing I promised myself from the start. Maybe it’s how I got myself into this mess, but I have integrity. I will keep this vow.
For her.
Maisy Maisy Maisy—
I’m losing control, and I don’t know what to do.
The memory of her innocent New Year’s resolution list scrawled in neat, hopeful writing flashes in my mind:
Glow up
Dr. appointment for PCOS
Plan DD expansion
Set boundaries with Allen
Stand up for yourself!!! You can do it!
Go on a date
* * *
My eyes burn as I let out a bitter laugh. Well, my sweet, beautiful mate completed all of them, including standing up for herself.
Good for her.
Maybe I should make a New Year’s resolution list.
I grab a sheet of paper. My fingers have long, curved claws–my bear taking over. It takes me a few tries to get them to retract. Finally, I grab a big, black, permanent marker and hold it in my palm to write. My scrawl fills the whole page, but that’s okay. I only need to write out one thing:
Get Maisy back.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Maisy
After a restless night, I wake up at five am.
Like it’s an ordinary day in an ordinary week, and my biggest problems are getting to the cafe on time to prep before opening.
Like I didn’t just get married last week and have my heart broken in Vegas.
I’ve laid low for a few days, bed-rotting and watching holiday movies with Missy, but now I need to get back to some form of normalcy. So I get up and get ready for work. I can help prep and then hide in the back once Jenny comes in to run the morning shift with one of our part-timers.
Valentine’s day is coming up, and normally I’d be planning all sorts of themed drinks and hauling out our heart-and-daisy-chain decorations to give the cafe’s seating area a pop of red, but this year, I wish I could hit a button and disappear the entire holiday. For everyone.
Maybe I should take Missy up on her offer and move to L.A. I’d have to start over, but working mindless hours might help me forget Matthias.
Who am I kidding? I’ll never forget this.
My time with him was the happiest of my life. What hurts is that it wasn’t real.
I walk down the snowy road to the cafe, crunching the ice beneath my boots. The cold nips at my nose and the tips of my ears. In the pre-dawn dark, the snow seems to glow.
There’s a rustling in the woods by me, and I stop and peer through the leaves. Is someone there?
But no, it’s probably just a wild animal. A fox, a squirrel. This early, no one’s out. No one except a certain young doctor, returning from a hospital shift…No, I’m not going to think about him.
The bell over the door jingles when I enter the cafe. Normally the daisy-themed decor would cheer me up, but right now, it's too bright. Too much.
I head right to the back and get to work pulling stuff out of the freezer, turning on the oven and pulling the sheets of scones out of the refrigerator that Ryan prepped the night before, so Jenny can bake them in the morning.
The front door jingles, and someone calls, “Maisy?”
I frown. It’s too early for Jenny to be in, and that sounded like my grandmother.
It is Daisy. She’s at the front door, stomping her boots on the mat to shake the snow off them. Then she heads right to the thermostat and cranks it up.
“What are you doing here?”
Daisy isn’t a morning person, and she hasn't covered a dawn shift in years. I made a point of taking over this as soon as she trusted me with opening on my own.
“Good morning. Good to see you up and about.” She gives me a smile that softens her brisk tone. She wanted me to take time off, so I shouldn’t feel guilty about wallowing for the past few days. “I texted Jenny yesterday and gave her the morning off. Figured she could use a break since she’s been covering for you, and you do the work of six people.”
“I don’t–”
“You do. It’s time we all recognized that. Come here.” She heads to the office, beckoning me to follow her. “I have something to show you.”