Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
“Look, look!”
Cece and Juan broke apart to watch Catherina run down the beach in the opposite direction with her kite trailing behind high in the air. She was still just as proud as could be.
Juan resituated himself on the blanket, using his arm and elbow as a prop to watch their girl. With his attention distracted, Cece took the chance to grab the little white box with the gold bow that she’d kept hidden at her back. Setting it directly in front of Juan’s line of vision, she took great pleasure in watching him notice the small box.
His gaze lifted to hers.
“What’s that?”
She winked. “Open it and see.”
He didn’t need to be told twice. Soon, he had the top of the box pulled off. The pretty satin bow was discarded with the rest as he pulled out the smallest pair of Nike runners. All white with golden swooshes on the side, the baby shoes matched the current ones Juan liked to wear day in and day out when he didn’t have to throw on a pair of loafers or something else to better fit one of his many suits.
“Cece,” he murmured, his fingers reaching for the little card dangling from a small piece of leather tied to the strap of the Nike baby shoe. He read the note aloud, “Are you ready to do this one more time?”
He laughed.
Cece shrugged. “I thought you might like that.”
Juan nodded, pushing up from the blanket again to cross the space between them. His lips found hers as their daughter shouted down the beach and ran their way. His lips whispered over her grinning mouth when he said, “I like it very much.”
Naz and Roz | Penny
5 Years Later ...
Roz POV
Spinning around in her apartment, Roz looked for the box she’d just walked away from not three minutes ago. It was the one with the papers stacked close to the top, and according to the doctor’s office that just called ... the information she was seeking had been in a file they mailed over the week before.
Unfortunately, her entire place was just boxes right now. Boxes to the left, and boxes to the damn right. Problem was, while most of the lower section of boxes had been packed and taped up properly, the ones on top were not. So it could be any number of boxes, and Roz just really didn’t have time to try and go through each box right now because—
The chiming of her phone in the other room had her sighing. That right there was why she didn’t have time, probably. She expected it to be one of her handlers for the company calling to make sure she was still on time and didn’t need them to send over a driver to bring her to the Hall. Running to catch the phone, she picked it up on the fourth ring just before it would go to her voicemail. Pressing it to her ear, she let out a breathless, “Hello?”
“How interested are you in making a stop in England before heading back to the states, anyway?”
Roz blinked. “Kyle?”
Silence answered her back on the other line before the man asked, “How many English people call you with a request to stop in England, Roz?”
It took her entirely too long to blink away the confusion settling in her mind and reply to him. Not that she wasn’t happy to hear from her old mentor—she was. Like she would always be whenever Kyle took time out of his very busy life to send little old her a message. Roz was getting better and better with this sarcasm thing.
Really, her former mentor didn’t call a lot. Usually once a year, but he might call twice if he heard news of something big happening in her career. She knew he kept up with everything—hell, he knew about things happening to her before it was even announced in the upscale music circles. But for the most part, Kyle didn’t call a lot and he let Roz have her space. After all, he wasn’t her mentor anymore—she had made it to the top of her career like she wanted to be, and he helped her to get her foot through the door.
And now ...
Roz turned around to look through the entryway of the kitchen, and peer into the living room where the boxes were stacked up high. A reminder that she had finally decided to choose a different path, now. Something that would take her back home where she wanted to be the very most.
Back to New York.
Back to him.
God, she missed Naz all the time.
“Did you hangup completely, or what?” Kyle asked.
Roz rolled her eyes, and went back to the conversation. “How do you know I’m leaving Australia? You haven’t called in eight months, and I only made this announcement two months ago.”