Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25885 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 104(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
“You okay, boss?”
I jerk around to see Alec holding out a brown tool belt. I paste a smile on my face. “Just enjoying the sun.”
His gaze shoots to the clouds. “Sure, boss,” he replies, but I can tell inside he’s wondering if I’m all there.
I’m not. I never will be. Part of me is with my girl, Fischl, the one I gave my heart to at sixteen.
CHAPTER 2
FISCHL
“Your family is seriously weird,” I tell Sebastian, dropping the approved designs from the city onto his desk. I’ve been working for him since Van and Sadie entered kindergarten.
I’ve met a lot of architects over the years, but he’s the best. I’m not only saying that because he’s one of my favorite humans in the world. He’s actually more than human.
Sebastian was a guardian angel when I needed one. He came out of nowhere when I thought the world was going to rip the one thing from me that was mine: my baby boy Van. He saved us both. I don't know what would’ve happened if he hadn’t come along.
“All these years and you don’t have a better word for my family than weird?”
“I’m trying to be nice,” I mutter. “Glass houses and all.”
“Fischl.” Sebastian's hand snaps out to grab my wrist. “We’re family. Fuck the rest of them.” I’ll never get tired of hearing him say those words. Not only are we best friends but we are our own little family.
“Sebastian, I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want, but no one is buying what we’re selling.” I shake my head, wondering where he comes up with some of his ideas.
I met Sebastian when I was barely seventeen. He’d come to rehab or whatever messed-up name our religious nut families called the place they sent girls in my situation to. He was looking for a girl he’d knocked up. She wanted to give their baby girl up for adoption, but Sebastian wasn’t having it. In the end, the girl signed over her rights to him.
It turns out my best friend had banged his way through half the cheerleading team in high school. This was all information I found out as he sat holding a baby in his arms next to me in the nursery. We bonded at that moment. When he finished telling me all about it, I looked him dead in the eyes and asked if he was going to accept that he was gay.
After a long moment of silence, we both burst into laughter. It was the first time I’d laughed in months. A small pressure having lifted off my chest. We’ve basically been inseparable from that day forward.
“It’s not you making me do anything: I’m asking you to do it for me.”
“I, ah—” I stall. I shouldn’t be. This is an easy yes for me. Sebastian and I might as well be married. His daughter even feels like she is mine.
Sebastian comes from a wealthy family. They had mixed emotions about him showing up back home with a kid, but he was twenty and had his own place near the college he attended. There was a trust already established in his name, so finances weren’t an issue for him. But he had to follow certain guidelines in order to maintain that trust. Continuing to get an education was one of them.
He promised his family he would finish getting a college degree. That settled them some, but they’d been prickly toward me at first. Sebastian didn’t care what they thought; he moved me right into his place.
I took care of our babies while he buckled down to get his college degree finished. With time, his family came around a little more. Even more so when I agreed to let Sebastian pretend we were engaged.
Wearing the ring felt wrong, but it did help keep men away from me. That last thing I wanted was a man. One that would fill my head with lies.
As long as it appeared that Sebastian and I were together to the rest of the world, that kept his family off our asses. And we never told anyone differently. The only thing that mattered to us was that our kids grew up in a happy and healthy environment.
That had been working great for awhile but now people are starting to pressure us to actually get married.
“I’m only asking for you to think about it. Plus, I could adopt Van. You both would forever be secure,” he points out. Yes, having Sebastian’s last name would carry weight to it.
Hell, Sebastian had his architect company up and running the day he graduated and was certified. That was another thing his parents weren’t too happy about; they wanted him to go into business or law. But it was clear early on that Sebastian was going to be a gifted architect. And he is. He got so big that we’re expanding. At first, Sebastian was coming to this new city all on his own to open another branch of his architectural firm, but the kids didn’t want our family to be separated. They’ve always been each other’s best friend, so they weren’t scared of a new school like I would’ve been at their age.