Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
The car that we’d picked out when Sawyer had found out about my pregnancy and wanted to keep me safe. I’d kept the car here for when I was visiting in Montana.
When we got to my car, Boone let me go, and I refused to think about why it bothered me so much to no longer have his heat surrounding me.
He shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“Let me have your phone,” he ordered quietly.
I handed it to him.
He didn’t hesitate to type in my password.
He’d always known it, and I’d never changed it.
Our anniversary date was the code to get into both of our phones.
0409
April ninth would forever be burned into my memory.
The day that I’d said yes to dating him had been one of the best days of my life.
We may not have ever gotten married, but that date would forever be important to me.
He downloaded an app onto my phone, then signed into it.
He twisted my phone around to me and said, “This is the app to unlock the house and turn off the alarm system. All you have to do is press Disarm and then Unlock and it’ll get you inside. You have the garage door opener. Park in either bay.”
I took my phone from him as he said, “You know that my mother will lose her shit, right, when we get married?”
“That was just to get a rise out of her,” I admitted.
His eyes gleamed. “We’ll see.”
Then he backed up, and I took that as my cue to get into the car.
I wouldn’t examine how it made me feel when he’d announced “we’ll see” as if it was a forgone conclusion that I was his.
I also wouldn’t examine the way it made me feel to think about forever with him.
No, those were two things that I was going to keep buried deep, and only examine when I had a couple of hours to cry it out while I did it.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
No, I wasn’t sure of anything when it came to Boone.
However…
“I’d really like to see her downfall,” I admitted. “She’s lived rent-free in my head for years, Eddy.”
My sister studied me.
A ball came aiming right for our heads, and I expertly headed it back to the player, causing her to smile. “One day I want to be able to do that.”
Eddy kept talking despite the interaction.
“It’s just that I think you’re in a really vulnerable state right now, and this might not be the best time to seek revenge on her and her cronies.” She fielded another ball that came our way, lobbing it back all the way across the field, placing it perfectly at the girl’s feet. “What if something happens again?”
I knew what she meant.
“Short of killing me entirely.” I shuddered. “I won’t let anything happen this time. I trust Boone when he says that she won’t be able to get into his house. He said that this new place, she hasn’t ever even been inside of it.”
She blew out a frustrated breath. “This is insane.”
It was.
“Have you ever heard of that Ida Bell lady?”
“Actually,” she said. “I have. She’s a nanny.”
“Really?” I asked. “For who?”
“Did you ever meet Koen?”
I struggled to come up with the name, or the face to go with the name.
“No, I don’t think I did.” I studied her. “Is he one of them?”
One of them meaning the escaped convicts that made this town their home.
“Yeah,” she whispered, glancing around as if the world could hear us. They couldn’t. We were in the middle of a soccer pitch with thirty girls screaming and laughing. “He has two really young kids. She just started nannying for him last month. And just sayin’, I’m only making assumptions that this is the same Ida Bell. But what are the odds that there would be two Ida Bells that live in the same town?”
She had a point.
“We should befriend her,” I said. “I’ll bet she has no freakin’ clue who her real parents are.”
“I’ll get with Birdee or Mable and see if they can introduce us,” she offered.
Birdee and Mable were also married to two of the escaped convicts in the county.
The women had formed a sort of trauma bond when it came to their men and their past lives.
I liked that Eddy had friends here.
I liked even more that she was glowing and living her life to the fullest now.
I couldn’t help but feel a little bit left out, though.
Another ball came sailing our way, and I stopped it before it could find a new home underneath the bleachers.
I juggled it for a minute or so before kicking it back to the senior that’d run our way.
“Wow,” the senior had said. “Maybe you could go undercover as a student and just sneak into our game and help us win.”