Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
When we finally reached our turn, I pulled off the road, drove up to the gated house, and entered the code. The gates slowly withdrew to reveal the Percy property. I’d long since given up on being awed by the extravagance of the Upper East Side, but this house was giant, even for a Texas home. In the Hamptons, it had to be worth tens of millions.
I parked out front and popped the trunk. Whitley took her time, surveying the house as I dragged our two suitcases out of the back. I snapped the trunk shut, and she jolted back to reality.
“I can take mine.” She held her hand out.
“Don’t worry about it. Get the door.”
She jogged forward and pushed open the enormous door that led into a foyer. Katherine and Camden must not have been too far in front of us because there was still staff running around, preparing rooms and finishing their dusting. Katherine looked annoyed as she held her son, Beckett, in her arms. Their two-year-old daughter, Helena, was the spitting image of her mother. She held the hand of their nanny and turned with excited eyes as Whitley and I came inside.
“Aunt Whit!” Helena said, throwing herself into Whitley’s arms.
“Hey, punkin.” Whitley hoisted her up onto her hip and bounced her. “How are you getting this big? I can barely hold you.”
“Tell me about it,” Katherine grumbled. “They both are growing so fast. That’s what I get for having Camden’s giant children.”
Helena just beamed. “I’m so big because I have a giant brain, and I’m going to be a genius.”
“Is that so?” Whitley asked. “What are you going to do with your genius? Are you going to be a doctor like your aunt Whit?”
Helena wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like blood.”
“Oh, that is a requirement generally.”
“I could be an astronaut!”
“You could,” Whit agreed.
Camden stepped into the foyer like a thunderstorm with a phone pressed to his ear. He waved at us and then kissed his wife. “Can you handle the rest of this? I have to take this call.”
“Of course.”
“Daddy!” Helena called.
Camden grinned, taken with his daughter. He pressed a kiss to her cheek as well and then disappeared down the hall. Helena’s bottom lip stuck out as her daddy left.
“Daddy should come play!” Helena decided.
Katherine smoothed her dark hair. “Daddy has to work. You can go play with Nanny Kimberly or see if you can cajole Aunt Whit into it.”
Helena dropped down, wobbly on her two feet, and looked between Kimberly and Whit. “Both!”
Kimberly smiled at us. She was young, maybe her early twenties at most, with shoulder-length blonde hair and kind, clear eyes. She didn’t seem to be the kind of person Katherine would be okay with hiring.
“I can take her upstairs. You don’t have to come,” Kimberly told Whitley.
“I want to.” Then, Whitley had Helena’s hand in hers, and they traipsed upstairs.
“All right,” Kimberly said. “Would you like me to take Beckett too?”
Katherine shook her head. “I’ll hold him. He’s almost asleep anyway. If I disturb him, who knows if he’ll go down?”
“As you wish.” Then, she followed Whitley and Helena upstairs.
“She seems nice,” I told her. “A little pretty for a nanny position.”
Katherine shot me a devilish grin. “Are you insinuating that my husband has wandering eyes?”
“Not if he wants to keep all of his limbs.”
Katherine’s smile only widened. “Well, at least you know me. Anyway, Camden has never had interest in the help. Unlike some people.” Her face was suddenly furious, and then it disappeared when she looked down at her son. She ran her hand over his tuft of hair. “I trust him.”
Which was bold, considering their past problems. But I was happy for them. They seemed to be doing better than ever.
“And you and Whitley?” Katherine asked. “Are you keeping your hands to yourself?”
“With Whitley? Definitely not. She’s in my bed every night.”
“Good. Keep it that way, King. Or you’ll find yourself without certain parts as well.”
I winced at those words. “No worries there.”
Katherine shot me an assessing look. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I told her at once.
“Hmm,” she said.
“What?”
“Whitley is going to need some convincing. She’s been hurt too many times by every person in her life. That laugh and the crazy stories are defense mechanisms. I hope you’ve realized that.”
She arched an eyebrow, and I nodded. I had noticed that. The bad girlfriend bit wasn’t even close to reality in the weeks we’d been together.
“Do you feel like you’re up to the task? Because if you hurt her …”
“I won’t.” I couldn’t even fathom it at this point. We were finally on the same page. I didn’t want to do anything to disrupt that. “I won’t,” I repeated more firmly.
Katherine nodded, taking that as the promise it was. “I’m going to try to get Beckett down. You have your regular room upstairs. We’ll head to the vineyard in a few hours. Feel free to use the house like it’s yours.”