Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67465 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Kimmy,” I hiss. Yeah, I’m scarlet too, but for a completely different reason. “What did I say about the mad love stuff?” That I can only hope it’s coming? That would be nice. Dear god, with Van, it would be nice. But that’s for the future—months and years down the road. “It’s just a date. One date. We’re still getting to know each other, basically. People change a lot. He left when he was eighteen, for a good reason, and stayed away for a good reason, but now he’s back. It’s complicated. I was trying to tell Kimmy that there are things she doesn’t know about yet, but she will if she’d just talk to him.”
“And that’s when I got worked up, and my fork went flying.”
“I see.” Hadrian folds his hands, his half-eaten chocolate cheesecake sitting untouched since we joined his table. He scans us with those cool blue eyes of his, but they don’t make me uncomfortable because they’re sparkling like he understands everything. He seems like he’s ready to go to battle, but more so with humor and good taste. “I vote for the date. She seems like she’s waited long enough for it.”
Kimmy doesn’t like that, I can tell. “But he’s my long-lost brother. It’s not okay for him to come back and woo my best friend and steal her from me. Would you steal your little sister’s best friend?”
Hadrian bows over the table as best he can, which is just a bend forward and a sweep of his hand, but it’s regal. Like we’ve gone back in time a good century, and he’s doffing a top hat. “If she were as beautiful as you, lady, I have no doubt I would do whatever it took to make her mine.”
Ha! I’m firmly onside with this big burly stranger who might actually like to quote poetry and recite the classics despite his brutish look. I shoot Hadrian a look full of gratitude under lowered lashes. Kimmy’s mouth opens and closes. She’s shocked, so I decide to press the advantage.
“Hear Van out, Kimmy,” I beg. “Listen to him. Don’t hate him. It would break his heart, and if that doesn’t matter to you, then it would break mine, and I know that matters to you.”
She rolls her eyes. “Did he send you here to beg and handle me?”
I pick up my fork and point it her way. “If he did, I would have set him straight. No one handles my bestie. Handles. Goodness.” I wink at the stranger as a form of warning. He looks at Kimmy, and she looks at him, and neither of them looks away.
It might be a little bit silly or weird if it were anyone else, but all I can think of is that maybe there is one man on earth who isn’t afraid of a powerful alpha female who knows their own mind.
“They’re going to ask you to dinner,” I tell her, breaking the strange quiet. Her eyes whip away, back to me. “You need to go. No excuses.”
“Like I swallowed a watermelon whole and have to go to the emergency room?”
“Yeah. Like that.”
“Like I accidentally slipped on a piece of lint and sprained my ears, so I can’t sit and listen?”
“Yup.”
“As if I’ve suddenly discovered that I have an extreme dislike for gravy and a fear of wigs, so I can’t be in the same room with Nanny unless it’s also with my mom and Van?”
“Yes,” I sigh. “Yes, all of those.”
“Hmmph,” Kimmy snorts. “What fun is that?”
“It sounds fun to me,” Hadrian says. “Fun and ominous.”
“No first-degree murder either,” I warn her. “Try and control the impulses.”
“I suppose you’ll tell me that I need to take care with forks next.”
Kimmy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but this guy looks like he wants to drink whatever kind of tea she’s made of. His eyes are still glistening, and even I have to admit, there’s something about him that draws a person in. I’m not feeling it like Kimmy, though. I’m already drawn in by a completely different force in the universe.
“I think you should go,” Hadrian says again, gently. “Family is important. The people in our lives are all we really have. I can tell that you’ve missed him. That you want to go. Being tough is all well and good, but not at the expense of your heart and soul.”
Okaaaayyyyy, my vote is for Kimmy to marry this guy. He’s amazing. The best fork-slinging, cheesecake-eating, kind of hulking scary coincidence that’s ever happened to us.
“My soul isn’t in any danger,” Kimmy groans. She shoves her cheesecake away, but I know she’s going to get it boxed up for a more palatable moment when her appetite comes back. This stuff is too good to waste. It’s legit one of her only weaknesses.