Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36689 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
I’m ready for my life to just be about me. Well, me and Molly and Milo. The three of us are a family.
“Climb in. Watch your head.” The tour guide yells, gesturing for me to enter the helicopter.
Beside me, Cord is stone still, and I nudge him with my elbow. “Do you still want to go up?”
He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, the way I do when I see thunderstorms in the forecast. I think maybe he’s going to tell me that he’s afraid of heights. But to my surprise, he nods and follows me into the helicopter. The guide points out all the natural sights, talking to us through the headsets.
But the entire time, Cord is quiet and unmoving. Finally, I put my hand on his thigh and he looks at me.
“I’m here,” I say knowing the pilot and tour guide can hear us through the headsets, but I don’t care. All I care about is comforting this big, strong man who’s been so sweet to me. He seems to relax at my touch and words.
When we’re back on the ground, I notice his hands are shaky, so I thank the tour guide for our experience then I look at him. “I’m kind of tired. Do you mind if we order in some room service at the villa?”
Back at the villa, we order in burgers and stream a movie. Well, we start streaming it. We get maybe halfway through it before we’re touching each other and making love all over again.
“You seem sad,” he says after when I’m lying next to him in an exhausted, sweaty heap. Every time I think it can’t get better and hotter between us, he goes and proves me wrong.
“Just missing Molly and Milo,” I say quickly. Technically, our honeymoon is supposed to continue for another two days, but I’ve already booked my return flight. He just doesn’t know that yet.
“You’ll see them soon,” he reassures me with a grin.
“I know,” I murmur and put my head against his chest. I want to soak up every last minute that we have together, and I don’t want to think about how I’m leaving in the morning.
Chapter 8
Mira
“And what are you going to tell your dad when he asks about it?” Ronnie pushes. Brock and Branson are playing in the living room here in my townhouse. Molly and Milo are in my bedroom, probably hiding from the hyper boys.
Getting on that plane and leaving Cord behind was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But I knew it would be even harder if I stayed those extra two days. As it was, my flight was the usual seventeen hours, then Ronnie picked me up from the airport.
After a terrible night’s sleep in my own bed on a new mattress that I asked my assistant to have delivered, I’m exhausted. I keep telling myself that nothing has changed, but it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like my heart is in a villa next to a cowboy whose touch sets me on fire.
I square my shoulders and finish brewing the tea for her. “I’ll tell him the truth.”
“He’ll be crushed,” she answers.
I shrug. I’ve already put all my vacation clothes in the wash, cleaned the place from top to bottom and prepared three weeks’ worth of dinners that I set in the freezer. I was shocked when I arrived home to discover that Stuart had moved out completely. There wasn’t a trace that he’d ever lived here. I expected that he’d try to insist he has legal rights since he’s been staying over frequently in the months before the wedding. I thought I’d have to fight him through the court system to get him evicted. But he just vanished into the mist, and I’m so relieved.
“What exactly happened?” Ronnie asks. She’s been patient with me, asking very few questions, and I haven’t given her many details. She only asked if he’d hurt me, and I told her absolutely not.
“He was amazing, in every way,” I tell her now, putting her tea on the table. I have to step around the yellow paint cans. I’ve been planning on painting the kitchen for almost three months now and still haven’t done it yet.
“But you came home without him. Two days early from your honeymoon. No one does that, Mira,” she points out. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I take a seat across from her, not sure how to put all of this in words. “He’s…the kind of guy you dream about. Sweet, caring, and…” I glance toward the kids but they’re busy having fun and not paying us any attention. “S-e-x-y as hell in bed. The things he did…”
“And you thought the best response to this amazing, perfect guy you met was to run away?” The question is asked in a gentle tone, but it still cuts me deeply. If I expected anyone to understand, it’s Ronnie. She’s been through the ringer. She knows what it’s like when things just won’t work out. It’s why she hasn’t dated in a while. It’s why I purchased one of the cowboys from the Cuddle a Cowboy website for her. Every woman deserves a cowboy for her birthday, and she did say she wanted something fun to ride.