Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Above all, he didn’t want her stressed. He wanted her to feel his support and know he had her back, not thinking she had to see to his needs and tie herself in knots to make life run smoothly for him.
She’d already delayed an entire day telling him they were starting a family, going so far as to seek out Genny in how to handle him, because she was worried about his reaction.
So…yeah.
That was a part of why he was struggling.
He felt shit he’d conditioned his fiancée to tread so damned lightly when it came to his feelings.
Though, he wasn’t pissed about it, at least not at Elsa.
But he was pissed at himself.
Eventually, Jamie’s brownstone came into view, and knowing the drill, when Paul double-parked outside, he and Elsa waited until Hudson got out and did a scan. They knew he deemed it safe when he opened Elsa’s door.
She folded out, Hale exited behind her, and Hudson followed them up the steps.
The door was open before they got there and Cadence was standing in it.
She was grinning widely, but Hale felt something shift in his chest when he took her in, because Mika’s girl was smart, sweet and beautiful, but she was also her mother’s daughter. At her age of twenty, she was forming a definite point of view, and she had a great deal of creative ambition. This manifested itself in a documentary she’d worked with her mom to film, edit and release, to some buzz and promising critical reviews.
She’d now started blocking out her next project, which was another documentary, but this one she was going to do on her own.
In other words, she was a busy woman, and she tended to look like that, with more important things on her mind than makeup, hair and the perfect outfit.
This didn’t mean she didn’t have style. But it leaned toward wide-leg jeans, graphic tees, slouchy sweaters, or short skirts, tights and high-top Doc Martens.
Now she was wearing a short, wraparound dress in a wispy fabric that had an understated pattern of browns and peaches, and long, full sleeves that were blousy and sheer. With this, she wore high, strappy heels.
Growing up with Genny (then Chloe and Sasha), he had a lifetime of knowing when a woman’s hair and makeup was done professionally.
Right now, Cadence’s was just that.
On their way up the steps, he glanced down at Elsa to see her already looking up at him, her brows raise to communicate she was thinking the same thing he was.
And…oh yeah.
Something was up, and it wasn’t the something they thought it was.
“Fantastic!” Cadence cried while giving them hugs. When she stepped back to let them inside, she said, “Now we only have to wait for Inger and Emilie, and we can get this gig started.”
“What…exactly…is this gig?” Elsa asked while Cadence shut the door.
Cadence didn’t answer.
She said, “Come in. It’s cocktail hour.”
He and his woman shared another glance while they moved into Jamie’s living room, but they didn’t have time to prod further. The room was packed, and although most the people there had been at his breakfast table, David, Elsa’s father, his girlfriend, Kristine, Oskar, Elsa’s brother, and Dru, Judge’s sister, had not been. Therefore, they were engaged in hellos and hugs.
Noticeably absent, though, were Nora, Jamie, Mika and Tom.
Further, Hale could smell garlic and herbs.
Something was cooking, in more than one way.
Running interference for Elsa, since her dad and brother didn’t know she was pregnant, Hale circumvented her cocktail and made her some sparkling water and cranberry juice in a martini glass so those who hadn’t heard the news would learn it with the attention it deserved.
“Anybody know what’s going on?” Hale asked as he stood with Elsa, David, Kristine and Oskar.
“No idea, but I’d like to make it official I’m at one with a command of attendance to a family meeting that involves two o’clock cocktails,” David remarked before taking a sip of his.
Oskar was scowling at his phone.
“Everything cool?” Hale asked him.
Oskar shoved his phone in his back pocket, saying, “Life is lessons. And the lesson I’m learning now is my mother and baby sister tend toward being pains in the asses.”
Hale understood him.
Oskar was right then on a very bumpy patch on the road of life. His divorce was recently final. He had half custody of two very young children. And for the first time as an adult, he was back at home in New York after living in Boston for years, making a family and practicing law.
His ex didn’t want a divorce, which made that scenario iffy for a good while.
Along with that, he’d had to find a new job, and house, and set up the latter for himself and his children, a task in New York that was rife.
And for the first time since he left home to start his undergrad, as a full grown adult, he was experiencing the caprices of his mother and youngest sister.