Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“It’s fine. I was just talking to Winnie.”
“In there?” He cocked one brow.
“I didn’t want to wake you.” I slipped past him into the room.
“Everything okay at work?”
“Yes. Have you heard from the towing company again?”
He shook his head. “No. They said they’d call me later this afternoon.”
“Okay.” I glanced at the window. “Should we try to start it again?”
“No!” he said with such vehemence that it startled me. “I mean, I’ll try it again in a minute. I don’t want you to have to go outside.” He shut the bathroom door.
After one more hopeless look out the window—the snowpocalypse raged on—I plugged my phone in and flopped into bed. When Gianni came out of the bathroom, he put all his winter gear on again and went outside. A few minutes later, he came back in and shook his head.
“Still dead?” I asked, stifling a yawn.
“Still dead.” He took off his stuff again and looked at his phone. “And no call from the towing company. Sorry.”
“Whatever.” I sighed and plumped up my pillow before falling back and staring up at the ceiling. “I’m giving up on this day. And this week. Maybe this year.”
“It’s only January.” Gianni lay on his side, facing me, head propped in his hand.
“I know. But nothing is going right so far.”
“Stop it.” He pushed some hair off my face. “The blizzard is out of your control, and Fiona Duff is just an editor. Who even reads magazines anymore? You can do bigger and better things.”
I closed my eyes, folding my hands on my stomach. “It’s just embarrassing.”
“What is?”
“To swing and miss.”
“But better than not swinging at all, right?”
I shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
“Ellie, it is.” He took my hand. “Trust me. No one hits a home run off every pitch. This wasn’t your pitch.”
“My mother does.”
“Huh?”
I exhaled, annoyed with myself for what I’d just admitted. “My mother does everything right the first time, and everything just comes easy to her. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even be related to her, let alone her only daughter. She’s perfect.”
“Ellie, you are one hundred percent your mother’s daughter.” He linked his fingers with mine. “And no one is perfect—although you’re pretty damn close.”
“Stop it.”
“I’m serious. You’re too hard on yourself, but you’re beautiful and great at your job. You’re smart and professional. You’re creative and loyal and you work your ass off. You can talk to anyone, probably in two languages. And in addition to all that, turns out you’re an amazing fuck!”
I laughed, even though I didn’t want to. “Thanks.”
“You are destined to do big things, and Fiona Duff is going to kick herself for not getting you in her magazine when she could.”
“I wish I hadn’t told my mother about Fiona Duff. She already called me this morning wanting to know how the tasting went.”
“It went fucking great! You sold a ton of wine and everyone there raved about the bottles you brought. Your parents are in France because they trust you, as they should, to be the face and voice of Abelard Vineyards while they’re away. It’s like they left their baby in your hands.”
“I guess.” I yawned again, suddenly exhausted. “Why am I so tired?”
“We were up all night.”
“Oh yeah.” A tiny smile tugged at my lips.
He moved a little closer to me and draped an arm over my waist. It felt so good I let him leave it there as I dozed off.
ELEVEN
GIANNI
I woke up with my arm still around Ellie, who’d rolled over to face the wall. I was surprised by how nice it felt to hold on to her while we slept. In fact, my first instinct upon waking was to pull her even closer, my body curled tightly behind hers like two spoons in a drawer.
But as soon as I realized what I was doing, I took my arm off her and rolled onto my back. She’d probably get irritated if she woke up to unauthorized cuddling. Besides, being that close to her was giving my dick ideas that I definitely couldn’t follow through with. Not only were we out of condoms, but our hall pass had expired. No way was Ellie going to agree to any more sex.
Exhaling, I stared at the knotty pine ceiling of our room and faced the fact that I should probably go pretend the car suddenly started and get her home. She’d forgiven me for last night and told me she understood about leaving Etoile. What more could I ask for?
With one last reluctant glance at the curve of her hip and her dark, wavy hair on the pillow, I got out of bed, grabbed my keys, and shrugged into my coat. Opening the door just enough to slip out, I quietly closed it behind me and slogged through the snow to my car, which was buried again. When I pulled open the driver’s side door, at least four inches of snow blew into the front seat. Cursing, I brushed as much of it out as I could and slid behind the wheel.