Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 138642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“Nell, enough,” Grant clips.
Oh.
Oh my God.
I guess that answers the big unknown about his dating life.
Of course there’s a 'special lady.'
Someone else he’s in love with.
I really do need a nice, deep hole to crawl into right about now. I wonder how the weather is at the center of the Earth?
I’m so not the lady and my head is about to spin right off.
I guess kissing me back was just a thoughtless thing, a physical reaction, an impulse.
God, I really did come back here just to get my heart shattered a second time, didn’t I?
Why can’t I just grow up and get over him?
But Nell’s still pouting, waiting for an answer.
“Jeez! I don’t get why it’s such a big bad secret. And I don’t think it’s very nice of you, Uncle Grant,” she says. “I thought you were gonna find the lady and marry her. You said I’d get to meet her. She’s gonna be so sad if she finds out you—”
“Nell.” Grant claps one large hand gently over her mouth and holds his mouth to her ear. “Stop it. You’ve met the damn lady. Miss Ophelia is the lady. Now quit embarrassing me. Stop looking at me like you’re disappointed. It’s not what you think.”
...what.
My ears are melting off.
I actually am the lady?
Holy hell, I never liked roller coasters.
Every time at an amusement park, I always sat out the rides that flung you up high and dropped you down again like you were addicted to almost dying. It’s just not my thing.
So, I’m really not enjoying the emotional rocket ride the last few days—or the last few seconds, really—have tossed me through.
I’m left frozen and numb as Grant gives me an almost apologetic look before turning. He keeps a wary eye on Nell as he slowly pulls his hand away from her mouth.
Nell blinks nonchalantly like a kitten waking up. Almost like she’s used to this routine. Then she turns her brilliant little chipmunk smile on me.
“Wowee—the lady! Why didn’t you tell me you were the lady Uncle Grant’s obsessed with?” She breaks away from Grant, squirming free even as he tries to catch her again with a desperate sound.
Too late.
She’s barreling right at me and I’m too stunned to think about moving.
The lady Uncle Grant’s obsessed with.
No freaking way.
Nell’s just confused... right?
She’s only nine.
Actually, I’m confused, and blushing so hard I’m woozy.
It only gets worse as Nell throws herself against me, buries her face in my stomach, and wraps her little arms around me in a surprisingly tight, clingy hug.
“Are you gonna be my new mommy?” Her words are muffled against my shirt. “I miss having a mommy.”
Ouch.
That roller coaster just had to take one more good, hard turn and chuck me to the moon and back, I suppose.
I work my mouth for a helpless moment, blanking for words that won’t come before I rest a hand on top of her head. It’s easier to focus on her right now because I think if I look at Grant, I might dissolve into a sticky puddle.
Time to deflect.
“I think I should help you check your homework. Come tell me about The Velveteen Rabbit and ethics while we let Uncle Grant finish making dinner, hmm? How’s that sound?”
Nell looks up at me, cocking her head, considering it.
Her face slowly lights up in a smile.
“Well... okay!” she says, just like that.
I’ve never been more grateful for kids and their short attention spans.
The little girl takes my hand and marches us out, nearly dragging me from the kitchen with her pint-sized energy.
I stumble after her, but not without stealing one more wondering look at Grant. If I’m gobsmacked, the look on his face says he’s—
I don’t even know.
He’s wearing that particularly strange, impassable look I’ve never quite deciphered.
Only, now I wonder if I’ve just always misunderstood it.
Because I feel like I know that look.
That look screams want.
And it belongs to a man who’s staring at something he desperately wants and thinks he can never have.
Oh my God.
I’m imagining this, right?
I wonder if the creeper who showed up at Mom’s house actually knocked my head into something and this is all a wild hallucination.
Maybe I’ll wake up in a hospital bed in a life where kissing Grant Faircross isn’t the craziest thing possible. Because the fact that he might have feelings is.
But when our eyes lock, I feel something tighten deep inside me, swirling emotions drawn up into a sweet knot of curiosity and yearning and—
Hope.
There, I said it.
I’ve given myself over to the most dangerous emotion possible after I’ve tried to tell myself for ages I couldn’t possibly feel anything for him.
Not after he chased me out of Redhaven with a flaming word of guilt.
Turns out, I lied.
Deep in my bones, there’s a fresh hope beating faster than my own rabbiting heart, silently announcing how I’ve ached for him, and begging him to ache for me, too.