Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“You don’t know my life before Rosie came in it. She caught the brunt of me sorting shit out.”
“I don’t have that first fuck to give about your life either, Lynch,” Jamie fired back. “That’s an excuse too. And like all excuses, it’s spineless and full of shit. And advice, if Dru does decide to seek you out, which is something that will be her choice and at her instigation, I’m not going to tell her about this conversation. She has to want to find you and it has to be her idea. But if that happens, don’t land this bullshit on her. She won’t respond to it very well because she’s highly intelligent and she’ll read it for exactly what it is.”
“It’s all been so fuckin’ easy for you,” Chet scorned and threw his hand again toward Jamie. “Good-lookin’, made a’ money, probably took your first steps on a red fuckin’ carpet.”
“This is part of growing up, something it’s clear you haven’t done. But when you do, you realize, no matter what you think someone else has, they’re living life just like you, and sometimes that life kicks them in the balls. The measure of a man is how he recovers from that.”
“Yeah, and you recovered from Rosie real quick by nailin’ that new, haughty piece of ass of yours,” Chet shot back.
Jamie’s voice was now low and deadly when he warned, “I’m keeping myself in check, Lynch. You’d do well not to remind me you put hands on my woman.”
Chet visibly swallowed.
“Or, another of my women,” Jamie corrected.
Chet said nothing.
“Are we done?” Jamie asked.
“I wouldn’t a’ hurt her,” Chet said quietly. “I took that bitch’s money, but I wasn’t gonna say shit to hurt her.”
“You’re lying. I know you were talking to a news program.”
Another visible swallow.
Oh yes.
Fuck this asshole.
Jamie continued. “Now, I can share with you that I will make it hurt if you try to approach Dru without her initiating it, but I’m assuming, since you’re here, rather than bothering her, you already know that. However, if you’ve heard nothing I’ve said during this conversation, make certain to process that. She’s lost her mother. She’s lost the only blood who mattered to her.
She might be living her life, but she will never stop being devastated by that loss. If you cause her even a second more pain, by God, Lynch, I promise you’ll regret it until your dying breath.”
Chet stared at him but remained silent.
“Am I clear?” Jamie pressed.
“Clear,” Chet grunted.
“Fantastic. Now get out,” Jamie demanded.
He sat behind his desk and turned his attention to his laptop.
Chet hesitated only a second before he walked out on his own.
Ten minutes later, Monica stuck her head in and assured him Chet had left the building.
Only after the door closed on her, did he call Nora.
She demanded they cancel their dinner reservations for that evening so they could have a quiet night in, and Jamie translated that to: so she could look after him.
He demanded that they didn’t, because that was the last time Chester Lynch was going to darken their lives.
His Nora always looked beautiful, even in a designer tracksuit with only mascara on her lashes.
But that night, she’d pulled out all the stops.
Therefore, when Jamie walked into the restaurant at her side, he was so proud, and so looking forward to good food and his woman’s company, Chester Lynch wasn’t even a memory.
In other words, Nora did what Nora was prone to do.
She found her way to look after him, no matter what.
“I’m rethinking this Sunday lunch shit,” Archie muttered, sitting with Jamie and Nico in Allegra and Darryn’s living room.
“Word,” Nico agreed.
Both men took sips of their bottles of beer.
Jamie said nothing.
After being starved of a functional family while growing up and well into adulthood (until he met Lindy), he was always at one with any family time, no matter if the chaos that was currently ensuing at the dining room table was both confusing to follow, and even if it wasn’t, he didn’t have a lot of interest in it.
The results when they came, he was definitely interested in.
The road to get there, not at all.
This was because the women, with Darryn inputting regularly, were poring over some of the preliminary design schemes for the brownstone, at the same time they were discussing a variety of gowns for a variety of events, including Dru’s adoption party. Not to mention, they were dissecting, with minute attention to every detail, plans for said party.
“You don’t seem bored outta your skull,” Archie observed to Jamie.
Jamie tipped his head toward the dining room table. “They’re happy.”
Archie looked that way.
Nico looked that way.
And both men with him settled in after they did, because when your loved ones were happy, that happened.
“Oh my God, Dru! Look at this dress!” Valentina shouted and shoved her phone in Dru’s face.