Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
When I realize the room has gone quiet, I look up at my sister and brother-in law and see they’re both staring at me with expressions of concern on their faces. Doc gives Astrid a nod, making me think she said something to him when I was spaced out, places a kiss on her forehead, and then rounds the island, holding his elbow out to me.
“Let’s step into my office, shall we?” he prompts, and my chin wobbles before I place my hand in the crook of his arm, and he helps me off the stool.
CHAPTER 3
Twyla
“I’ll make Luna some dinner. You go let Neil fix what’s bothering you, and I’ll get peace of mind knowing that my sweet niece will make it one more night without you poisoning her,” Astrid tells me, and Doc turns his head toward her.
“Goddess,” he rumbles, his warning tone saying more than words ever could.
She shrugs but looks a little chastised. “What? All the antibiotics they feed….” She doesn’t finish her sentence, so he must’ve given her a look that stopped her in her tracks. “I’m sorry. You’re right. Not the time. Love you, sis.”
“Love you too,” I murmur from the other side of her husband’s big body, and he leads me toward his study.
He guides me to the overstuffed leather chair and gestures for me to sit, then he takes the matching couch in front of me, seeing my brow is furrowed when he looks over at me. “Are you comfortable?”
I nod. “Yeah. Of course. It’s just… strange. At your office, you always take the chair, and we sit on the couch.”
He gives me a small smile before saying gently, “This couch is… special. I don’t allow anyone but your sister to sit on it now.” And at the twinkle in his eyes, I can imagine what would make a couch special and reserved solely for one’s wife, and my entire being flushes.
My hands go to my cheeks, and I press my cold fingers to my heated face. “This is what I’m talking about!” I cry out, my eyes filling with tears of frustration this time rather than self-pity.
“I missed what you and Astrid were talking about before the fast-food banter. Why don’t you fill me in on what’s bothering you?”
Instead of trying to calm myself and speak rationally, I blurt the first thing that pops into my head, which means it’s the God’s honest truth. “I don’t think I’m good enough for my husband.”
As stoic as Dr. Neil Walker normally is, I’m able to catch the split second his expression falters—his thick eyebrows dipping, his eyes narrowing slightly as there’s a blip of confusion within them, the tiny backward jerk of his head as he’s caught by surprise.
My husband is Doc’s very best friend. His brother, though not by blood, and not just because the two of them are married to sisters. They’re extremely close, the family they chose for themselves. He knows everything about Seth, down to his deepest, darkest secrets. Even more than I do, because of their many years of friendship and working together. Since that day Doc contacted Seth when he earned his master’s from MIT at the age of twenty, after having graduated from high school when he was thirteen, offering the certified genius a position as the tech guru behind a team of mercenaries Doc was putting together. When Seth heard Doc’s story, about why the world-renowned psychologist wanted to form a group of badass but stealthy mercs who focused their sights on rapists, he didn’t even hesitate. He was all in. And ever since that very moment, they’ve been thick as thieves, literal partners in crime.
But no one knows that. To everyone else, they own just a normal, everyday security company—not at all involved with the untimely deaths that look like complete accidents.
So I guess I should take it as a good sign that Doc looks taken aback by my outburst, seeing as he knows Seth better than anyone. He would be the one my husband would go to if he needed to vent to someone about being unhappy or unsatisfied. But still.
“What brought about these feelings? Did something happen? Did Seth say anything that would lead you to believe he’s disappointed with you in some way?” Doc asks, and his questions come rapid-fire, his voice tighter than I’ve ever heard it in the many official therapy sessions we’ve had at his office. His tone sounds almost… protective over me. Like he’s about to call up Seth and give him a stern talking to, which is both heart-warming—knowing my brother-in-law cares about me, and enough that he’d defend me against his own best friend—and startling, because…
“No! Seth has never spoken an unkind word to me since the moment we met. And nothing happened. It’s more… something hasn’t happened,” I tell him, seeing Doc immediately relax back in his special couch.