Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Working through this is going to be a hard road to walk, but the journey will be worth it. There’s a therapist I have in mind. I’ll email his name and contact info later. Have you thought about what you’re going to do after Iron Gate?” Chloe asked. I’d been wondering the same thing too.
“Finish a book. Who knows, maybe even get the hell out of this city.” Lucas laughed, but I think he was serious, and I wanted to run away with him too.
“Might not be a bad idea,” his sister said. “Start over fresh and clear your mind.”
“I’m thinking of heading to Connecticut this afternoon. Taking Maggie and Esmé to meet Mom.” I tried not to jump up and down in my seat with excitement, especially since we were just bawling our eyes out, but I couldn’t stop myself.
“I’d love to meet your mother.”
“She’s going to love you,” Lucas said with a reassuring smile. God, I hoped he was right. I’d die otherwise.
“I hate to dash out now, especially after everything we discussed, but I have a client waiting for me at the office to discuss the remodel of his ‘bachelor pad’—his words. He sounds like a real winner.” Chloe rose from the table, and we followed her to the door. She kissed Lucas on the cheek, hugging him for a long time in a tight embrace.
“I love you, Chloe,” Lucas said through unshed tears. “Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Back at you, brother. It’s time you forgive yourself. You have a beautiful daughter who needs the very best of you. Let me know how Mother is. Tell her I said hello.”
“Will do.”
After Lucas closed the door, he slid down the back of it, collapsing onto the floor. He held his head in his hands, trying to shield his emotions. I joined him on the floor, wrapping my arm over his shoulder as it shook. A minute or more went by until he lifted his head, looking at me with red-rimmed eyes. The icy blue of them looked different to me. Their cold, sharp edge had softened.
Lucas pulled me onto his lap, holding me as if he’d never let me go, and I prayed he wouldn’t. There was no place on earth I’d rather be than in his arms.
36
Maggie
Lucas asked if I wanted to stay overnight in Connecticut at his family’s home, and I jumped at the chance to get out of the city and meet his mother. Hurrying around the apartment, I gathered up everything we’d need for a night away.
“Don’t forget that crazy alien baby pod for her to sleep in,” he called out to me from his bedroom. I had to smile. Lucas was already thinking like a dad.
“Already by the front door.”
I’d tiptoed into Esmé’s room, packing enough clothes for a few days, just in case we stayed longer. Then I grabbed an unopened package of diapers and a full container of wipes, adding a can of formula. I rolled my suitcase and the baby gear to the front door.
“Do we have everything?” Lucas asked.
“We have formula, diapers, and wipes. The baby trifecta, so we’re ready.”
Lucas called down to the doorman, requesting a valet bring his Land Rover to the front door. It sounded like a vehicle the army used for war, something like a tank.
I walked to the nursery and broke my mother’s rule of never waking a sleeping child. I smoothed my hand over her head, making her stir a bit. “Esmé, sweetheart. It’s time to wake up.”
Her little eyes blinked open, and her thumb immediately went to her mouth. She stretched her free arm and legs.
“We’re going to meet your grandmother,” I whispered into the crib as I picked her up. I changed her diaper and clothes, putting on the prettiest pink dress with embroidered roses around the collar. She looked like God had dropped an angel on earth.
The doorman helped us load everything into Lucas’s behemoth vehicle. At my height, I almost needed a ladder to get in the front seat.
Lucas was quiet while he drove through the busy streets of Manhattan. Between the call with Erin and telling us about his mother’s accident, he’d been through the wringer today, but I hated silence—especially when it lasted over five minutes.
“Do you get up to Connecticut often?” I asked in the most nonchalant way—a dead giveaway that I was anything but.
Lucas looked over at me, smiling. “I guess I got lost in my thoughts.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes. I was going crazy wondering what was spinning around in your head.”
“I was wondering how to tell you about my mother.” He paused. I waited. “If you saw her on the street, you’d never know anything was different about her. At first glance, she looks totally normal. Have you ever met anyone who’s had a traumatic brain injury?”