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)
“You want me to…move in?”
“Sure. Temporarily. Until your mom gets on her feet.”
“I’m not sure I’m…are we…? I mean, is that something…? We’re…is that…?”
His eyes narrowed because she was never, not ever, one to have trouble finding her words.
“Spit it out, Elsa,” he ordered. “You know you can be straight with me.”
“I’m just wondering…if we…” When she saw his frown at her continued stammering, she said quickly, “We’re still very new. That seems like a lot when we’re so new.”
“Did you unpack five days ago, knowing you’d be here with me for a month?”
“Yes.”
“So does it really matter at the end of that month, you stay here while I’m gone, bring your clothes here so your mom can use your place, and when I’m away, you sleep in my bed, when I’m here, you sleep beside me in that bed, and when your mom gets her shit sorted, you move back? I mean, babe, I’m not sure I understand the hesitation. She’s in a jam. This is a solution that’s no skin off anyone’s nose. Except you have to bring your things over here temporarily.”
“Temporarily,” she murmured.
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “I think it’s best she have a deadline. We can find out when the settlement is going through, which shouldn’t take long. She goes into your place knowing she has three months, maybe four, your call, and at the end of that, she has to be out.”
“It seems to be taking advantage of you, Hale.”
“Not if I offer.”
“Can I pay you rent?”
“Now you’re pissing me off,” he whispered.
She pressed her lips together.
That tightness was back with a vengeance when he asked, “Is there another reason you’re hesitating?”
She studied his face, intently, and for a long time, before she said softly, “No. It’s just an incredibly thoughtful, magnanimous gesture. I’m thrown. But this means we can all stop worrying about Mom, and she can stop worrying too and use that headspace to figure her shit out. We’d all be really grateful for that.”
“Right, so you can call her tomorrow. Set her mind at ease.”
“Okay.”
“Kiss me,” he ordered. “That one at the elevator was bullshit.”
Finally, she smiled, melted into him and kissed him.
When she pulled away, he mumbled, “Better.”
“We’ll be late if we don’t go soon,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “Need to hit the bathroom. Can you text Paul we’re coming down?”
She nodded.
He touched his lips to hers, set her away, then walked to the powder room.
It was after dinner.
The men and the women had separated.
And Hale smiled as he listened to Elsa and Mika cackling.
Actually cackling.
He should have known they’d get along from the get go. They were cut from the same cloth. Talented women who knew their worth and what they wanted and didn’t settle for less of either.
The women were in the front part of Tom and Mika’s long living room, sitting on a couch together, having started on martinis, graduated to wine during dinner, now they were back on martinis.
Elsa was absolutely drunk.
Sex was going to be fantastic that night.
Or better than the usual fantastic, whatever you called that.
“Hale.”
He turned to look at Tom, who was sitting in a wing chair catty corner to where Hale was in the corner of a couch in the back part of the living room, which felt like a cozy alcove considering the expanse of the rest of the room.
The men were on bourbon.
“Yeah?”
“Son, you called me not too long ago,” Tom reminded Hale. “And you were in a state. You seem better. But you said you wanted to talk.”
Hale knew this was coming.
Even so, he wasn’t prepared to deal with it.
He had called. He’d wanted to talk.
Now he wasn’t so sure.
“Are you going to be in the city for a while?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Can we set something up later?”
Tom nodded. “We can. But for my peace of mind, I’d like to understand where your head is at.”
He owed him that, so he gave it to him.
“I got home from Europe. I was jetlagged. Vulnerable. I went into Dad’s study. No clue why I did. I normally avoid it, for obvious reasons. And it messed me up. But I called you. Then I called Elz. I got my head together. I can’t say it’s all good, because Dad killed himself in there. I can say it’s never going to get better, because Dad killed himself in there.”
Watching him closely, Tom noted, “Gen told me your mother showed.”
He drew in a big breath and said, “Yeah. It was unpleasant.”
Tom let that go and hit something even stickier.
“Did you open the box your father gave you?”
Hale looked down at his bourbon then threw it back.
“Hale,” Tom pushed.
He looked to Tom. “No. I’m thinking of letting Chloe open it.”
“He didn’t leave it to Chloe. He left it to you,” Tom stated. “Gen and I talked about it. We want you to open it. With us there. And Duncan.”