Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76713 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to let her go again.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Traveler
I hadn’t given my plan much thought past Get to Navesink Bank.
I had no address for August.
I had no phone to try to look it up myself.
All I had was a vague memory of him saying he was looking for a house, which made me think he had an apartment, and that he once made a comment about him having a view of the river.
With that in mind, I drove toward the river, finding exactly two apartment complexes only. One seemed small and cramped and less expensive. The other was new, shiny, and costly-looking.
I could see him there with all the stucco and glass.
I took the jug handle and pulled into the lot, making my way toward the front doors, finding some fancy-ass new fangled intercom system with a camera and digital screen.
I moved my finger to the log of residents, finding the name Grassi listed there.
I was about to press the button when the door flew open.
I rushed in that direction, catching the door before it could close, then making a beeline for the elevator. For once, not even giving it a second thought, finding myself too consumed with different anxieties.
“Come on come on come on,” I grumbled as the elevator car climbed slowly before finally stopping on the top floor.
Rushing out, I made my way toward the number associated with his name on the log below.
He barely got the door open before I flew at him.
I hadn’t realized how close to breaking I was until he was there to try to hold me together.
When I finally calmed down, and August went to get me a drink for my sore throat, I started to look around.
The inside of the apartment was much like the outside.
Modern.
Kind of sterile.
Not a whole lot of personality.
Don’t get me wrong, his furniture was nice. And, knowing him, expensive. But it was all devoid of personal touches, anything that told you what August was like.
I was sitting on the short side of a large sectional in an airy living space. A framed TV was on the wall, and I wouldn’t have known it was a TV at all if not for the fact that the art on it had shifted when I was looking at it.
Across from the living space was the bedroom, the door open, so I spied the bottom of the bed.
I couldn’t see past the half wall that cut off the living space and the kitchen/dining area, but I could hear the rumble of August’s voice as he called Aurelio and his cousin.
I probably should have asked more questions about said cousin. I’d been a little too overwhelmed to think straight.
But with a bracingly strong cup of coffee in my hands, my brain was starting to work right again.
The sound of footsteps moved down the hall a few minutes later, making me tense, but August just rubbed my thigh.
“It’s Aurelio,” he said.
“Right,” I agreed as he got up to open the door.
It wasn’t just Aurelio who walked in, though. Behind him was an equally as tall and handsome man, albeit a bit younger. The familial resemblance was clear. The same bone structure, hair, eyes.
This had to be one of Aurelio’s brothers.
If my memory of their family tree served me right, this had to be Milo. The “baby.”
“Angel,” Aurelio said, voice tight as his gaze moved over me.
“I’m okay,” I assured him, even if all the pains around my body seemed to be intensifying by the moment. “Hey, Milo,” I greeted the other man standing a few feet back in an all-black suit.
“As the handsomest Grassi, I’m not surprised my reputation precedes me,” Milo said with a charmingly devilish smile.
“I’m sorry if my presence is pulling you away from something important.”
“Hey, this gets me out of helping my sister haul mulch tomorrow,” he said.
“Smush?” I asked.
“Elisa,” he corrected.
She was the girl Grassi that I knew the least about.
“Don’t worry, Lucky will do it,” Milo said. “Is something burning?” he asked, taking a deep breath.
It was right then that all of us smelled it too.
“Shit,” August said, starting to stand, but Aurelio was already striding toward the kitchen. “My ma made me a lasagne. I was heating it up when you came in.”
Despite the insanity of this night, my stomach still grumbled at its emptiness as I raised the coffee cup to my lips, taking a long drink, hoping it would suppress my appetite for a while.
“That’s gotta be Lettie,” Milo said when a buzzer sounded in the room, making me jump so hard that I spilled coffee onto my hands.
Walking over, he buzzed her up, then opened the door to the hall, holding it open as a gorgeous dark-haired woman moved in with a big duffle bag.
“Thanks for coming, Lettie,” August said, standing.