Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Her eyebrow shot up, but she didn’t pull her hand away from his, and her body stayed relaxed against him. Trusting. He didn’t deserve her trust, not yet, but he was determined that he would.
“A few hours?” she repeated, staring straight into his eyes.
He could fall into all that vivid green and just live there. She was mesmerizing. “Yeah. I don’t like admitting I’m that big of a dick, but I made it clear going in that I wouldn’t be sticking around.”
“You know they didn’t believe you.”
“They believed me, but they didn’t want to. They mostly tried to convince me that we would be good together.”
“But you didn’t think so.”
“Honey, seriously? They sought me out, but they didn’t know the first thing about who I am or what I do. They only knew I was a doctor in the service, and they liked how I looked. There are a lot of women who like to marry servicemen. Doctors are at a premium. Not one of them took the time to have a conversation with me. It wasn’t like they cared enough to find out who I am.”
“They weren’t very intelligent,” she pointed out. “Why be with someone if you aren’t going to be best friends and have a relationship where you communicate? Where you like that person? Shouldn’t a relationship be like that?” Her fingers tightened around his.
“It matters to me what you think. What kind of relationship would you like?” He felt as if he were holding his breath. Everything in him went utterly still. Waiting for the crash. Waiting to be told a man like him would never stand a chance with her.
“When I think about having a husband and family, which, in all honesty, I didn’t ever believe could happen to me, I know I want us to be best friends first. I want to laugh with him all the time. If we have children, I want their father to laugh with me at their antics. My parents were like that. Always together. Always laughing. My dad would dance my mother around the kitchen. Or the living room. Music was always playing in our house, and he would just catch her around the waist and spin her around and then pull her close. The way they looked at each other was priceless.”
“What were you doing when they danced together?” He wished he could have seen her as a young child in a happy home.
“Dancing with my sister. We’d all hold hands sometimes, or Dad would dance with me and Mom with Bridget.” She pressed her lips together, and he tightened his fingers around hers, wanting to comfort her. “I miss them every day.”
Did he miss his father? His mother? He missed his siblings but not his parents so much. He hadn’t thought about that, or why. He’d just tucked them away in a compartment in his mind and firmly closed and locked the door.
“Your parents sound like good people. Luther was that way with Lotty. We’d sneak down to visit her occasionally, and when Luther would show up, we’d just fade into the forest, but we always watched them together before we slunk off for home. Luther knew we were there, but it never stopped him from picking her flowers or sweeping her off her feet and carrying her into the house. Sometimes he did dance with her, and he sang. Don’t ever let on I told you that or he’d likely take my head off. He loved Lotty more than anything.”
“What was she like? She would have been my great-aunt.”
“Lotty didn’t have a mean bone in her body. No matter how long Luther was gone when he disappeared, she waited for him. She kept their little house perfect and comfortable for him. Everything was about him. And for him, everything was about her. When he was gone, and we always thought he was on a trip of some kind, something to do with his moonshine, Rubin and I hunted and fished for Lotty. Luther never left her without supplies, but we always checked on her. We liked being around her, and sometimes we’d sneak our sisters out. We’d bring them down here. At times we could convince my mother that Lotty needed the company, then it wasn’t so bad when we went back home.”
“My mother told me my grandmother admitted to saying horrible things to Luther after the war,” Leila said. “She was an activist, as were her friends. They all were very mean to Luther. She said the moment she hurled the insults at him, she regretted it, but she didn’t apologize right there in front of her friends as she should have. My mother told me to always think before speaking and never say things to a loved one you can’t take back. My grandmother never had the chance to apologize to him and make things right between them. He disappeared.”