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)
“No,” I said huskily.
Hearing my tone, he bent toward me again, this time getting closer.
“Better I save us all the hassle,” he said. “They never had me, I never had them, we’re not missing anything.”
I could disagree.
But I didn’t.
“Another part of it, mi pequeña, is my life will always be something I lived, and they didn’t. They lived something really fuckin’ different. And the gulf between what they had and what I didn’t is too massive to navigate.”
At that, I gulped, because I lived what they lived.
“This isn’t about you, baby. You aren’t my sister,”—his lips twitched—“thank fuck.”
“Thank eff,” I agreed.
He bent even closer and gave me a quick kiss before muttering against my lips, “My good girl.”
Whatever.
He pulled back a couple of inches. “So, to end, you do not have to confront that guy. I’m good.”
I still wanted to tell Austin Atherton to lay off.
But for now, I nodded.
“Seriously, Harlow, let it go,” he ordered.
Shoot!
“Okay, Javi,” I caved (maybe).
He also read the maybe, I knew when he stated, “The decision is made, and you met him, he saw you. He’s retreated for now, but no man alive would look at you and not know where I’m at with you. Especially after, no hesitation, you got between us and sent his ass packing. You go barreling in, stating my case, trying to get him to back off, it’s just gonna solidify what he already knows. I got something serious with a good woman. You think he’s not gonna wanna be a part of that? Get to know you? His son’s woman. The mother of his future grandkids.”
I gulped a lot harder that time.
Which meant I had to force out, “The mother of his future grandkids?”
His brows drew down ominously. “Are we not on the same page?”
He wanted me to have his children!
I definitely wanted a lot more time with just me and Javi (a lot more), but it had to be said, I wanted to bear his children.
We were totally on the same page.
Still.
“We haven’t talked kids, Javi.”
“How many you want?”
“No more than three.”
“Agreed,” he grunted. “So we just talked kids.”
I burst out laughing.
Javi wrapped an arm around my hips and pulled me close as I did, so he was all I could see when I stopped.
“You show up,” he said gently, “takin’ your man’s back…again…it’s gonna light an even bigger fire under him. More of his penance. He knows I got through it to a good life, a good woman, building a family, and he had no part in that and will continue to have no part in it.”
This was what he needed. This was what he decided. And he didn’t want me involved.
So I wasn’t going to get involved.
I dropped my phone to the bed so I could stroke his cheek. “Okay, Javi.”
“I’m telling you this because that’s my decision about my father, my family. I don’t have any doubts about it. I can’t tell the future. What I can say now is, it would shock the shit out of me some future me made a different decision.”
“Right,” I said when he stopped talking.
“And I’m not losing sleep over it,” he went on.
“Okay.”
“So if you don’t call your dad, or you decide you’re done with them, that the way they treated you is something you can’t get over, something you don’t want to put the energy into living with, you’re within your rights to scrape them off and be with the people you feel safe with.”
Ah.
Now I was with him on his arc.
“I’m not as far along as you are in figuring out where I’m at, honey,” I told him.
“And that’s okay too. For once in your life with that family of yours, this is gonna be about you, on your timeline, what you want, and it’s gonna go down how you want it.”
I was so totally having this man’s babies.
He let me go and sat back, before he declared, “So I’m gonna find your dad, have a word, and tell him to back the fuck off.”
I stared.
Then I hummed, “Ummm…”
He sipped and said casually, “No debate, babe. You’re callin’ the shots with this. And I’m making sure he knows you are.”
“Can I call the shots and ask you not to go confront my dad?” I requested.
“No,” he denied.
“Javi!” I snapped.
Suddenly, his coffee was down, my coffee was down, and I was astride his hips, my chest pressed to his, and his face was in mine.
Oh boy.
“I get you,” he growled. “I’m not letting you do what I’m gonna do. But my decision about my father is made. There’s nothing he can do about it. Yours isn’t. You need space. You need time to think. And you’re gonna get it without getting into some text shit or taking some phone call and having them wiggle into your head, fucking it up.”