Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“Surprise!”
A crash of voices lifted in the air. Gage and Juni. Eden and Gretchen and poor Baby Kate who’d gotten spooked by the sudden shouting.
Aster.
Aster who was there hovering to the side.
Unsure of where she fit.
My stomach flipped and my chest squeezed tight because she was right where she belonged.
My eyes took in the scene, affection twisting at my mouth.
So damned sweet.
Helium balloons were floating everywhere, streamers strung along the ceiling, and a confetti explosion had laid waste to the room.
Gage and Juni held a big poster board, one of them on each side, their precious faces full of excitement and this crazy amount of joy as they came running for me.
Or maybe that’s just what they hit me with.
Joy.
“Happy birthday, Uncle Logan! Happy birthday! Do you like your surprise?”
“What? This is amazing. How could I not like it when I have the best niece and nephew ever?” I scooped them up the second they got to me, and I squeezed them tight while trying not to crush the poster board they held between them.
Because I did like it.
Fucking loved it, actually.
I loved that it felt like coming home.
Like today mattered when it’d ceased to hold meaning a long-damned time ago.
Trent clapped me on the back before he wound around me and went striding for Eden.
No wonder he’d been acting like a freaking weirdo, and it didn’t have a thing to do with my birthday surprise, either. Dude never could wait to get his greedy paws on his wife.
“Look it, Uncle, look it!” Juni and Gage waved the poster around, but it was up so close I couldn’t read what it said. I pulled back a bit so I could read the words constructed of crayon and child-like handwriting.
Birthday Bash for Logan.
6:30.
My house.
Be there or be a square.
Laughter rumbled. “Tell me you aren’t planning me a party?”
I said it like it was absurd.
Juni threw her little arms in the air, and she screeched like it was the best thing in the world, “Yes! You guessed it!”
Then she got serious. “But you gotta share the party with my baby brother or sister because we’re gonna finds out which one we gotta get. It’s a double trouble party.”
“That sounds like a fine plan to me…as long as we know who’s really the most important one here, of course. I mean, we know who that is, right?”
I squeezed them both again, bouncing them as I did.
They cracked up.
My spirit soared.
“I even got you a present, Uncle!” Gage curled his arms around my neck as I carried them deeper into my apartment.
“No way.”
His sweet eyes rounded. “Yes, way.”
“I can’t even wait to see.”
“Well, you gots to,” Juni piped in. “Party isn’t until six-thirty.”
Laughing, I set them onto their feet.
I moved for Eden, picked her up, and flung her around. “Looking gorgeous today, as ever. Tell me you’ve gotten sick of his grumpy-ass, and you’ve finally seen what’s right in front of you.”
Trent grunted.
I cracked up.
I only did it because Trent was the most possessive bastard I’d ever met.
That shit was hysterical.
Like I’d ever touch his wife.
Maybe I understood it then, though, or maybe subconsciously I had all along, since I was stealing a peek at Aster who still hovered on the outskirts, so damned gorgeous as she shifted on her feet like she felt out of place, like she didn’t belong, when I’d never seen any one person look so right.
And I knew I’d claw a fucker’s eyes out, too.
I should have then.
More than anything, I was sure I was going to have to do it now.
Still, I tried to ignore her and went to Gretchen and tossed a kiss to her temple, then I brushed my fingertip down Kate’s plump, pink cheek. The little, black-eyed girl was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen.
She made this gurgling sound and wrapped her tiny hand around my finger, and I swore I was done for again.
Then I looked up at Aster.
She had backed away. Her arms held over her chest like a cross. Like she couldn’t handle it. Like she was terrified of it.
Still, when her agate gaze tangled with mine, she mouthed, Happy birthday, Logan.
Her pain, her love, her regrets ran along the tether that pulled between us.
Sparks of light.
A prodding of purpose.
A pressure that compelled us in the direction we’d been destined for.
I wanted to go to her. Wrap her up and hold her and kiss the fuck out of her until she no longer wore that look in her eyes.
Gage grabbed me by the hand and gave me a good tug. “You have to hurry and get ready. We only have one hour which is only really super short. You don’t want to be late because being late is bad.”
I sent him a big smile. The kid was a stickler for the rules. “Right. On it.”