Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
My daughter will understand that my love for you doesn’t have anything to do with my love for her. Your father sucked at communicating that. I will learn from his mistakes. You will help me. We will do it together.
My heart started beating out of control when I read the next message.
I just landed in Hermosa Beach. I’m coming to you.
Fuck. You’re not home. Tell me where to find you.
I’ll come back.
I’m at the beach. All I can think about is holding you again, kissing you and smacking that ass so hard for ever believing that I could be better off without you.
The last text made no sense but caused me to chuckle.
I just ran into a man walking a fucking goat.
***
POOR DELIA, HER HEAD WAS FULL of shampoo when I burst into the bathroom rambling on about Graham’s texts. I’d expected her to be angry that I had broken our pact to forego cell phones, but she wasn’t. After she rinsed off, she hopped out of the shower and found me rummaging through my suitcase for something other than the grungy, haven’t-been-washed-in-three-days, sweatpants I was wearing.
“Are you okay?”
“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have made the decision for us. I love him, Del. Graham’s right. I wouldn’t be taking him away from his daughter. I’d be giving her another person in her life who loves her. I’m not Theresa. I want to be involved in Chloe’s life. I realized last night that I wasn’t just mourning the loss of Graham. I’d also lost a little girl I loved.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Drop down on my knees and beg for forgiveness.”
Del snort-laughed. “He’s a man. If you drop to your knees, you won’t be able to beg for anything. Your mouth will be too full.”
She had a point. Stripping out of my clothes, I ran back into the bathroom in a bra and panties to wash up. As I used the facecloth to wash my face, under my arms, and all of the important parts, I spoke to Del. “I owe him such a big apology. I hope I haven’t ruined things for us. He seems to understand why I did it already. I just hope I can make things right again.”
Del leaned against the bathroom door as I brushed my teeth. She was holding some of my clothes and held them out to me when I finished. “Here. Wear this. Your tits bulge out of the top of that shirt. That’ll go a long way toward making it right again.”
I smiled as I slipped on my pants. “These tits are how it all started, ya know.”
“And that feather on your foot. I get credit for some of this, too, since it was my husband who inked you with the identifying mark that helped Mr. Big Prick solve the Soraya puzzle.”
The mention of the tattoo on my foot made me look down. My feet were bare, and I stared at the feather. Graham had gotten the same one inked over his heart. How could I have thought that being without him was good for either of us? We’d been together a little over a month when he’d made my name permanent on his body. He was the most romantic, arrogant, stuck-up suit I’d ever come across in my life. And he was perfect for me.
Washed and dressed, I flitted back into the bedroom in search of some perfume. Del continued to follow me around. “Are you going to text him, or just wait for him to show up here again?”
“I don’t know. What do you think I should do?” My heart was racing with anticipation. If I had to wait much longer to get to him, it might explode.
Del was quiet as I brushed out my hair and slipped on my flip flops. Then she picked up the phone and called Tig. I half listened as she spoke. When she hung up, she grinned at me. “I have a plan for you to reunite with MBP.”
“A plan?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then take off your shirt again.”
CHAPTER 33
GRAHAM
A FEW BLOCKS FROM WHERE Soraya was staying, I stumbled upon an old red caboose that was turned into a diner. Smiling, I decided to go in and grab a cup of coffee. I’d traveled all morning and then walked the beach for hours waiting to hear back from Soraya. Some caffeine was definitely in order if I was going to have the stamina to go at it as hard as I planned to when I finally got my woman back in my arms.
“I’ll have a large, black coffee,” I said to the waitress as I slid into the booth. The entire inside of the restaurant was retrofitted to function as a diner, yet much of the original interior of the railroad car was intact. I was sitting in an actual train seat when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Seeing Soraya’s name on my screen made my entire body instantly jumpstart back to life. I swiped to open and was surprised to find it wasn’t a text at all. It was a picture. Or pictures, actually. Very unexpected ones. A picture of her gorgeous tits, a picture of her sexy legs, and a picture of her very fuckable ass. The three shots were similar to our first text exchange, the photos she had left behind on my phone when she stormed out of my office. Only I could see these photos were taken recently from the tan lines that now marked her skin. Her middle finger that was flipping me off between her cleavage that first time, was noticeably absent from the new photos. I saved the pictures to my iPhone and texted back immediately.