Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“From my perspective, the long hair and longer beard take way more grooming time than shaving. Why’re you here this morning?” I asked, and turned, balancing my ass on the railing, so I was facing her.
“Mr. Wallace, I believe…” She handed me his business card. “Had to leave for another appointment, but will call you,” she explained and grinned broader. “He’s going to call me too.”
“Other than being my apparent assistant, why are you here?” I asked again in the calm way she produced inside me.
“I think you need to go to Texas. Send Tommy back here to deal with all this.” She reached for my thigh, the only part of me she could reach from her seat, and patted me there. “You need to be around people who love you. Here, you only have me.” She pointed her other perfectly manicured fingernail at my face. “This isolation thing you always do needs to end. You fought for a better world for yourself and you’re winning. Go be happy in it.”
Hmm. I stared at her until I couldn’t any longer and shifted my gaze to the intricate design on the woven rug at our feet.
“Gray believes I’m being selfish. I think I might not have the faith in myself that I pretend to have.” The words were incredibly difficult to say aloud. I wanted Mace like I’d never wanted anything before in my life.
She snapped her fingers together, that manicured fingernail pointing at me again. “Ding, ding, ding. When the show let you go, it was what you wanted, but the old feelings…” She circled her finger in the air as if prompting me to finish my line.
“Surfaced and sucked me into all my self-doubt. I need a professional counselor.”
She nodded even though I’d been half kidding about the counselor.
“You do, and you need to do that with Mace by your side.” She splayed her hands wide in self-satisfaction. “Viola.”
Although I understood her and perhaps agreed to a certain extent, it was going to take me a minute or two… or ten years to deal with my trauma. “I want him like I’ve never wanted anything in my life, but I can’t shake what I’ve done to him.”
“What did you do?” she asked as if I was crazy. “You helped him build his life back? You started the sanctuary that never would have happened with the way he’d isolated himself? You found a new road in life that includes a man to love and love you back? Do I go on because I can.”
I’d never considered how much Mace and I were alike. She wasn’t wrong. I had isolated too. That man was everything I’d ever wanted in life. His comfort and warmth, his handsome face and beautiful body, his easy grin after I spent hours trying to coax it out…
She took my hand, leaning toward me. “You and I got along so well for so long I forget that, ultimately, you’re a hardheaded shortsighted man.”
I grinned at her assessment. She grinned and bent forward, kissing my knuckles.
“If for some reason, you’re still trying to work out what you should do next? Go to him right now.”
The front doorbell rang, sending a cascade of chimes throughout the house. Outside of me on occasion, no one used those doors. My back tensed and I stood to my feet. I couldn’t imagine whoever was there came for something positive. It could be the police, letting me know they were finally parking a cruiser at my gate.
“I’ll get it, Mr. Slade,” my housekeeper called from the back of the house.
“I got it,” I called back and started down the sweeping set of stairs. If I chose to open the door, the people at the gate with their telephoto lenses would catch it all. Maybe they wouldn’t recognize me without the beard. If they did, I’d be showing the world exactly who I was now, moving forward. No skin off my nose. My steps picked up until I hit the bottom floor in a jog. I was ready to begin my new life.
I yanked the door open wide, my senses instantly stunned. My heart locked onto Mace before my gaze could make out the truth of him standing there. His uncertain stare drank me in like I was certainly drinking him in. I reacted only on instinct, stepping out onto the front porch as he came forward. I took him in my arms, drawing him flush against my body. I buried my face in the crook of his neck.
He was home, my home.
“You’re here.”
His arms tightened around me, his sweet lips pressing against my neck.
My love was here.
“I was afraid you didn’t want me anymore,” he said, his voice husky and rich. Tingles shot over me, the sudden rush left me lightheaded. His hands tightened into fists, taking my dress shirt with them.