Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65355 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
“Oh, look who’s here,” he said from the opening, stepping out into the light.
He looked different, wearing a cap and coveralls. She assumed he had put them on to work on the car and try to get it going.
“Yes. Your chariot awaits you,” she laughed.
“That’s my girl,” he laughed, walking toward her and pulling her close.
He pulled her to him and kissed her, not holding back. Whether he meant it, or it was only for display, she didn’t hold back either. They stood there, kissing, until a voice nearby shouted in their direction.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Leslie pulled away, taken by surprise by the intrusion. She looked in the direction it had come from, only to see Tucker standing there, staring at her. Jerking away from the arms that were still embracing her, she scrutinized the face of the man she had kissed, noting his smirk and the thin scar on his neck she hadn’t noticed before. Fucking Marshall!
“You bastard,” she hissed at him.
He only laughed and walked away.
“Get in the car,” Tucker barked at her.
Rather than argue, she returned to the car and sat down in the passenger’s seat, assuming he’d want to drive home. She could see the brothers exchanging heated words and then Tucker began stomping toward the car, slipping in on the driver’s side and starting the vehicle without saying a word. He began to drive toward home, his face twisted into a mask of anger. Finally, she decided it was up to her to break the silence.
“I’m sorry, Tucker. He acted like he was you and he had the cap on. I didn’t realize . . .,” she said, her voice trailing off as she grasped how lame it must sound.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he said.
So, they didn’t. They drove the rest of the way back to his house in complete silence. Leslie looked out the window, biting her lip to keep from saying anything. When they arrived, he got out and went into the house without even waiting for her to follow him. She sat there for a minute, then gathered her shopping bags from the backseat and took them in the house.
After putting the groceries she had bought into the fridge, she went upstairs to check on the babies and then unpacked the things she had bought for herself, fiddling with the tablet for a bit and then stretching out to think. This was so messed up. How could she not have known the difference between Tucker and his brother? Then again, she had only been with Tucker once and they were identical. Without the cap, perhaps she’d have noticed, but with it on, she could see no difference in them.
“Fuck,” she said into the empty room around her, closing her eyes to gather her thoughts. Soon, she had drifted off to sleep.
“Leslie?” a voice said from the darkness, sounding as if it wasn’t the first time it had called out to her.
She slowly made her way through the fog, back into the daylight. Marla stood beside her bed, gently shaking her arm and calling out to her to wake up. She finally opened her eyes, sitting up and blinking at the woman.
“I’m sorry, Leslie. It’s almost time for me to go and I didn’t want to leave without telling you I had left,” Marla told her.
Bewildered, Leslie glanced at the clock by her bed. She’d slept for nearly three hours. She nodded and thanked Marla, slowly climbing from the bed as the nanny left the room ahead of her. A sense of dread filled her as she stepped down to the nursery to look over the babies and retrieve the portable monitor to take with her downstairs.
“They just laid back down, so you probably have a few hours if you were still planning on cooking. Mr. Rollins told me to let you know he wouldn’t be home for a while, so you might just be wasting your time tonight.”
“Thanks, Marla. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Leslie replied.
Returning to her room, she laid back down on the bed and dozed off again. Despite the long nap she had already taken, she felt completely exhausted. It was only when the babies woke up a bit later, startling her from her sleep, that she realized she was not only tired but depressed.
What a difference a single day could make. She had woken up after her night with Tucker feeling on top of the world, and now, she felt like she was clinging to the bottom rung. Her breasts ached, heavy with milk, as she went to the babies’ room to feed them and gather her thoughts.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“He’s gone,” Tucker announced when he returned home a few hours later.
“Who is gone?” she asked, still lost in her own thoughts and feeling particularly disinterested.
“Marshall. He’s gone. He left,” he said.