Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74321 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
“Absolutely.” With that, he led me away from her. I couldn’t help but smirk as I hurried to keep up with him.
We passed the three surprised-looking men on our way inside, and Jack muttered, “Why weren’t you ever that passionate about me?”
Wes didn’t break his stride as he said, “Maybe it’s because you spent more than a decade treating me like shit and stringing me along, you selfish prick.” A surprised bark of laughter slipped from me, in part because it was the first time I’d ever heard him swear. Jack just looked stunned.
Once we were back in our room, I said, “Thanks for sticking up for me.”
“Always. It’s one thing to insult me. She’s been doing it all my life, so I guess I’m used to it. But I’m not about to sit back and let her do the same to you.” He picked up his phone and started tapping the screen.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding a hotel for the rest of our vacation.”
“So, we’re really leaving?”
“Definitely.”
I asked, “What about Millie?”
“The place I’m booking is just a few minutes from here. We can easily swing by and pick her up whenever she’s available.”
“Okay, good.” He concentrated on his screen for a minute or two, tapping and swiping now and then. I asked, “So, where are we staying?”
After one last click, he said, “The honeymoon suite at the Four Seasons. That’s the only thing they had left on such short notice.” He tossed his phone onto the bed and grinned at me. “Guess we’ll just have to rough it.” He pulled me close and kissed me before asking, “Will you please start packing while I take a shower? I want to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“On it.”
Within twenty minutes, we were dressed, packed, and ready to go. We stopped off to see Millie and her parents on the way out and made plans with them for later that day, and then we headed to the dock with our luggage. On the way, I asked, “Are we going to come back here for the wedding?”
“I’ve been on the fence about attending, so I guess it depends on how I feel at the end of the week. It’s actually not here at the house, by the way. It wouldn’t have been impressive enough to hold it here after my parents already used this location for their anniversary party, so they rented out an extremely high-end resort.”
I sighed and muttered, “Of course they did.”
By boat, our trip to the Four Seasons took less than ten minutes. We were met by a man named Jason, who turned out to be our private concierge. Who knew private concierges were even a thing? He apologized profusely because the suite wouldn’t be ready for a few hours, and Wes smiled at him and said, “No worries, seriously. I only made the reservation a few minutes ago, and I’m sure there are plenty of ways to amuse ourselves in the meantime. I think we’ll start with breakfast, and if you could please rent us a motorboat for the week, I’d really appreciate it.”
Jason said, “Consider it done, Doctor Bennett.” He directed us to one of the hotel’s restaurants, then called a pair of bellmen to whisk away our luggage.
Wes took my hand, and as we cut through the lush, gorgeous lobby on the way to the restaurant, I muttered, “Sweet baby Jesus, will you look at this place?” The best way to describe it was tropical opulence. It was trying to seem beachy and casual with its rattan furnishings and earthy color palette, but it was unmistakably expensive.
“Is everything okay?”
“I’m just a little overwhelmed. I mean, I’m someone who looks for the milk carton with the orange sticker on it, and now here I am, at a luxury resort acting like this is perfectly normal.”
“What does an orange sticker signify?”
“That it’s on sale for fifty cents off because it’s expiring soon,” I explained. “And the reason you don’t know that is the point I’m trying to make—we live in very different worlds.”
He stopped walking and gently caught my arm, and when I turned to face him, he said, “I know we come from different backgrounds. I also realize mine’s ridiculously overprivileged. I’ll never know what it’s like to worry about money, thanks to a great-grandfather who made a killing in the railroad industry, and then a grandfather who set up trust funds for future generations before I was born. I won’t try to justify it or downplay it. We both know it’s excessive, and that I didn’t earn any of it. But I will say this—the fact that we come from different backgrounds is only a problem if we allow it to become one, Ash.”
I asked, “It doesn’t bother you that I’ll never be able to pull my own weight?”