Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
“I have her baby book,” Aurora said, just after she’d taken her last bite of dessert. “I should have thought to show it to you earlier.”
“I look forward to seeing it.” He smiled, pushing back his plate. “My family is dying to meet her.”
Aurora nodded. “I felt bad that we didn’t have them at her birthday party.”
“It was too soon. Now that she knows I’m her father, I can tell her about my family and prepare her for the sheer amount of Dares she’ll soon be meeting,” he said, laughing.
Aurora lifted her eyebrows. “Why don’t you tell me about your family?” For all he knew about her past, she knew nothing of his.
He pushed back his chair and stood, reaching out his hand to help her stand. “That’s a long story. Let’s go into the other room and I’ll fill you in.”
* * *
Nick preferred to live his life in the present, avoiding thinking about his childhood or family history. With his three-date rule and his life on the road, living that way had been easy. But now he had a child and a woman he was interested in, and they both deserved to know about his very large, very unique family.
“Get comfortable,” he said to Aurora. Although he’d rather carry her into the bedroom and bury himself inside her, they weren’t there yet.
She sat down on the sofa and to his surprise, she inched closer, as if she sensed his need for her to be within touching distance.
“I know you have a twin sister, and of course I know Harrison. Who else is there?” she asked.
Nick stretched his arm along the top of the couch, tangling his fingers in her hair, which grounded him. He looked up at the ceiling and gathered his thoughts, then started at the beginning. “My dad’s name is Michael and my mother’s was Audrey.”
“Was?”
He blew out a harsh breath. “Yeah. She’s gone. It’s…complicated. To sum up my siblings, there’s Asher, who runs Dirty Dare Vodka, and has his hands in a lot of other pies, too. Next is Harrison, who you know, then Zach. He owns a bar in Soho.”
Nick always suspected there was more to his independent ‘do his own thing’ brother than anyone knew. “Then, of course, there’s me and Jade, who is the lead Event Coordinator for all the hotels. She lives here in New York.”
Aurora tipped her head to the side. “Sounds like my siblings. There were four of them until they found me.” She looked at him with confusion because he’d alluded to more family.
And there was.
He rubbed his fingers along her silky hair. “My mother suffered from mental illness.” Now came the uncomfortable parts.
Aurora snuggled into him as he explained. “From what I’ve been told, she liked to be pregnant, enjoyed the attention she received, but taking care of kids and actually being a mother? Not so much.”
Aurora sighed. “That’s sad.”
“It is. I’ve only known about Leah for a couple of weeks but I love the idea of being a part of her life. My mother… She had Asher and three years later, Harrison. Apparently, she took care of Asher and Harrison as infants but once they were toddlers…” He shook his head, grateful he didn’t have the memories of neglect in his head that his older siblings had.
Aurora remained silent, but the heat of her body felt good against his. He’d never told anyone about his mother before—he’d never wanted to—but it didn’t surprise him that Aurora made him feel comfortable to do so.
He swallowed hard. “My mother didn’t feed or bathe my brothers so my father hired a nanny. Her name is Serenity. She was eighteen when she moved in. She was from the Midwest, and she was great with all of us. Getting help freed my father to work on convincing mom to go for professional help.”
“Did she?” Aurora asked. She placed a hand on his chest and he nodded.
“She went on meds. I don’t remember her at all, but dad and Asher say when she stayed on them, she was okay. But she’d go off them without telling dad, and sink into a depression. We all lived through cycles like that, until one day, poof!” He made the gesture with his hand. “She was gone.”
“I’m so sorry,” Aurora said.
“Jade and I were only two. Serenity was our constant, thank God. Zach’s recollections of mom are fuzzy. Asher and Harrison unfortunately, have most of the bad memories.” Nick knew he ought to feel more when it came to his birth mother, but he considered Serenity to be more of a mom than Audrey ever had been.
Aurora pushed herself up and shifted positions, one knee beneath her so she could face him. “So your mom suffered from depression?”
“Technically, it was more than that—an actual disorder. It manifests itself in the desire to be pregnant. She loved the attention and would fall into a depression after she gave birth. Dad says he did all he could with birth control except have a vasectomy because she begged him not to. And he loved her too much to go against her wishes.”