Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 644(@200wpm)___ 515(@250wpm)___ 429(@300wpm)
More tears clouded my sight before they fell. Frustrated, I swiped them away. “I can’t believe he kept that from me for all these years.”
Paisley’s hair was twisted in a loose, messy knot on top of her head. It fell over the side when she reached for me from over the top of the table. She set her hand over mine that I had fisted on the wood and squeezed. “But if he thought that money was getting him out and it was used for a valid purpose? For something good?”
“Drug money, Paisley?” A high-pitched sound came out with the whisper. “He gave me drug money.”
Agony slayed, slicing through my middle. I tried to suppress another cry, but it ripped out, anyway.
Sympathy pinched Paisley’s face. “I don’t believe Ryder is a bad person. He’s not greedy, Dakota. He’s not, and you know it. And if he said he was trapped? Then I have to believe that.”
“Does it make it any better, though?”
She blinked at me as she squeezed my hand tighter. “I guess only you can decide that, but the one thing I do know is that we all have things in our lives that we regret. Things we would take back. And most of the time we get lucky enough that there is good that comes from it. A silver lining that we couldn’t see. We learn a lesson we needed. Find out what’s important. It teaches us how to walk better in the future. And I need to believe the same of Ryder.”
I sniffled, blinking as I turned my gaze back to the soaring panes of glass. “He put us in danger.”
The pad of her thumb rubbed over the back of my hand. “Which is why he stayed away from you for all these years. He can’t help it that my bestie is irresistible.”
She tacked a tease on the last.
A pained chuckle slid off my tongue. “I guess he and I were inevitable.”
A magnetism that couldn’t be avoided.
Gravity.
My words narrowed in pained emphasis. “I wish he would have told me. Confided in me then. We could have figured something out.”
Speculation pulled through Paisley’s expression. “He told you they made it clear what would happen to anyone he cared about if he left. And I might not know the details, but I can only imagine what that might have looked like. He was probably terrified, Dakota. Terrified of putting someone he loved in harm’s way. Put yourself in those shoes. I doubt you would have been able to confess it, either. But he’s also a good man who knows he can’t allow it to continue, so he’s taken the step.”
Fear spiraled.
A battering of horror.
What if that step cost him his life?
I couldn’t even let myself contemplate it.
Couldn’t handle the idea.
“He lied to me,” I told her, hating how bad it hurt that he had. That I’d been so gullible. So deceivable. That my dream had been built on something so ugly and vile.
A clatter of pounding footsteps cut off our conversation, and we both turned to see Evelyn come barreling into the kitchen.
All messy brown hair that was in her face, the little girl wearing a pink tee, jeans, and matching pink cowgirl boots. “Mommy! I took Kayden to the barn to see the horses, and he got to sit on Mazzy. He loved it!”
She threw her hands in the air and planted her feet in a lunge, like she was calling a touchdown.
Paisley’s grandfather wandered in behind her, chuckling under his breath. “Those two would have spent the entire day out in that barn if we would have let them. Had to drag them back in so we could get some lunch.”
“That’s because the barn is my very favorite place in the whole world, Grandpa,” Evelyn told him, perfectly nonchalant.
The old man’s face lit in staggering joy, and his eyes moved between Paisley and the child, cherishing every moment he had with them.
Paisley was actually his granddaughter, and he and his wife had raised her from when she was little. Paisley and Caleb had moved him here into the house so he could be near them. So he wouldn’t be alone.
Caleb sauntered in last, carrying Kayden.
“Mommy! I see the horsey!” Kayden pointed his little finger toward the wall like I could see into the barn.
I swallowed the misery down and forced myself to smile at the treasure that was my son.
“You saw the horses? That is amazing.”
Caleb set him onto his feet, and he went bouncing up to Evelyn’s side. “I ride horsey, my Evie?” He patted his chest, and she giggled like mad as she reached out to take his hand.
“Not right now. We have to eat lunch, and then maybe we can again.”
“How about Grandpa makes us some sandwiches, and then we’ll go back out for a bit?” Paisley’s grandfather suggested.