Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Speaking of Red, she must have been home by now. I’d told her to text me, but I felt like hearing her voice, so I picked up the phone and dialed.
After a few rings, she answered. “Hey, Brock.”
She sounded down.
“Hey. Just checking to make sure you got home okay.”
“Unfortunately, no. I’m stuck in traffic. It’s been stop and go most of the way here. There are tons of accidents because of the weather. It’s dark and rainy now, and I have another fifteen miles to go. At this rate, it could still take hours.”
“Aw, baby, I’m sorry. What a long day for you.”
“That’s what I get for driving. I should’ve just flown. It would’ve been a short flight. The drive up was great. Used it to clear my head. But the ride back is just torture.”
“I wish I was with you. I’d drive so you could rest.”
“You know what I wish?” she asked.
“What?”
“I wish I could go back to the night I spent on your couch in front of the fire with Oak on my lap. I’d give anything to be in that cozy spot right now.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. “That was a damn good night. Not quite as good as last night, but a close second.”
“Absolutely nothing tops last night,” she agreed. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.”
“Me neither, beautiful.” I groaned, remembering the ecstasy of being inside of her.
“Will you stay on the phone with me for a bit?”
I was supposed to be working the bar, but heck, I owned the place and made the rules. I temporarily stopped service and retreated to the back room, where I stayed on the phone with February for the next hour.
After we hung up, I vowed to follow through with my promise to attend the wedding with her. She hadn’t mentioned it again, and I wondered if maybe she didn’t actually want me to go. But heck, I had a tux on order, and I couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing her again. So I needed to make it happen. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.
Damn, that’s corny.
It’s been a long day.
I was just about to close down the bar when my brother Maddox walked in.
“Hey, dude. What are you up to?” I asked.
He beamed. “I got the best freaking news today.”
“Well, it just so happens I could use some good news. What you got?”
“Wait, what’s wrong?” His brow furrowed.
“February left today.”
“Shit. That’s right. Trevor told me.” He patted me on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“What’s going on with you?” I asked.
“The insurance finally approved my surgery. They set a date for the operation.”
I felt myself smile. “That’s amazing, man!”
Maddox had been dealing with an old sports injury for some time now, and it had been impeding his ability to work his construction job. While he owned part of the business, he did a lot of hands-on work, too.
“You still good to fill in for me at the site while I’m out of commission?” he asked.
“Yeah. Of course. Anything you need.”
“That really means a lot, man.”
“Anytime.”
“And I can count on you to pick me up from the hospital and shit? Take me back to your place until I can recover? I hate asking you to do that, but it’ll be easier than you having to come to my house with Oak.”
“Yeah. Whatever. Don’t worry about it. When did they schedule your operation?”
“Well, they had one opening and said if I didn’t take it, I’d have to wait two months. So it was a no-brainer. The surgeon is super booked. It’s on a Friday, two weeks from yesterday.”
“Cool.”
But almost as soon as I’d said that, I realized what that Friday was.
The weekend of the wedding in New York.
CHAPTER 16
* * *
February
“I’m getting divorced.”
I shook my head with a chuckle as my assistant walked into my office. Oliver had on a purple-checkered three-piece suit with a hot pink tie and matching hanky. His thick, horn-rimmed glasses sat on top of his head.
“Good morning to you, too. And you shouldn’t throw stuff like that out into the universe. No one else would put up with you.”
He slumped into the guest chair on the other side of my desk. “I sat on the gosh darn porcelain this morning, and it was cold and wet!”
My nose wrinkled. “What are we talking about here? And I wish you would start cursing again already. Gosh darn sounds bizarre coming out of your mouth.”
“Antonio used my bathroom. And no, I’m no longer a truck driver. This is the new me. I speak like an aristocrat now.”
“With a Brooklyn accent…”
The week before I left for Sierra Wellness Center, Oliver and I had showed next year’s spring handbag line at a fashion show. We were backstage rushing to get things ready when the one and only Donatella Versace had walked in. Oliver hadn’t noticed her enter the room and was busy barking curses at a vendor who’d shown up late with one of the outfits a model was supposed to wear. Donatella was gracious and complimented our line, but before she left, she told Oliver he was handsome but would be even more so if he didn’t use such foul language.