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)
Who knew?
Maybe her mother could.
Someday, Cece would understand that’s exactly what it was.
“There’s my Cece!”
At the call of her name by a familiar voice, Cece spun her head around fast, finding one of her other most favorite people waiting at the other side of a very busy restaurant. He was already standing from his chair smiling her way, waiting to greet her the same way he always did.
To anyone else, Miguel was terrifying. His size, demeanor, the tone of his voice ... she knew people were scared of him, saw the way they acted around him. Cece, however, wasn’t scared of him at all.
Ever.
From the day he became her personal bodyguard, he also turned into her best friend. A playmate. Someone who made it his first mission to make sure she was safe but having the time of her life doing it.
Catherine let go of her hand, and Cece darted forward, not paying attention to anyone or anything else before she found her way into Miguel’s waiting embrace. He hugged her tight, lifting her up to stand her on the seat of the chair next to the table so that she could be a little higher to hug him.
“How was the plane?” he asked.
“Loud.”
Miguel laughed loud enough to draw attention. “It always is. So hey, guess what?”
Cece grinned. “What?”
He turned a bit, giving her a better view of someone else sitting at the table that she only then noticed. A young boy, about her age, or maybe a little older. Definitely taller, considering he could actually see over the table without needing a booster seat like she did. The young boy smiled her way, eyes so dark she thought they looked like the sky at nighttime, and his features familiar to her in a comforting way. His hair was just long enough to touch his eyelashes, and curl around his ears.
“Cece, this is Juan,” Miguel said, “my son. I had to grab him last minute from his preschool today because his little sister got sick, and their ma had to take her to the doctor. So, he had no one to pick him up from preschool. I thought he might like to come along with me today, maybe you two could play while me and your ma talk, huh?”
“Okay,” she said.
The little boy—Juan—smiled.
Cece’s heart beat faster.
She smiled back.
“Hi,” he said, “Cece.”
“Hi, Juan.”
Chapter3 – Her
Juan POV
Five years old ...
“Juan, come see this bug!”
Glancing over his shoulder to see one of his neighborhood friends bending over the sandbox at the park near his home, Juan didn’t move from his spot on the blanket. In the small patch of grass, he would rather be playing over there, but he was also just fine where he was. Mostly because—
“Do you wanna?”
Juan smiled at Cece. “Want to what?”
“Play. With your friend.”
He shrugged. “Nah, I’m okay.”
Cece didn’t look like she believed him, but she went back to flicking her finger against the screen of her tablet, playing some bubble bursting game that she liked. She wasn’t a dirt and bugs kind of girl. She wore pretty dresses, shoes that clicked when she walked, and he couldn’t remember a time when her hair wasn’t perfect all the time.
It was just who she was.
And yet, when he wanted to go to the park, she was quick to come along. She carried her tablet as they walked the four houses down in the suburb to get to the park, and he carried the blanket she always sat on. Juan might play a little while, but then he quickly found himself heading back to wherever she had decided to sit on the blanket.
He didn’t know why.
Never tried to convince her to play like he did.
This was okay, though.
Juan didn’t mind sitting with her. Even if he liked the sun, and she preferred to sit in the shade. Even if he wanted to see what that bug looked like—he bet it was cool—and Cece would rather stay right where she was on her blanket.
Yeah, because he liked being there.
With her.
“You shouldn’t ignore your friends,” Cece said.
Juan hummed under his breath, leaning over to pick a few green blades of grass from the ground. He braided them, a trick his ma, Stephanie, taught him one afternoon when they went for a walk together. “But you’re my friend, too, Cece.”
She looked up from her tablet. “I know.”
“So, I’ll stay with you.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Who’s going to play with you?”
Cece smiled a little. “Well ...”
He didn’t need her to say the answer when he already knew it. Fact was, Cece could make a lot of friends, if she wanted to. Everyone liked her. She smiled, and the whole world smiled back. It was one of the things he liked the most about her. A constant ray of sunshine, she gave him every reason to be happy.
Not everyone was like that.