Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 358(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Kitty’s eyes are a blazing fire, and I’m standing here like I stepped in eight hundred pounds of really sticky chewed-up bubble gum and can’t move my feet. Then, Kitty continues, “I’m going to take a shower now. When I get out, I expect you’ll have apologized and made breakfast and that you’re more agreeable. I have to go back to Seattle right away. I called in to work this morning, but I can’t take the afternoon off. If I leave you alone, it’s under the condition that I’m going to get a positive report.”
“You don’t scare me,” Leon growls. “And I don’t report to you.”
Oddly enough, his tone makes me feel better already.
Kitty closes the distance between them, and even though Leon is giving off some serious—don’t you dare touch me—vibes, she wraps her hands around his neck, stands on her tiptoes, and kisses his cheek. She rubs her hand against the stubble there. “Did you forget to pack a razor?”
“I didn’t feel like shaving,” he grunts. “I’m supposed to be on holiday.”
“Right. Well, a beard suits the cabin, I guess.” Kitty frowns up at him. “Everything changed last night. Your life as you knew it was blown to shit, and this is a fresh start. It’s going to be a good one. A happier one. You’re going to get used to that, and one day, it will feel like the good thing it is.”
“You’re very bossy.” Leon’s arms tighten around his sister’s shoulders anyway, and he hugs her back.
She doesn’t walk on eggshells with him, which is a far cry from the woman who wasn’t sure if she should go in and see him last night. Maybe she’s always like this when he’s feeling better. Maybe she knows that something has changed in him since the last time she saw him and now.
“Someone needs to be. Now, are you going to behave, or do I have to supervise this apology?”
“Go and have a shower. Brat.”
Kitty grins a charming grin at her brother, then winks at me again and waves over her shoulder. “If you’re making eggs, Leon,” she calls when she’s nearly around the corner. “You know how I like them. Scrambled and not the dry kind that is like egg death either.” She mutters something after that doesn’t sound like it is in English, and I’m shocked when Leon responds in kind with something that is most definitely not English.
I have no idea what language it was. Not French. Gaelic?
Maybe everything looks better in the light of day. Which, shit, speaking of, I should shut all the blinds. It’s not time for sunrise yet, but in half an hour, there’s going to be light streaming through here.
Kitty is gone, and it’s just me and Leon in the kitchen. I’m standing here with a coffee pot in my hands and biting down on my lip to keep it from quivering. I don’t know what to say. I’m not easy or confident like Kitty. I thought I was, but I was robbed of that when Leon basically mocked the fact that I opened myself up and told him how I felt.
He doesn’t know how to love or accept tenderness and kindness.
His eyes are liquid pools, but his jaw is set in a hard line. I can see that muscle jumping, and on his forehead and into his temples, there are muscles echoing the movement. “My life has been a shitstorm,” he grinds out like it’s hurting him. “You know that now.” His voice frays out, but he won’t lower his eyes. They hold mine captive, the lovely blue-gray, an otherworldly color. “Everything Kitty said was true.”
I finally find enough of my voice to choke something out. “The parts about you being a stubborn asshole?”
He nods. “Especially that. I’d like to say I’m a work in progress, but you know the truth.”
“Everyone is a work in progress. Always. Forever.”
“I think that’s very naïve, but it is sweet.”
“You’re doing it now. Trying to shut me out.”
Leon huffs, but his shoulders fall an inch. He’s less defensive and more like how I saw him on the beach. I will never, for the rest of my life, forget the sight of those silver tracks streaking down his ashen cheeks in what was left of the moonlight. “It’s not an excuse, but it’s literally the only way I know how to be.”
I don’t know if that’s his apology, but I don’t need anything else. I understand.
“I married you. I said those vows. Okay, I didn’t mean them, but I’m going to promise you something else. You’re not alone, and you’re not chasing me off. Because I’m going to take care of you. Not like a parent or a guardian but as a partner and assistant because I still am. I’m not going to ignore the things I know. You might not be able to ask for help, but you don’t need to ask. I can do it for you. Sports injury or whatever you want to tell people, you are not going through another night of pain like that.”