Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Surprising news: they were still thick as thieves, loved each other bunches and had just started trying to make a baby.
Not surprising news: we all still thought Kenneth was touched, but he loved our girl, wanted to lay the world at her feet, so we found ways to get over it.
“And I didn’t care,” she continued. “I knew what I wanted, and it was him. So even though I respect all you all, and I can’t say it didn’t give me pause, I made the right decision for me. You don’t have just you to think about, Malia. You have Liam. But I can testify that those two are two peas in a pod. They get along like a house on fire. Darius loves his son to his bones, and Liam feels the same way for his daddy. So yeah. I agree. Darius took a long damned time getting his head out of his ass. But now, I don’t mean to be a bitch or anything, but it’s you with your head in your ass, Malia.”
Toni didn’t say anything, which was tacit agreement with what Lena said.
“Okay then, how do I go about doing that?” I asked. “Because Liam can’t be around. He caught his dad dropping me off, and it was all kinds of uncomfortable. I don’t want his hopes up if things go south.”
Lena shrugged. “No probs. Kenneth and me’ll take him to a movie or something.”
“Or Tony can ask him for a game of one-on-one.”
“Or Dad can tell him he needs his help with one of his projects.”
“Or we can ask him to babysit Talia while Tony and I have a date night.”
“I see we’ve got the covert part of this operation covered,” I mumbled before taking another sip of my drink.
“You say the when, we’ll do the how,” Lena declared.
She exchanged a fist-bump glance with Toni, them being too far away from each other for an actual fist bump.
I felt my belly being tied up in knots with nerves.
Could I be close to getting everything I wanted, everything I wanted for my son?
Could we be close to making a family with Darius?
“You hold a mean grudge,” Lena noted. “What snapped you out of it?”
I shook myself out of my happy-terrifying thoughts and shared, “Darius told me to get out of his truck, but before that, he had a lot of other words to say that made me put myself in his shoes and see the truth of it.”
“Glad that happened,” Lena said quietly.
Toni shot me a small smile.
“He also told me about some guy who got angry with him for firing him, or whatever they do in that life, who found out about Liam and me somehow, and he was going to hurt us. Darius put a stop to it, but obviously, it really tweaked him. So I understood pretty well why he went to such lengths to keep us safe.”
I was talking into my martini, wondering how I was going to finagle a meeting with Darius that he couldn’t shut down, at the same time wondering if I needed another olive.
So when Toni said a vibrating, “Lena,” I looked to my sister.
She was swirling her olives in her martini with acute precision and attention.
“You didn’t,” Toni whispered, her words still vibrating, now with fury.
Lena dropped the olives and looked to me. “He put it together, I didn’t tell him.”
Cold washed over my skin.
“Who?” I asked.
“Who do you think?” Toni ground out. “Michael.”
My gaze flew back to my sister.
“I didn’t tell him!” she exclaimed. “I swear. I was talking to you on the phone, I mentioned Liam. He asked who Liam was. I didn’t think. I didn’t know. So I said he was your son. He said, ‘She’s kinda young to have a son.’ And since I didn’t realize it was supposed to be secret, I told him you got knocked up in high school. That was it. He put together the rest. And seriously, it’s a surprise other people didn’t too. But saying that, you disappeared to Fort Fun, and this was around the time Mister Morris was killed, so I can see people not making the connection. Darius and you were well through before you vanished, and you weren’t showing yet. And then you came back, and Darius found out, and then Eddie Chavez was everywhere, covering for you guys, laying it down to anyone who would listen that you met some asshole in Fort Collins, and he’d done a runner and what a dick guys could be, because you’re a great gal and deserved better.”
Eddie again, looking after his brother.
I had a feeling I owed those boys a lot.
“Whatever happened to Michael?” I asked.
“I know what’s gonna happen to Michael if Darius knows he was the one who gave up the goods to that guy who wanted to go after you and his boy,” Toni said by way of answer.