Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 53(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 80(@200wpm)___ 64(@250wpm)___ 53(@300wpm)
“I have someone I would like you to meet.”
I watched as he got up and walked out of the room. I took that opportunity to make sure I was awake. I felt awake, everything looked normal; there were no clowns anywhere that I could see… it all felt real.
And then the fear hit me.
Someone I would like you to meet.
That’s what he was trying to tell me. He had finally told his father to go to hell, and now there was a man he loved in his life who he wanted me to meet. Oh dear God in heaven, I was not quite ready for that. You closed the door forever on possibilities in your secret heart when you met the significant others of old lovers.
“Evan.”
I looked up, and there at the door was a very beautiful, very elegantly dressed woman wearing a long white fur coat. When she took off her gloves, the diamond on her left hand caught my eye. It was as big as an ice cube.
“Oh,” she murmured, crossing the room to me, “from the way Dixon always went on, I thought he was exaggerating, but your eyes really are the loveliest shade of sepia, and those cheekbones—if I’d been so blessed, I would have married better.”
“Mother,” Dixon groaned like he was in pain.
She cackled evilly and walked up beside the bed. “I’m Lucinda Bain, Dixon’s mother,” she announced, smiling down at me. “And you’re Evan Kano, are you not?”
I coughed hard, offering her my hand. “Yes, ma’am.”
She bent and kissed my cheek, and when she leaned back, she turned to ask her son to take her coat. Apparently, he needed to be careful with it since it was fake fur and was less robust than the real alternative.
“I’ve been told,” she began, straightening her suit jacket, “real fur holds up better over time, but really, don’t we think it would have done better on the animal?”
“Yes,” I agreed, turning to look at Dixon, who hadn’t moved, still holding her coat.
“At least drape it over the chair, darling,” she suggested with a smile, before her eyes were back on me. “He’s so enamored of you; he’s forgotten his manners.”
I looked over at him, and he rolled his eyes.
“Evan.”
I turned back to the woman standing there beside my bed in the Donna Karan suit. Everything about her was tasteful elegance, and she had the warmest eyes.
“It’s so good to finally meet you,” I apprised her, and I heard my voice catch because I had always hoped to meet her and had instead met Dixon’s father, who hated me. He had been in town on business, and Dixon and I had had dinner with both his father and grandfather. It had been the end of us; I just didn’t realize it at the time.
“Oh, my dear,” she cooed, hand on my cheek as she brushed away a stray tear.
I was overwrought from being shot. I had my out.
Dixon came around the bed, leaned over, and wrapped me in his arms. My breath hitched because I wasn’t expecting it.
“Hug me back,” he ordered, “you know you’re dying to hold me.”
And I was, even if he was being an arrogant ass about it.
I turned my face into the side of his neck and hugged him as hard as I could. He was warm and solid and strong and just him, just Dixon. And I was terrified that somewhere buried not so deep down was a love that had simmered for ten years.
“Okay,” he rumbled after long minutes, letting me go, easing me back before gesturing at his mother. “Tell him.”
“Oh really? Is it my turn now?”
He growled at her, and her smile was luminous. She didn’t just love him; she adored him.
“Evan,” she began with a smile, “darling, I know I don’t deserve it after the way I’ve treated you, but could you spare me a few moments of your time?”
“I don’t… when exactly have you ever treated me bad?”
“Sweetheart, I never once picked up the phone to see how you were after you and Dixon broke things off,” she confessed, moving to perch delicately on the edge of my bed. “I wanted to of course, but I wasn’t certain how you’d feel about that since we had never actually met face-to-face.”
“I––”
“I mean, I heard all about you of course… how smart you are and how beautiful and funny and just every little thing, so I felt I knew you, but still, I didn’t think it was my place to just ring you up out of the blue.”
“I would have loved that, Mrs. Bain,” I assured her.
“Please call me Lucinda.”
“Lucinda,” I repeated.
“I just felt terrible… after four years and then to just have it end because of….” She took a quick settling breath. “There’s been a terrible mistake made.”
“And what is that?”