Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72028 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72028 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 360(@200wpm)___ 288(@250wpm)___ 240(@300wpm)
“Well, from what I understand, this place started out a lot like The Hideout.” He shifted so he was facing her. So it was easy to lean over and brush his lips against her shoulder.
Her family had put a wall up between them, and he had to find a way to break it down. He’d been certain crying would help shake those walls, but he worried she’d rebuilt them.
“Well, it’s beautiful now. I suppose that’s what matters,” she said. “It’s just weird to be here. Like something forbidden.”
“I’ve been to this club, though I don’t remember it.”
She looked his way finally, curiosity in her green eyes. “I didn’t know you spent much time in Dallas. I mean I know you came to visit over the years, but we mostly visited you.”
He’d been told the story, though it wasn’t one he shared often. It felt right to share it with her. He eased down so he could lay his head on her lap, feel her soft skin against his cheek. “My mum got into a spot of trouble. A bit like you have. She was trying to help someone and it caught the attention of some very bad blokes. I was only a few months old. Mum went on the run and came to the place where she felt safest.”
Her hand came to his head, fingers starting to play in his hair as though she couldn’t stop herself from touching him. “She went to my mom.”
“She did,” Nate replied. “She came to Dallas looking for help, and a day or two later my father showed up. He was standing in the daycare room at the McKay-Taggart building when he found out I existed.”
“Really?” The hand on his head moved in soothing strokes. “He didn’t know? He wasn’t there when you were born?”
He felt like a big tiger being utterly tamed by a kitten. “Nope. He’d been a dumb arse who decided he wasn’t good enough for my mum, and so they had a one-night stand and he left. She tried to contact him, but he wouldn’t take her calls,” Nate explained. “So, yeah, he wasn’t there when I was born. He didn’t know I existed until he walked into the McKay-Taggart building and I was in the daycare. Adam Miles still complains about his back because my tough old dad fainted dead away at the sight of me.”
A chuckle came from her. “Oh, now I understand what Uncle Adam means when he says Australia fell on him. I always thought it was some weird metaphor. So let me guess. They decided to stash your mom here.”
“Bingo.”
She leaned over, looking down into his eyes. “Did they fall in love all over again right here?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t think it was easy. My mum… You know her history, right?”
Daisy’s expression fell. “Yes. I know. I know your mom was in an accident with mine when they were young, and that’s how my sister died along with Mom’s first husband.”
“And your mum found a way to forgive her and saved her life. I’m here today because of Avery O’Donnell’s boundless love. But her love couldn’t fix my mum’s guilt. It took something else to do that. She was ready to reject my father’s love because she didn’t think she was worthy of it. She was ready to let me go live with him. And then your da got stung by a bee.”
At the mention of her father, her hand retreated, and she went slightly stiff. “My da is very allergic to bees. Everyone jokes with him, but Mom saw it once and still shudders when she thinks about it.”
He was glad she didn’t remember that day. “My mom saved him, and what she realized was she wouldn’t have been there to save him if she hadn’t been on the road that night. She wouldn’t have learned what she needed to know, wouldn’t have had the skills to save him. Daisy, do you know why I’m telling you this?”
She shook her head.
He sat up. This was a conversation where they had to be face to face. “Because I’m not my dad. I need you to understand I don’t question fate. I don’t sit around and wonder if I’m good enough. I will make myself good enough for you.”
“Nate,” she began.
“No, don’t Nate me. I told you. You made your choice. If I thought for a second you pulling away from me had anything to do with your heart, I would step back. But this isn’t about your heart. You were perfectly happy before your father made an arse of himself. This is about you being worried he’s going to see you differently. He will, and it’s about bloody time, Dais.”
She sniffled. “You don’t understand.”
His heart ached, but he wasn’t going to let her continue down this road. “Don’t understand what? Being the kid in the family who doesn’t seem to have some awesome destiny? Who isn’t clearly talented? I do understand that. Since the day Elodie started to dance, I knew she was more talented, more driven than me, and therefore had a whole lot of our parents’ attention. That’s what it’s like to be the sibling who isn’t gifted.”