Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 127712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
And this little admission allows me to forgive her. Because this was a very honest answer and I love honesty.
“OK. Then let’s get it over with. Do you want to know what he’s up to? Who he’s seeing?”
I expect her eyes to flash with anger at this last part. But they go lazy and low. “Nah. Forget it.” She lets out a long breath. “It just makes me angry, ya know? That he doesn’t care. Not about me, but Veda.”
“He doesn’t think Veda is his, Nova. He’s never going to be interested in her.”
“Yeah. I know. I was there when he said that.” She waves a hand in the air, as if to clear it.
“Anything else?”
She smiles at me. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“And that’s why I love you. You don’t overreact about anything. You think things through.”
“So do you.”
“I know.” She reaches across the table and touches my hand. “That’s why we’re good together.”
I want to add all kinds of stuff here. Mainly, I want to know why, if we are so good together, Olsen lives two hours away and is having ‘daddy time’ with Veda and I’m just hearing about this now, even though I pop up three or four times a year for my own ‘daddy time.’
She reads my mind. “Olsen’s different.”
“How is he different?”
“Locke. You know how he’s different.”
“Indulge me.”
She purses her lips and looks up, like she’s thinking. “He’s…” She lets out a breath. “He’s here for her. You’re here for me, Locke.”
I want to object. Because I love Veda. I have missed things these past four years, but not many. I’ve been there for her.
But I can’t object. I am here for Nova.
She is the love of my life.
“But you know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“He’s also here for you, Locke.”
I grin and chuckle. “What’s that mean?”
“Exactly what I said. He comes here for you. And you showing up today, I dunno. It made him pretty happy.”
“So happy he took off?”
“I told him to take off.”
My eyebrow goes up.
“You’re surprised?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised.”
“Why would you be surprised? You’re… we’re… you know. A thing.”
“If we’re a thing, Nova, why do we live three thousand miles apart?”
“It’s a good question.” She pushes back from the table. I get up, quickly, and get to her chair before she can stand. She looks over her shoulder at me, smiling. At my manners, I know this. She makes fun of me for these things. Good-natured fun, but she doesn’t get it.
I don’t know why I still open doors, and pull back chairs, and stand when a woman enters or leaves a room. I just do it.
The breeding, I guess.
She hooks her arm in mine and we walk out of the restaurant. “You can drive home.”
That first day I saw her standing in the middle of the Square, looking confused, a ray of sun was shining behind her and her hair looked like fire in the glow.
I watched her get coffee and wander around, heading for the Trapp building. I had been running so I was a little out of breath because of that, and sweaty, so I took my shirt off. Then I sat on the railing outside Trapp and kept watching.
I knew she was coming, of course. Everyone knew about Nova Ryanzski. But despite all of Mercer’s allegations later, I didn’t stop at the Trapp building on purpose. It was fate, that’s all.
Nova kept looking at her map, then at the buildings, trying to figure it all out. But eventually, she did figure it out and headed my way. She stopped to read the plaque with the history of the building, which I thought was cute. Then she looked up at the imposing structure—the place where all of her twenty-something formative moments would be formed—and went inside.
She didn’t even see me until she came out about ten minutes later, looking even more confused. She studied her map again. Then her gaze wandered over to me.
She checked me out. But knowing Nova the way I do now, it wasn’t a proper checking out. More like a once-over. Trying to put me in a category.
I didn’t say anything. I was kinda holding my breath through the whole thing. Instead, I extended my hand and made a little gesture with my fingers. Give me the map, that’s what I said without speaking.
I wasn’t sure if she would, but she did. She came over to me, handed me the map, I studied it for a moment, then motioned over my shoulder to where Mercer’s stupid office was.
He chose that space on purpose. But it was an old choice, not a new one. In fact, his choice of space pre-dated even my appearance on the island. He had been holed up in that garden-level office for at least a decade before that morning I gave Nova Ryan directions.