Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100873 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Catie swallowed. She didn’t know if she had the ability to trust any man in so deep a way, and she knew full well that made her seriously screwed up. But when Danny turned to give her a shaky smile, she said to hell with it and went into his arms to squeeze him tight. “Fly safe,” she whispered huskily against his ear.
“I’ll message you when I land,” he promised, holding on for a long, long breath, all warmth and a scent so familiar she ached at the thought of it fading from her apartment.
Then he was letting her go and turning to head toward the departure gate. He looked back right before he disappeared around the corner, his eyes meeting hers for a long second that felt like an unspoken promise… or maybe a request. To trust in him. To trust in them.
As her demons howled, Catie clung fiercely to the memories of the time they’d spent together since everything changed. The problem was, they’d changed so recently that the memories felt far too few… but what she did have were all the years and years of memories of her number one nemesis.
Perhaps it would be all right. Perhaps they’d make it.
But as she went through the rest of her day, doubt began to creep in like a tiny insect. Danny had always liked women, and women liked him right back. And now he’d be far from the girl who’d annoyed him for half his life and with none of the softness and urgency of the physical fire between them.
Long-distance relationships were tough to begin with, and she was trying to have one with a sexy young sports star who had a legion of admirers. Many of whom would be more than happy to jump in his bed.
“What’s gotten into you today?” her coach asked when she jogged back after zipping past him a few seconds earlier. “You’re putting in stellar times.” He patted her on the shoulder, the two of them having been together so long that he was like an uncle to her—a stern and tough-talking uncle who never let her get away with any crap.
“Just in the zone,” she said with a grin that hid the panic beneath.
The panic enraged her. She’d made it a point to never let any man get into her head. Never again would she allow someone else’s thoughtlessness to destroy her days and her life. How dare Danny do this to her?
“Catie, you’re sounding insane even to yourself,” she muttered as she put in an hour on the weights that evening. She’d already done enough for the day, but she was antsy and this would take the edge off. “Danny’s still in the air, and he’s not responsible for your clingy dependence.”
She closed her eyes even as she muttered those last words. She knew she wasn’t clingy or dependent, could actually be independent to a stupid fault. But her father’s throwaway words haunted her. Clive wasn’t evil or abusive or mean. He was just… thoughtless.
All those times he’d said, “You’ll be fine, doll. You don’t need to be dependent on your dad.” Or when he’d smiled and patted her on the cheek. “Men don’t like women who cling, kiddo.”
She hadn’t even been a teenager at the time! And her crime had been wanting her dad to show up to one or two of her school athletics meets or even to a parent-teacher conference. She’d have taken anything. Of course it was Ísa who’d come. Always Ísa. Catie’s one rock in life.
Having laid off the weights before she did herself an injury, she was in her pajamas when her doorbell rang at nine that night. The timing and the fact security had buzzed up the person meant it could only be a neighbor—or one of a very short list of people she’d cleared for automatic access.
And since she had no messages on her phone alerting her to a visit or asking for a place to crash, that narrowed things down even further. Ninety percent chance it was one specific visitor. It wasn’t that her other friends or family didn’t ever show up unannounced—but only one person in her life always turned up without warning and with no regard to the time.
“Hi, Dad,” she said when she opened the door.
Clive River smiled that big and slightly goofy smile that went perfectly with his mop of silvery-blond hair and square-jawed face. His shirt was sage green, open slightly at the throat and tucked into faded blue jeans that hung on lean hips. He looked like an aging surfer dude—but one who’d aged well, complete with a flat belly, muscled arms, silver that glinted in his hair, and lines that flared out from around the edges of his eyes.
Not a man who’d fought the march of time—both because he didn’t have to and because Clive wasn’t vain. Strange how of all she knew of him, that had always surprised her the most. Or maybe it was no surprise—why be vain when you’d been genetically blessed?