Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“She’s a fully grown woman,” Van added helpfully.
Rach sighed. “Not to him she won’t be. They’re always your babies. Hi, I’m Rachel Harper. These are my husbands, Max and Rye, and the kiddos are Paige and Ethan. I take it you haven’t been able to even get close to Mel?”
What had she said? She wanted to follow up on the s part of the word husbands, but she didn’t want to stop down the dialogue now that it was going. “I went to a house in Del Norte and then I went to a cabin here in town but there was a note that said they were at some place called the bunker.”
“Yes, the minute the word got out that someone was looking for him, Mel would have taken Cassidy and hunkered down,” Rye explained.
Things were starting to come together. “Cassidy Meyer? That was the name of the woman who owned the place in Del Norte. Is she involved with him? Do they have a kid named Ripley?”
Max snorted. “Ripley is a hound who Noah Bennett managed to convince Mel can sniff out alien life. Noah’s the town vet and he’s an ass…a very nice man who is concerned with all animals and does not mind misrepresenting them in order to find each one a forever home.”
“The animal doc found my kitty,” Paige said with an adorable grin.
“Yep, found your kitty who was supposed to solve our mouse problem in the barn,” Max explained. “Because she was described as a fierce feline warrior.”
“She’s pretty much a dog in a cat’s body,” Rachel added. “I’ve never seen a cat who loves everything she sees. I caught her licking a mouse, and not in a I’m-about-to-eat-you way. I’m pretty sure she thought it was her baby. I bet that poor mouse was scared to death.”
“No, she wasn’t because the fucker lived and probably had a thousand more babies,” Max complained.
Paige’s head tilted up. “Daddy said a bad word.”
“Well, Daddy has to deal with those rodents, so I’m giving him a pass on this one,” Rachel said to her mini me. She turned back to Elisa. “Look, Mel is touchy about certain things, likely thanks to his time in the military. Why don’t you let Max and Rye go out and talk to him?”
“You would do that?” She might have finally caught a break.
“Of course.” Rye patted his son’s back. “Hell, I’ll do it just to see the look on his face.”
“If we can convince him.” Max didn’t sound sure. “He thinks she’s government.”
“My mom’s name was Nora Leal, and she was a first lieutenant at the time,” she explained. “From what I’ve been able to put together, they worked on a few jobs. At least one of them was in Germany. Mom was stationed at Panzer Kaserne outside of Stuttgart. If he doesn’t want to meet me, I’ll understand. But I would like for him to tell me himself. I’ll give you my email and my phone number if he would rather contact me that way. I would just like to be able to say I tried to connect with him. I need the closure of him saying he doesn’t want to know me.”
“Oh, that won’t be the problem,” Rye said.
“Nope,” Max agreed. “I think you’re going to find that Mel will definitely want to know you. I hope you like beets. Come on, Rye. If we go now, we should be able to catch him before he goes into lockdown.”
She gave Rachel her phone number and the family went off to find Mel Hughes.
“So, it looks like you might be hanging out for a while.”
She turned and Van had a bright smile on his face. She felt more hopeful than before. Or maybe not since it seemed her biological father was on the complex side. Still, she’d promised Sabrina and her therapist she would give this a shot.
No. She’d promised herself she would give this a shot. None of this worked if she didn’t do it for herself. If she didn’t value herself and acknowledge she was worthy of the work she was putting in. “Yes, it seems so.”
She wouldn’t mind getting to know this man. He was genuinely beautiful, and she liked his energy. And he was weird. She liked the weird ones, as she’d shown earlier when she’d completely misread the vibe between her and Hale. She felt some of that now with Van. She couldn’t be wrong twice in a day, could she?
“If you want a guide around town, I’ve been here a couple of months. I know that doesn’t sound like long, but I think it’s the perfect amount of time to be a good tour guide. I know where everything is, but I can’t bore you with a crazy amount of history,” he said with a heart-stopping grin.