Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“Honey,” Mom starts, but Dad shakes his head, cutting her off again.
“Let her speak, Dad, Jesus.” Brady shakes his head and rubs his hand over the back of his neck in agitation.
“How dare you?” Dad’s voice is lethal now, every word like a razor blade. “How. Fucking. Dare you?”
“Okay,” Ryan begins. “Dad, that’s enough. I know you’re pissed, but come on. Holden is a nice guy.”
“Yeah, let them talk,” Brady adds, and I could kiss them with gratitude. “It’s not that bad.”
“He’s not welcome here,” Dad says, ignoring my brothers, and the murder hornets are back to being good and pissed off. Holden’s grip tightens on my hand, as if he’s silently telling me that it’s okay.
But it’s absolutely not fucking okay.
“If he’s not welcome here, then I’m not welcome here,” I reply, my voice softening. But there are no tears because I refuse to fucking cry. “Because where I go, he goes. We’re a team. So, if that’s really how you feel, we’ll be going.”
I let my gaze skim over the rest of my family. The girls all have tears in their eyes. Erin has to wipe her cheeks, and I can see the pain in her eyes. Polly mouths, I love you.
I grin at her.
“See you around.”
I turn to leave, but Holden doesn’t move with me, and I frown up at him.
“Before we go,” he says without any hesitation in his voice, “I want to make it clear that any and all of you are always welcome in our home. Millie loves you. You’re her family. This doesn’t change that.”
He nods and helps me into the passenger seat, and then he climbs into the truck, starts it up, and with all of those eyes trained on us, we pull away.
I can’t help but watch in the side mirror as my home gets smaller and smaller until we turn the corner toward the highway.
When Holden turns off of Wild property, the floodgates open, and I let the tears come.
“Th-that was so much w-worse than I expected.”
“Hold on, baby girl,” he says as he turns away from town, toward his property.
“I’m so fucking pissed! How dare I? How dare they! What a bunch of jerks! They’re my family. They’ve always told me that they’d be here for me, no matter what. Well, what a bunch of bullshit that was. What a bunch of assholes. Where are we going?”
“To the only safe spot on my ranch,” he growls, and takes me on a dirt road that doesn’t get much use.
Finally, he comes to a clearing and stops, and I lose my breath.
It’s the same view that I have on my ranch. My happy place, with a view of the mountains, and I cry even harder. Because this is exactly where I would go when I needed to be sad, and it’s as if Holden just knew.
He jumps out of the truck and comes around to my side and opens the door, unclips my belt, and turns me sideways to face him, but he doesn’t pull me out of the vehicle. With his hands on my thighs, he just watches me, and I lean forward and rest my forehead on his chest as I let the tears come.
God, I’m so angry and sad and disappointed in them.
I knew it wouldn’t be great, but I wasn’t expecting that. To see my dad stare at me with so much contempt, I don’t know if my heart can take it. And I also don’t know if we’ll ever recover from it.
“Aww, Rosie,” he whispers, and that just makes me cry harder.
I told him not to call me that.
But I can’t get the words out.
“I’m so sorry.” He’s crooning to me as if I’m a wounded animal that he’s trying to comfort. And I do feel wounded.
I feel wounded down to my soul.
“Please don’t cry, baby girl. They don’t deserve your tears.” He kisses the top of my head and rubs his hands up and down my arms as I cling to his T-shirt and cry into his chest. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your f-fault,” I manage to get out. “My dad was so mean. He’s never, ever looked at me like that. And I l-l-love him so much.”
“I know.” He kisses my head again. “I know you do. He needs some time. That’s all. This was a shock for him, and he just needs a little time.”
I shake my head and take a deep, shaky breath. When I finally look up at him, Holden is staring down at me with hard blue eyes, and it makes me blink in response.
“Now, we need to get some things straight, baby girl.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
HOLDEN
“We do?” She swallows and wipes at her tears, but her bottom lip is still quivering with the pain that her family just inflicted on her, and it’s all I can do to stay calm.