Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55039 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55039 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, tears welling in my eyes for the boy he had been. The boy who was forced to become a man simply because his mother was too fucked up to care. August’s hand slides under the table to squeeze my leg.
“That woman is never allowed in this house again.” My mother stands, pushing her chair back, and walks to the kitchen.
My father’s eyes follow her, then he looks at August. “Please know, she is hard because she cares.”
And that’s a nice way to say she’s a bitch, but once she loves you, she will fight tooth and nail for you. Even if she doesn’t know whether it’s wrong or right.
She isn’t all that bad, but sometimes she just doesn’t see the world as clearly as she should.
Chapter 25
August
“I’ll be a minute.” I stand and follow Rylee’s mother to the kitchen. I see her standing by the sink, her hands on either side, holding on, looking out the window to the night sky in contemplation.
“I wanted to hate you,” she says, somehow knowing it’s me. She turns to face me, and a tear leaves her eye, and she wipes it away so fast you wouldn’t even know it was there. “Rylee hasn’t moved on since you left. I thought with Holden, it could have happened.” I see so much of her daughter in her when I look at her. “But just as I love her father, I’m sure she loves you. I want you to know I wouldn’t have chosen you, August. Not at all. She deserves the world, and I wanted that for her. And you aren’t the world. You can’t buy her all the things she might want. But maybe, you are her world.”
“I didn’t come back to win her back,” I tell her, and her eyes go wide in surprise. “I didn’t come back to stay until I saw Winter. It was then I knew I had to. I may have been given a mother who never cared for me, but I knew when I saw Winter, I could never be an absent father. I already had been … although unknowingly, and it killed me to know I had missed so much already. I love them both. And even if Rylee will never want me back, I will still be here, no matter what.”
“I hope you’re right because I will hunt you down and kill you if you break either of those girls’ hearts.”
I smile at her words. “Now, what do you want me to do?” I look around, offering my help.
“Do for what?” she asks, confused.
“Clean. Cook.”
Mrs. Harley laughs. “Nothing. But it is getting late, so you may want to take the girls home.”
When I walk back out, the table is being cleared as Rylee kisses her sister and Summer goodbye. Rhianna offers me a wave as she steps out, and Beckham comes to stand next to me. “I don’t like you,” he states matter-of-factly, making me turn to him.
“I don’t need you to like me.”
Beckham huffs at my response. “You are a dick,” Beckham says. “But even though you seem to have changed, I have a feeling you would still put me in my grave.” He winks. “Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take you with me, though.” He walks over to Winter, and she jumps into his ready arms. I guess that’s something I have to get used to, sharing my daughter with family. I’ve never had a family, apart from Paige, and even then, I only saw her briefly.
“Let me follow you home,” I say to Rylee.
“Are you sure?” she asks.
Their father walks up and holds out his hand, and as I shake it, he pulls me in for a one-arm hug. “Welcome to the family, son.” He pulls away and hugs Winter and gives her money. I look back to Rylee to see her smiling.
“Word of warning. Papa, as Winter likes to call him, loves to shower her with money. I’ve tried to stop it, but it’s useless. So, she takes it and adds to her piggy bank.” Rylee nudges me with her arm. “They like you. I knew they would once they got to know you.”
Winter is asleep by the time we arrive at Rylee’s place. I wait out front on the apartment steps as she takes her inside to bed. When she comes back out, she’s holding two glasses of wine and sits next to me, handing me one.
“I kind of threw you in the deep end, hey?” Rylee says with a mischievous grin. Her lips are pink tonight. Natural. Her eyes dark and spectacular. How did I ever think they were soulless? They aren’t. They hold so much life, so much hope—more than I could ever contain.
“You did, but I’m glad you did it.”
“Me, too. Now you can come to all the parties, especially when they involve Winter. You should have seen the first birthday party Mother threw for Winter.” She shakes her head.