Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Chapter eighty-one
Reid
Iwalk into the apartment only to have Carrie rush to the door. “What happened?”
I curl my arm around her neck and pull her close. “Everything is copacetic, baby. Gabe is all in on the merger. Royce has a plan to deal with my father, which I’ll share in detail, and we have a tree to go pick out.”
“I’m pretty sure I made your father hate me even more,” she says. “As I’ve sat here, waiting on you, I’ve questioned how smart it was for me to act like a fearless bitch to him.”
“Oh shit,” I laugh, “you gave him the Reid treatment?”
“It’s not funny, Reid. I told him he should look up my mother because they deserve each other, and I took the whiskey and told him he owed it to you because he’s such a shitty father.”
I roar with laughter. “Priceless. He came to taunt you, and you taunted him.” I release her and take her hand to kiss it. “That’s going to be a story that goes down in family history.”
“Reid, damn it. Tell me what happened.”
My hands come down on her shoulders. “Relax, sweetheart. You know me. If I didn’t feel like I had it under control, I wouldn’t be laughing. We’re going to work with someone in law enforcement that Royce knows to put a plea deal on the table for me and Gabe and—”
Carrie gasps. “A plea deal. What? Why? What is happening?”
“A plea deal that never sees the light of day except to make sure my father knows it’s on file. If he comes at us again, we use it.”
“What if he thinks you’re bluffing?”
“This is me we’re talking about. Do you really think he’ll think I’m bluffing?”
Her hand flattens on my chest. “Maybe we should elope.”
“Elope? Where the hell did that come from?”
“Can you imagine the war of two fathers at our wedding? And who do I even have to invite?”
“Baby.” My hands go to her face. “We’re getting married for us. If you want to elope, or get married right now, we’ll do it. I’ll—we’ll, because what’s mine is now yours—pay what it takes to get us into Rockefeller center and we’ll be married by Christmas. But don’t make this decision over my father. Make it for you and for us.”
“That’s just it. I want it to be for us. I’m afraid it becomes about them like our engagement has already.”
“We’re handling them. Our wedding will not be about them. And don’t little girls dream of picking out the perfect dress and flowers and all that stuff?”
“I think I would like to just do something really small for us. Maybe just your siblings or whoever you want at the wedding.”
I kiss her. “Right now, you’re feeling the punch of things out of our control but we’re taking control. It’s raw because my father showed up here. Let’s go get our tree and enjoy doing this together. We can talk about the wedding in the process or not, but let’s just enjoy this.”
“Yes,” she says. “Yes, I’d like that.”
“Good. Because I haven’t picked out a tree since I was a kid and I’m going to remember this holiday and tree as our first, and as a part of our engagement.”
A smile slides onto her face. “My cold-hearted asshole of a man is looking forward to the tree.”
“Yes, baby, I am.” I turn her toward the room and lean in close. “Go get your purse, and it’s pretty cold outside, get a coat.” I smack her backside. She yelps and tries to dart away but I hold onto her and say, “I’ll spank you properly after we decorate the tree.”
She laughs and glances over her shoulder hurrying toward the table, and I swear, I fight the need to go to my father’s place and punch him in the face, and that’s not me. I don’t lose control or act out, but he made Carrie want to skip over the celebration of our wedding. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I really want to hurt him and I’ve never really wanted to hurt my father. I just wanted him to go the fuck away.
Carrie returns with a jacket on, her purse over her shoulder, and my black leather jacket in her hand because that’s Carrie. She thinks of me. She sees me. She’s fucking perfect. “You have on a T-shirt. You need a coat, too.”
“Thanks, baby.” I shrug into the jacket.
She laughs. “You and all those manners.”
I drag her to me. “I didn’t think I’d ever get married, woman. I swore I didn’t want to get married. Then you came into my life and rocked my world so here is what’s going to happen. We are going to have one hell of a perfect wedding and it’s going to be the wedding we choose for us and no one else. I am going to marry the love of my life and I don’t plan on doing this again. This is forever. Do you understand?”