Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 135652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135652 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
“What if I didn’t get it? This cake would be like a kick in the teeth,” he says quietly and stares at the amazingly decorated cake, if I do say so myself.
I place the cake on the counter and wrap my arms around his waist, “I knew you would.”
“Gwen, even I genuinely thought I wouldn’t. How could you have such faith in me?”
“Because you’re talented and amazing.” I tip my head back and wink at him. “You should have faith in yourself.”
“You spoil me,” he grins, his fingers squeezing my back for a moment. “Give me it.”
I serve two slices and hand him his, we make our way to the dining room and sit on the table. “Tell me everything,” I demand.
“Well, I do have some other news. Good and bad.”
Hmm… I don’t like bad news. “Bad first so the good can cheer me up afterwards.”
“Okay,” he swallows his mouthful of cake and laces his fingers beneath my chin. “You won’t be getting Caleb’s trust fund. Unfortunately due to you not being married at the time of his demise his money went to his next of kin. Which was my father and mother. Although, my solicitor informs me that we may be able to transfer the trust fund over to Dillan. We’ll just need proof that he’s Caleb’s.”
Well that just sucks. My face falls as I realise it doesn’t look like I’ll be leaving here any time soon. Not that I want to but it’d be nice to stand on my own two feet. It’s great that Dillan might get it though. I’ll never have to worry about affording his school expenses.
“What’s the good news?” Please be brilliant, life changing news.
“The store will be up and running in two weeks and I received my trust fund plus interest.” He pauses for a moment, I bite back the urge to squeal with delight. “So… I got you a gift.”
What? “That’s great, but you’ve already given me enough.”
“It’s mostly because I’ll be travelling a lot again, I want to open a second location if this store does well.” He runs his tongue across his lower lip and pulls out a single black key from his pocket with a BMW key chain. “I got you a car. It’s perfect for families and has a fix for the baby seat so you won’t have to strap his car seat in every time. You’ll need it if I’m away.”
I stare at the keys on the table between us, “I don’t think I can accept it.”
“Don’t over think it. Just say thank you Nathan, kiss me and try it out tomorrow.”
I giggle and stand. Taking a step towards him I lean down and press my lips to his ear, “Thank you Nathan.”
He grabs my arm before I can move away and pulls me onto his lap, making me squeal. “You didn’t kiss me.”
He’s right, I didn’t. I roll my eyes and move my mouth to his cheek, planting an extremely moist kiss below his cheekbone.
“You, are, disgusting,” he cringes playfully and wipes his cheek on his sleeve.
Dillan’s screeches sound through the baby monitor, I step back, ready to deal with him but Nathan guides me back to the chair and tells me to sit and that he’ll sort it. I thank him and clear the table as soon as he leaves the room.
When I’ve finished cleaning I take my usual spot on the couch in the room and listen to Nathan talk to Dillan through the baby monitor.
“You really need to start smiling soon, if I have to listen to your mummy play peekaboo one more time, I’m going to gag her,” I snort at his sweet baby talk tone. His threatening words sounding so none threatening and cheerful. “Although it’ll probably only get worse if you do smile at that. So do us both a favour and smile at something I enjoy.” I hear a gurgle come from Dillan and laugh with Nathan, even though he can’t hear me. “Good boy.” There’s a pause, I hear Nathan sigh before his tone becomes quiet and sad. “You look so much like your daddy it’s almost painful.” Pause. My breath hitches. Nathan rarely talks about Caleb and when he does it’s usually just a few words of agreement about something I’ve said. “Mummy loved your daddy very much. Uncle loved your daddy very much. I’m sorry you’ll never get to meet him, he would have loved you more than anyone and anything.”
I choke back a hiccup and turn the monitor off. This isn’t my conversation to listen to. It’s private and it’s their moment.
Wiping my eyes I quickly fire up my laptop and try to distract myself. Instead all I see is Caleb staring back at me from my desktop background. I touch his face with my finger tip and slam the screen down after a quiet moment. I can’t break down right now, Dillan needs me to keep it together.