Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“What?” I asked.
That definitely hadn’t been mentioned.
“You didn’t manipulate me,” he groaned.
“I did.” She rolled her eyes. “We were friends. We’d been friends for a while. And I slowly whittled him down, day by day, until he said yes to the baby thing.”
Aodhan blinked. “You told her that?”
“Were you going to?” she asked.
Aodhan’s mouth shut tight.
No, he wasn’t going to tell me.
“Bowie won’t find out,” she said as if this was an old argument. “And I told you to call her years ago, before anything went down at the hospital with those nurses. The worst of which has moved back to town now that he’s out of prison.”
“I know,” Aodhan grumbled. “I already got surveillance on his house.”
“Good,” she said. “I know that he’s not allowed within a certain number of feet of us thanks to that restraining order that was granted, but I’m not fully confident that he won’t try to start something with us.”
“The guy got released?” I questioned.
Damn, I felt like I had whiplash. Their topics of conversation were everywhere.
“He got out weeks ago but finally made his way back here,” Aodhan answered. “We were hoping that he wouldn’t, since there were so many of his victims in this area. But we’re fairly sure that he’s moving back just to fuck with us. He knows that he has a lot of unhappy families here.”
From what I understood, Bowie, Danyetta and Aodhan had been the lucky ones. They’d found out very fast what had happened. They hadn’t taken an infant that wasn’t theirs home. They hadn’t bonded with another infant that wasn’t their baby. They hadn’t raised them and molded them into who they wanted them to be.
But other families had.
Lots of them.
And lots of them were very angry still.
A news special had just come on last week talking about the man going to prison—and now he was getting out?—and what the families were doing now.
Four of them were living in the same neighborhood, and they shared custody of their kids. How did you take a child away from the only person they knew? That’s right. You didn’t.
That was like a punch right to the gut.
“We only thought the hospital broke protocol with us, didn’t we?” I winced.
Aodhan smiled.
“Funny how fate works out, isn’t it?” he asked.
A big, brawny man like Aodhan talking about fate? That was like a soothing balm to my ragged soul.
“Yeah,” I said softly. “Funny.”
“Well,” Folsom said. “You got enough in those bags for me?”
“I have enough for you, since I knew you were coming over, yes.” He looked at Danyetta, his eyes narrowing. “You need to apologize.”
“I’m sorry,” she answered immediately.
Aodhan rolled his eyes. “Not to me, Yeti. To her. She didn’t need to deal with this today.”
Actually, today had been the best day for it.
I’d already been on the verge of throwing myself at him.
Knowing that he hadn’t moved on, not even a little bit? That was enough to force me off the ledge I’d been straddling.
I was now fully committed.
If he wanted me, he could have me.
CHAPTER 13
You don’t have to die to be dead to me.
-coffee cup
AODHAN
Something had changed.
Whether it was learning that I hadn’t blocked her after all, or what she’d learned from Danyetta, I didn’t know.
But after the two extra women at my kitchen table left, I would be asking her.
“What’s with that look on your face?” Folsom asked.
Was she always so in your face?
Luckily, the words weren’t directed at me.
Because I wasn’t sure I could tell her what was actually on my mind—her best friend.
That wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about right now with all the extra people in my business that didn’t actually need to be there.
“I’m thinking that this table is a little cramped with four people sitting at it,” I told her, not outright telling her to leave, but insinuating all the same.
Folsom grinned. “You want us to leave, don’t you?”
If she could be direct, so could I.
“I want you to leave,” I confirmed.
Folsom clapped comically. “See, look how easy it is to be direct. It didn’t hurt you or me for you to say that, either.”
“It kind of hurt me,” Danyetta stood up, gathered her Egg McMuffin trash, and threw it into the trash can beside the back door.
Her eyes narrowed on something outside, then she dropped her head and looked at her feet.
“What?” I asked.
She gestured toward the door, and I looked up just as my alarm alerted me that two people were walking up my driveway.
“Is that the district attorney dude?” I asked.
I knew the other man.
“Damn, that dude is a tall glass of black water,” Folsom said dreamily.
“What the hell is black water?” I wondered.
“I think it was a euphemism,” Morrigan said softly, her throat still scratchy despite her speaking a lot better this morning. “A tall glass of water is something people say when they’re talking about a man that’s a sight for sore eyes, you know? I think the black part was just her saying that man looked really good. And he’s an African American god.”