Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Son of a bitch.
“I knew that he had his daughter young…”
“Sixteen,” she confirmed, smiling.
“But I didn’t realize that you were this old,” I mentioned.
“Twenty-five.”
I felt my stomach clench.
Twenty-five. I’m nearly ten years older than her! I also know her father quite well. This age difference feels huge to me, although it really isn’t.
Holy balls.
The baby in my arm started to fuss and I expertly moved her up on my shoulder and started to pat her little bottom.
My eyes traveled across the table to my sisters who were clearly enraptured by the scene playing out in front of them—the Tyler and Reagan show.
“What?” I asked them both.
Alana’s eyes were wide and excited. “I’ve never seen you fight with a woman before,” she murmured. “It’s just surprising to me because you’re always this sweet little Tyler with everyone…and then there’s this girl.”
Henley added her two cents, too. “Tyler has everyone fooled. See, he puts on this happy face, smiles and acts like everything is perfect. Then BAM! He hits them with the mean. They never see it coming. He plays the good cop really, really well and honestly, I think you’re the first person in a long time that has not only seen through his act but also calls him out on it.”
Reagan looked over at me, causing me to roll my eyes at my sisters in her direction. “He must’ve been having an off day with me, then. Did I tell you he caused me to fall in the mud?”
Henley and Alana both gasped. “No!” they both exclaim in unison.
“Yeah,” Reagan said, then stood up and turned around. “Look at this bruise on my butt. And now I see a scratch, too.”
It wasn’t exactly on her butt. It was on her thigh.
But it did look worse today than it had yesterday.
Shit.
Now I was trying to ignore how shapely her ass looked and how bad I felt about her falling, even though it wasn’t my fault.
“Ewww,” Henley said.
“That’s gonna probably scar,” Alana said as she leaned over the table to get a better look. “But just this part right here,” she touched the outside edge with the tip of one finger.
It was the part on the curve of her ass cheek and most likely, nobody would ever even see it.
A throat cleared and instinctively I caught Reagan’s hand and pulled her toward me, almost behind me, so that she was behind my back.
Unfortunately, she was also staring at the wall, so she had to do some maneuvering to get herself turned around with the limited amount of space between the wall and my chair.
By the time she situated herself, everyone else was already looking at the two people who were standing in front of our table.
Tara and Rome.
“Tara. Romero.” I nodded my head as carefully as I could, hoping not to give any of my emotions away.
“Rome,” Tara said. “Say what you have to say.”
Then Tara walked away, leaving Rome standing there, not watching her go.
Instead, he was staring at me like I was the one who stabbed a knife through his heart and not the other way around.
“You have a baby?” Rome asked, sounding like that question had been ripped from his soul.
We’d always said that our children would always be a part of each other’s lives. We’d been that close.
Now, we were nothing to each other.
“I…”
“What does it matter?” Reagan asked, placing her hand on my shoulder.
I had no idea how much I’d needed her touch until she’d given it. The moment that she laid her hand on me, as innocent as it was, I felt something inside of me settle. Something, somewhere in the vicinity of my heart, my soul, that hadn’t settled in a very long time.
Rome’s eyes went from me and the baby to Reagan. “Are you his wife?”
Reagan shook her head. “Girlfriend,” she lied.
Rome swallowed thickly, then turned his eyes back to me. “Promises are made to be broken.”
Then he turned on the heel of his boots, ignored the people staring at the local celebrity in awe, and forged his way out of the crowd of people that were milling about at the door waiting to get in only like a linebacker for a professional football team could.
“Well, that wasn’t awkward or anything,” Henley said, breaking the silence. “I can see why he thought one of these babies was yours, Tyler. One day, these kids are all going to be the same size and I’m going to be able to tell people that they’re all mine without having to explain away the situation I’m in.”
I snorted. “Good luck with that, sister. You should’ve thought about that before you went and had three babies so close together.”
Reagan sat down in her seat. “It’d be really nice to know what happened…because from a bystander’s point of view, it does look quite odd. Sometimes it’s easier to explain something if you make your own assumptions. Kind of why everyone thinks she’s yours.”