Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77005 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Anything.”
“Tell me when you think I’m drowning. I’m too far gone to tell anymore.”
“I’ll do you one better. I’ll jump in after you. And then I’ll drown his ass.”
After I hang up with Jess, I get in line to pay and spot Andy, Mona’s attorney, three rows down from me. I wave, he waves. Then I get a wild hair up my butt and march over to do something about it. “Hey, Andy. How are you?”
“Great, Blue. How are you?” he mimics my delivery, looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. Andy is a stocky, middle-aged guy who reminds me of Costanza on Seinfeld so this makes me snort.
“I know you can’t say anything to me due to attorney client privilege, but I need to say my piece.”
Andy frowns.
“How the hell could you have let her forget to pay her property taxes for two years,” I whisper hiss. “Two.” I hold up the corresponding fingers. “Really, Andy? We could’ve lost the ranch and the rescue.”
His eyes narrow and he frowns. “What are you talking about? I have no idea where you got that from. Her taxes are payed automatically through the trust. I have nothing to do with it.”
My eyebrows climb up my forehead. Holy freaks in hell.
“Trust?”
Andy looks confused. “Mona Harris is the only heir to the Harris Ranching fortune. It’s public information.”
I drive straight home in the truck Darby was kind enough to lend me and head for the barn. That’s where I find Mona.
“Guess where I was just now?” I say to her and hang my elbows over the door of the wash stall.
She’s in the middle of curry combing Legend and he’s loving every minute of her tender care. At my question, she looks me over.
“Wrestling with the goats?”
“What? No. I took a shower before I went into town.”
She looks skeptical. “Well, that’s good.”
Just to be sure, I check my blue t-shirt dress for animal hair and find one stray, grey hair. “Guess again.”
She squints, checks my hair out. “Hmm, taking a sauna at the resort?”
I touch my hair. It’s not that big. “Wrong again. I was at the supermarket.”
“Oh, good. Did you get the Häagen Dazs?”
“Yes, I got the Häagen Dazs. You know what else I got? The scoop from Andy.”
She stops currying the horse and her eyebrows climb all the way up her forehead.
“Yep, that’s right. Ya been busted.”
“In my defense––”
“Why? Just tell me why?”
She nods and takes a deep breath. For once, Mona is serious. “You’re twenty-nine years old, Blue, and you’re stuck in a rut. I wanted to shake you out of it. I don’t want you to end up like me, childless and alone because you’re smart enough not to go back to a loser who doesn’t deserve you, but you’re too scared to move forward…. I want more for you. I want it all. And staying here with me isn’t the healthiest thing for you but,” she shrugs, “I’m too selfish to let you go.”
Tears stream down my face. “You know how much I love your crazy ass, right?”
“Yes. I do, Smokey.”
Walking around the stall door, I throw my arms around her and bury my nose in her Chanel Nº. 5 scented neck. “Don’t ever do anything like that to me again.”
A day later, I’m in the barn getting lunch buckets read for the horses when Shane appears in the threshold of the feed room. We’ve been sneaking around at night and it has not been fun. Which loosely translated means we’re both sleep deprived and edgy. But we also agree that getting Aidan and Mona involved could throw off the progress that Aidan has made. You know, mess with the balance in a way.
Shane leans against the jamb and crosses his arms. His biceps are popping off, his pecs two hard slabs of muscle hidden under his USMC t-shirt. A new one. I’m keeping his old one forever.
“What are you doing, handsome?”
“Aidan is memorizing a new script. He’s gonna hit the ground running when he gets out of here in a few weeks.” He nods excitedly.
The smile slides off my face. The reminder that they’re both leaving soon makes me nauseous. We haven’t spoken about what will happen next. We haven’t spoken at all with all the great sex we’ve been having and I’m not one to complain but…
“Why the frown, shirina?”
He pushes off the jamb and walks in, pining me in place against the wall with his hips. Dropping his knees, he grinds against me. Between his silky basketball shorts and my cotton ones there’s not much separating us. I pant while fireworks go off in the backs of my eyelids and sparks shoot along my skin all the way to my groin. Shane takes my hands and holds them above my head on the wall while he kisses me slowly.