Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
“Wow. And I guess he felt the same way since he had four other wives, yet wanted to be buried with her?”
“Guess so. They couldn’t be together, but they never stopped loving each other.”
Our eyes locked, but Layla quickly looked away.
“So you went out to California to visit their resting place?” she asked.
“Yes. And plant a giant garden.”
Her forehead crinkled. “A garden?”
I laughed at the crap I’d spent my first full week as a free man doing. “When they first got married, she wanted a house in the suburbs. He wanted to be near his office and live in the penthouse he already owned. They agreed that they would stay in the city for a few years and then move to Westchester or Long Island. She had a huge plan for a garden in the backyard when that happened, with all her favorite flowers and trees. I remember her working on it all the time. It was on big, blueprint-size drafting paper, with all kinds of details. She worked on it once or twice a week for years, constantly adding things and redesigning it. After we moved out of my father’s penthouse, I never saw those plans again. She got sick pretty soon after they split.”
“So you planted a garden for her?”
“Not just any garden, her garden. My father’s attorney had those old blueprints with his will and legal papers. He’d kept her plans all these years and left directions to hire someone to plant the garden where they were buried.”
“That’s oddly romantic.”
“Took me a week to find all the stuff she wanted planted. My neck is still sunburned from digging that thing.”
“You planted it yourself?”
I nodded. “The plan was for me and my mother to make it together. We never had the chance. It was the least I could do. And as much as I despised my father for a lot of things, I hope my parents are reunited and enjoying the garden together.”
The waitress interrupted when she brought our dinner. After she left, Layla was looking at me funny.
“What?” I said.
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Just eat and don’t make me like any more of the things that come out of your mouth.”
I smirked. “I think you’d like the things I can do with my mouth even more.”
Chapter 8
* * *
Layla
I had been quiet since we arrived at the airport. While we waited in the lounge for boarding to begin, I busied myself on my laptop with emails. I could work twenty-four seven and never work myself out of things to do at my firm. But today, if I was being honest, my head stayed down with my nose buried in work because I didn’t want to talk to Gray.
Last night, we’d made plans to meet for breakfast before our flight. But after hours of staying awake, fixating on the man I’d gotten a glimpse of last night, feeling like I’d been lulled into seeing the man I’d gotten to know two years ago—a man who had crushed me—I needed to use my head and not my heart to put things into proper perspective.
Conveniently, I had a headache this morning and didn’t join him for breakfast. I didn’t need any more personal alone time with Gray. I’d just gotten my life back on the right track, and the last thing I wanted was to reopen old wounds.
After hearing him out, though, I felt bad. I really did. But it had taken me almost a year to move on, and we hadn’t even been physical. The connection we’d shared was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and his lie—technicality or not—coupled with his crazy past and the fact that he was now a client, was all just too much.
I didn’t have a good track record with picking the right guy. Neither did my mother. And I was determined not to become her—a woman who spent her life with a man who was never really hers—no matter how much I felt the temptation gnawing at me.
When our fight home reached cruising altitude, I took out my laptop in an attempt to ignore Gray. He gently reached over and closed it.
“It’s going to get expensive if I have to lock you up at thirty-five thousand feet every time I want to talk to you,” he said.
“Sorry. I’m catching up on some things I didn’t get to last night. Did you want to discuss your partnership agreement?”
He shook his head.
I took a deep breath and exhaled audibly. “Gray, you’re starting a new company. You have your life back. You should move on. I’m sure all you’d have to do is snap your fingers to get a date. Did you even notice the way the flight attendant was looking at you when she came over to give us the hot towels? She’s attractive. Why don’t you ask her out?”