Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141428 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Maybe because he cares for you,” Eden suggested. “Because he likes you?”
“He’s still in love with his wife.”
“May was a great person,” Zeke said, walking back into the room without the mop. “She wasn’t overly social; she didn’t really like most people. She was happy on her own or with Hayes. And stubborn, boy was she stubborn. Hayes blames himself for her death because he wasn’t there. However, May had managed her asthma for years and she knew what she was doing. The asthma attack was likely unavoidable and sure, maybe if he’d been with her he could have gotten her help quicker, but that doesn’t mean that she would have survived. We just don’t know. And yeah, Hayes loved her. But that doesn’t mean he can’t love someone else.”
She shook her head. She didn’t believe that at all. May was the one for Hayes.
“Hayes doesn’t feel that way for me,” she explained.
Eden smiled. “We’ll see.”
She searched for some way to change the topic. “Can I get you both a drink? Coffee? Tea?”
“Stay where you are,” Zeke reiterated, shaking his head. “You’re trouble.”
“She’s in trouble,” Eden sung.
Zeke shot her a look. “Oh, like you haven’t been in trouble plenty of times.”
“Pfft.” Eden crossed her arms over her chest, but she was grinning.
“You can’t tell him,” she said suddenly. “You have to promise me.”
“Hmm.” Eden rubbed her chin. “Devi, are you a Little?”
Zeke groaned. “Princess, you’re not supposed to just come out and ask her like that.”
“Well, why not? Everyone wants to know. Ellie and Charlie also put together a Little gift basket. We were just wondering if that was what you wanted or not?”
There was curiosity on Eden’s face.
“If it helps, I’m a Little,” Eden added.
Oh. That did help a bit.
“Yes, I am too,” she said shyly. She’d never really interacted with another Little.
Well, she wasn’t sure about Silla. And Hayes had told her that Gwen was a Little.
But it wasn’t quite the same.
“What do you like to play with?” Eden asked.
Devi bit her lip. “I’m not sure. I’ve never really had a chance to find out.” Maybe she wasn’t a very good Little.
“Hey, that’s all right,” Eden told her gently. “Sanctuary Ranch is a great place to figure out what you like. And you can always come to one of our playrooms. You don’t really have room here. Do you have a stuffy or a special toy at least?”
A playroom? Eden had a playroom? Wow. That must be amazing.
“Um, I have a squirrel. Called Coco.”
“Great name. I have a rag doll named Betty. But my favorite animal is a wombat and I also have a stuffed wombat. His name is Wombles.”
“I love wombats,” she said.
“They. Are. Awesome.”
They smiled at each other and she thought she might have actually made a friend.
“All right, I promise not to tell,” Eden told her.
Oh thank goodness.
It would just be better if Hayes didn’t know about what she’d done.
The door opened and Hayes stepped into the cabin. “Zeke, Eden, good you made it.”
“We did,” Zeke said, coming over to shake his hand. “Just in time to find your girl cleaning the bathroom.”
Devi gasped loudly. “You tattletale, you promised that you wouldn’t tell.”
“No, Eden promised she wouldn’t tell,” Zeke said. “I never said any such thing.”
Crap.
She knew she’d forgotten something.
“You were cleaning?” Hayes glared at her. “Why would you do that? You were supposed to be resting.”
She remembered Eden’s advice against telling him that she thought she owed him.
“I just wanted to contribute something,” she told him. “To help you out.”
“Help me out? By cleaning? You could have hurt yourself!”
“But I didn’t. See? I’m all fine.” She was not going to tell him about the throbbing in her arm.
And the look on his face told her that she might not be fine for long.
“How long do I have to sit in the corner?”
Hayes glanced over at Devi who was sitting in a chair, facing a corner of the living room. Zeke and Eden had left about ten minutes ago.
“Until I’m feeling less . . . upset,” he told her.
Cleaning the bathroom? What the fuck was she thinking? What if she’d slipped? Zeke had told him how he’d found her standing in the middle of a huge puddle in the bathroom. The bottom of her pants had been so saturated that he’d taken them off her.
Now she was just wearing a T-shirt and panties.
Which he was trying not to think too much about because he didn’t need his cock to get hard right now.
Christ, he’d been gone an hour. Just to go to a meeting with Kent, Liam, Donovan and Zander, who’d been on video call. Zander still had members of his team in Angel, trying to find those bastards who had hurt his girl.
Zander also seemed to think they weren’t the only ones hunting those bastards down.