Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 339(@200wpm)___ 271(@250wpm)___ 226(@300wpm)
Leo Fenton is heroin—one dose and you’re hooked for life. I will never love someone the way I love him, not even if I live another fifty years and meet all the best and brightest men the world has to offer.
Because Leo is it for me. He’s my One.
And now I have to leave him behind…
I have to get out of here. Before I do something devastatingly stupid.
Leo absolutely deserves to know that he has a three-year-old son he’s never met, but I can’t be the one to tell him. It isn’t my place. Vivian has to do that. I have to convince her to do that…and then I have to step back and get out of the way. I have to do whatever it takes to help keep my cousin’s family together, while giving Leo the chance to find a place in his son’s life.
It’s going to be a nightmare, probably the most scandalous, awkward, upsetting, stress-inducing thing to happen to our family—hell, the entire town of Reindeer Corners!—since my great aunt Alma was caught sleeping with her twin sister’s husband not six months after Ada’s funeral. And Aunt Ada was dead! And eighty-six. And Uncle Tom and Alma swore their relationship had been above board while Ada was alive.
No, that scandal was a lab fire compared to the Chernobyl Vivian has unleashed.
The only thing that could make this worse were if Leo and I were together. My nephew is going to have a hard enough time getting used to having a surprise bonus dad pop on the scene, let alone if that new dad were also Aunt Caroline’s boyfriend. The thought of a family holiday celebration with Vivian and her husband on one side of the room, and Leo and me on the other was sufficiently stress-inducing before this secret came to light. Now it’s…impossible.
It’s impossible.
And I have to go.
“Can you pull over, please?” I murmur, reaching for my purse on the seat beside me. “Can you pull the car over? I need to get out.”
“What’s happening?” Kayla asks, her voice tight and urgent on the other end of the line. “Caroline? Are you okay? Caroline, I—”
“I’ll call you later,” I say, ending the call and shoving my cell into my bag with shaking hands. I reach for the door handle as the car slows at the next intersection, but Grace lunges across my lap, covering my hand with hers.
“No, you can’t,” she says. “Please! We need to get to the spa and inside as quickly as possible. Before the rest of the contestants arrive.”
I turn to her with a frown. “The rest of the contestants? They’re coming to the spa, too? But I thought—”
“The losers’ challenge is a laundry challenge. They’re going to be cleaning all the linens and towels at the spa while you’re getting treated,” Grace says in a rush. “At least that was the plan before, but Ainsley’s doing her best to find something for them to do that won’t put you all in such close contact. Not until she’s investigated the claims Jenna made this morning, anyway.”
My frown digs deeper into my already aching forehead. “What? What’s she done now? I was serious yesterday. If she continues to stalk me on the dark web, I’m hiring an attorney to deal with her.”
“She wasn’t on the dark web,” Grace says, easing back into her seat as the light changes and the car lurches forward again, moving steadily up Madison Avenue. “She found a video on social media. She swears she wasn’t looking for dirt on you this time, that she was just scrolling holiday in New York posts and…there you were.”
“And there I was doing what?” My eyes widen, my patience thinner than it would normally be. I have real problems to deal with, problems that have the potential to turn an innocent child’s life upside down. I don’t have time for Jenna’s petty nonsense.
Grace’s lips peel away from her teeth in a combination smile-wince. “There you were…under the mistletoe with the producer of the show? And he was kissing your forehead in a super romantic way?”
My stomach locks up again and the blood drains from my face. “On the ferry?”
Grace nods miserably. “Yeah. A sorority girl posted it on her feed. It doesn’t look good. Jenna’s threatening to sue for breach of contract.” She lifts her hands, fingers spread wide. “I mean, I don’t think Leo would cheat to help you win. I’ve only worked with him once, but he doesn’t seem like that kind of guy. It’s just—”
“He isn’t,” I assure her. “And he hasn’t. We just… We tried to be friends, but from the moment we met, it was just like we were meant to be more.” I shrug and shake my head, fighting tears. “But it doesn’t matter now. It’s over. It’s all over.”