Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“And everyone getting together to take care of you, this all came out,” Hale deduced.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “Mom was insulted. Oskar was pissed. Dad was disappointed. And Scott was angry. Plans for them to move in together are on hold. Plans for them to remain together might be on hold too.”
He winced for Emilie, but said, “Can’t say she doesn’t deserve that.”
“I can’t either. Not sure a man would want to jump in with a woman who shows her manipulative side so clearly.”
“Yup.” He squeezed her hand and asked, “And Oskar’s big brother act?”
The expression on her face after he asked that was inscrutable.
Then she explained it.
“He dropped everything and got on the train that Sunday after I’d been hurt. When he arrived, and saw how hurt I actually was…don’t,” she stressed when she saw him react to that. “We’re past that. Yes?”
“Yeah,” he grunted.
“Anyway, he stuck around, and there’s drama afoot with Oskar too, of course. And I didn’t save the best for last, because this is messed up, but it’s the biggest.”
“What’s that?”
“He’s moving back to New York, and Anoushka isn’t coming with him because she’s been keeping in shape not so much with a lot of yoga classes, but instead, fucking her yoga instructor.”
“Holy shit,” Hale muttered.
She shot him a big-eyes look while fighting a smile. “Now, don’t take this as humor. I’m trying not to laugh because hysterical laughter is a better reaction than jumping on the train and telling my soon-to-be, ex-sister-in-law what a piece of garbage I think she is. Anyway, Oskar is taking this opportunity of being here to interview at firms. Fortunately, he’s a shark with a good track record so there are several who are eager to recruit him. He’s going back this weekend to get started on closing down his life there. He’s going to move in with dad while he gets settled with the kids here. He’s tried to recruit Mom as his nanny, and could pay her more than she’s getting, but she’s loving her job so much, she said no. Thus, some things are up in the air for Oskar, but he’s coming back. That’s a definite.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I think his response to me being hurt and my response to finding out his wife betrayed him made us both look at each other differently. We’re grownups. We were acting like children. We’re acting more like grownups now.”
“Glad for you, baby,” he murmured.
“Me too,” she replied.
“How are the cats?”
There was something about that question that got to her.
So much, she pushed up and dropped her forehead to his.
“They miss you,” she said huskily, and he was sure that wasn’t totally about the cats, so he felt those words everywhere, but most specifically in his chest. “Come in and see them.”
“I want you back at my place after we get home from Chloe’s thing.”
“Okay.”
“Official, Elz. Moved in. That’ll be home. For both of us.”
“Okay, Hale.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you.”
“You said that already.” When he opened his mouth to say more, she put the fingers of her bandaged hand to it. “It was awful. It hurt. I’m not going to pretend it didn’t. But it was the path you had to take to lead you back to me. And I’m glad you took it. I’m glad you opened that box from your dad. I’m glad you’re talking about him, openly and honestly, to me, and for yourself. I’m glad Genny and Tom were there with you. It needed to happen. And as it seems is the way with us, for us to get over an obstacle that rears up in our relationship, we need to have a blowout. And we sure did that.”
He carefully wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her hand away. “Shutting down like that on you wasn’t okay. I lost your trust. I lost your dad’s trust.”
“It’s been four days, Hale, not four years. You haven’t lost anything.”
“Baby—”
The tears returned, this time, so strong, she couldn’t hold them back, and he watched from close as they spilled over.
“Don’t you get it? I’d do it again and again, Hale. I’d do it because, in the end, it meant you got your dad back.”
He grunted at receiving the force of that velvet blow, right before he kissed her.
Four days and a fuckload of emotion and even more love went into that kiss, so he wasn’t surprised when a passerby shouted, “Oof, daddy, take your momma inside. It ain’t triple X Thursday in Williamsburg.”
This meant, when they broke the kiss, they were both laughing.
“Come inside. I need to pack my things,” she invited. “But I left the dress I bought for Chloe’s wedding at your place, so we have to go back there before we leave.”
“We’re staying there tonight. We’re leaving first thing in the morning.”