Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75474 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75474 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“You have got to be kidding me.”
I hit the horn. Like three times. It doesn’t stop them. They keep taking swings at each other. Thankfully not all of them land. After two minutes of this nonsense, I go to plan B.
After I make sure the emergency brake is on, I grab a bottle of soda. Maisie is just now waking up from her nap, but I won’t be gone a minute and I’m leaving my door open.
“Knock it off you overgrown children.” I shake, shake, shake the plastic bottle and spray them with cola. Plan B works.
Breathing heavy, they stop and look at me. “Hi, Eli. I’m Riley, your daughter’s caretaker.”
“Hi,” he says out of breath and smiling.
“You have company now so you should probably close your robe.”
Glancing down, he sees what I’m seeing and thankfully slams the robe shut.
Jordan
I’m angry. I’m more than angry. In fact, I’m furious.
For three months, I’ve worried, I’ve lost sleep, I’ve upended my life. I upended Riley’s life. We’ve wasted time wondering where Eli was and whether he was harming himself. And to learn that he was on the Cape indulging his fantasies makes me want to punch him again.
“I can feel your deadman’s stare from here,” the son of a bitch hollers from across the porch. He’s on the bench swing with Maisie. It’s about time he spent time with his daughter. She’s the last piece of Lainey left in this world, he’s lucky to have her. Instead he’s been here doing God know’s what.
“Glad you noticed. You want to explain to me why I haven’t heard a word from you in three months?”
“Head wasn’t right.”
“And you couldn’t call?”
“Head wasn’t right.”
The father daughter reunion was touch-and-go at first. It took a minute for Maisie to warm up to him. The hair and beard certainly didn’t help matters. You abandon your daughter for three months and there’s bound to be problems.
I scan the lawn for Riley and can’t find her. She left ten minutes ago to explore the property and hasn’t been seen since.
“I’m going to look for Riley.”
“She’s coming.” He tips his head at the side of the house.
A gust of wind kicks up and blows her long wavy hair all around. I watch her laugh as she tries to harness it. It hits me in the chest like a battering ram.
I want to make her laugh. I want to make her scream my name as she comes. I want to make her happy. But the space between what I want and what I can have seems insurmountable.
I tried to stay away. Kept myself busy and stayed out of the house. I even went on a date––an unmitigated disaster. I’m tired of fighting it. I want her and she wants me. It should be simple. The problem is that what I feel for her isn’t simple at all.
I catch Eli checking out her long tan legs in those jean shorts and send him a warning. Riley is off limits. He’s probably thinking that I deserve a dose of my own medicine, but those days of the two of us fighting over a girl are long gone.
“You have a boat!” Riley shouts, a smile stretching from ear to ear. Every time I think she can’t get any more beautiful she proves me wrong. “Eli, can I sleep on the boat?”
“Anything for the woman who took care of my baby.”
She’s so beautiful sometimes I catch myself stealing second glances. As if I can’t trust my eyes. And she has no clue, no idea, of her effect on men. All that sex appeal and she doesn’t even know it.
“Jordan, it’s a sail boat. Come see it.” I get up and go to her. It’s the easiest thing for me to do, as natural as breathing. “I’ll be back.” Walking past him, I pet Maisie’s beautiful head and she smiles at me.
“Take good care of her,” I tell Eli. There are about a million and one meanings to that statement and he knows every single one. Eli looks away, back at his daughter who should be the only thing on his mind.
“Hear that, my amazing Maisie? Your uncle Jordan is looking out for you.”
“Jo!” the baby says, and tips her head back to look at me again. It’s the first time she’s said my name and I can barely breathe, stuck between feeling everything and desperately trying to block it out. I’m failing at both.
Eli watches me closely. “You won’t die from loving someone, Jo.”
Is he kidding? The two of us are a perfect example of how destructive love can be. For years, I played the role of dead man walking. Now it’s his turn. “You sure about that?”
“Jordan! Are you coming?”
“Go to your girl”––a slow smile creeps up his bearded face––“or I will.”
Riley’s headed to the beach. I run after her because it’s the only thing in my life that feels right anymore. She’s the only thing that feels right.