Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
I felt Javi straighten beside me.
“Easton,” was all I could force out.
“Since you’re not responding to texts or voicemails, thought I’d find you personally to thank you for fucking up my birthday,” he announced.
I felt Javi get super, double, crazy pissed beside me.
Easton didn’t miss it, and even if Javi was about two of Easton, that didn’t mean Easton hesitated even a second to look at him and ask, “You the caveman that hijacked Dad at work?”
Ummmmmmmm…
Unh-unh.
No way.
I stood. “Maybe we should talk somewhere else.”
“Why?” Easton returned. “Your caveman waltzed right up to Dad’s receptionist and demanded to see him. Tit for tat, Harlow.” He threw out an arm. “You don’t want this going down at your work, you should have brought your boy to heel.”
I didn’t need How to Handle Alpha classes to know you didn’t say stuff like that about an alpha with that alpha right there.
I knew I was correct in this when I heard a growl, some other scary noises, chairs scraping, I sensed people shifting.
But, because it was more urgent even than all of that, I was focused on what was happening inside me.
Something was dying.
No, something had been dying for a really long time, and now it was just…
Dead.
My brother didn’t even allow me to introduce him to my boyfriend. The man I was falling in love with. The man I’d talked kids with. The man I was doubling up on life stuff to share houses with.
My brother probably spent the last hour tracking me down just to be crappy to me. He made great money and could be doing practically anything on a sunny Sunday in Phoenix, but what he chose to do was find me just to be mean to me and bring rain to darken my bright day.
God, that thing was so dead.
I knew it was something I wouldn’t mourn, because it had never been mine in the first place.
It was the fact I wouldn’t mourn it that was so very sad.
Easton, being Easton, didn’t know that he’d delivered the death blow to something crucial in me.
He just kept talking.
“Mom was a mess. It was clear she and Dad had a fight before they showed at the restaurant. For your information, they’ve been fighting a lot lately. He’s been up in her face about contacting you to work things out, when it should be you reaching out to apologize. It was tense. Not one of us enjoyed the evening. All thanks to you.”
“Baby,” Javi whispered sinisterly in my ear.
A warning.
Shut Easton down, or he would.
I turned to him and looked him right in the eye.
He blinked at what he saw.
“It’s okay,” I assured.
He looked hard at me like he needed to believe what he was seeing.
Then, in a much different whisper, he said, “Spine of steel.”
Jessie, however, didn’t hear us.
“You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” she asked Easton.
“Are you in this conversation?” Easton drawled sarcastically.
“I’m aware you think the world revolves around you, jackass,” Jessie retorted, earning Eric putting his hand on the small of her back, probably to tell her to butt out, but I knew no way my bestie was going to stand for Easton being a dick to me. On the best of days, she could barely stomach him. Easton hunting me down to be mean was a no-go. “But there are, like, twenty people sitting here having lunch and cocktails, and you walked right up and got in her shit, with her real family sitting right here. So what did you expect?”
“Her real family?” Easton snarled.
“She didn’t hesitate to meet us for lunch when we made plans just about two hours ago, but she sure was nowhere near Le Amé last night,” Luna pointed out.
Easton scowled at Luna.
I sat down and reached for my paloma.
“Harlow, I’m talking to you,” Easton dismissed the others and snapped at me.
I looked up at him and said calmly, “The reason I didn’t reply to your texts or voicemails is because I’ve blocked you. Before the day is through, I’ll block Mom and Dad too. Please don’t worry about Javi visiting you at work or home or anywhere. It’s done with us. He doesn’t need to.”
Easton’s brows hit his hairline, which I just then noticed was receding. “It’s done with us?”
I took a sip of my paloma and said, “Yep.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Easton demanded.
“Funny how much educatin’ these doctors get, but they get their big degrees and still don’t know English,” Shanti quipped as she and the rest of the troop, feeling my vibe, also took their seats.
Easton stepped closer to me, probably to get my attention, but now I was dipping my Mexican eggroll in green chili.
“I won’t be trackin’ you down to have a word,” Javi said dangerously. “But you get one step closer to my woman right now, I’ll be hauling your ass out the door.”