Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 128307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
I’m about to read her the riot act when Grayson steps forward again. “We’ll take it.”
He meets Jordan’s steely gaze before curling his arm around my shoulders again and brushing his lips against my temple, stilling my heart. He smells so good that I doubt I would have suffered a day of morning sickness if he had been around during the first five months of my pregnancy. That’s how calming his bottle cologne and a scent that is uniquely him are to my swirling stomach.
“If that’s the crib my baby wants, that is the crib my baby will get.”
His growl of “my baby” is possessive, and it has no connection to the massive bump in my midsection. His false claim of ownership frustrates Jordan as much as her assumption that I cannot afford a crib for my child frustrates me. She thought she was on the money that Grayson isn’t my baby daddy, and although her intuition is on fire, I refuse to inform her of that.
With a lowered bottom lip, Jordan twists toward where she came from. “Okay. If you’re sure?” When Grayson curtly nods, she walks toward the cashier’s desk, her steps nowhere near as flighty as they were when she spotted Grayson’s arrival. “I’ll get the paperwork ready.”
I wait until she is out of sight before flipping over the price tag of the crib we’ve selected. A curse word rings in the air when a high four-figure price reflects back at me. It is way above what I had planned to spend, approaching the entire savings I set aside for a nursery.
I didn’t lie when I told Grayson my parents had stripped me of my trust fund the month I joined the bureau. Even after changing my surname to my grandmother’s maiden name on my application, as Kendall had done only a year before with her college admission, the outcome of my mother’s threat didn’t alter.
I was not to join the bureau. Work for a living? Don’t be preposterous. I was to fundraise for multiple charities and drink Mai Tais at our summer beach house until excessive boredom forced me into rehab before my thirtieth birthday.
My mother’s life plan for Kendall and me mirrored her life before she birthed us—for a seven-figure incentive payment—and then handed us to a slew of staff to raise.
Kendall’s wish to rebel against our mother’s life plan is why our mother told everyone that her daughter had run away. It was only when Kendall didn’t return after our mother had depleted her bank account did she suspect something more sinister.
Even with her beliefs changing, my parents only mention Kendall once a year during a charity gala for victims of trafficking, which they founded the year after her disappearance. I highly doubt they would mention her at all if I didn’t attend each event to send a plea to Kendall’s abductors to come forward.
All it takes is for one person to surrender to their guilt, and my sister’s case would be solved.
It’s just taken a lot longer to coerce them into confessing than I ever thought possible.
With failure bearing down on me, I balance my chin on my now-ample breasts before making a beeline for the exit.
Grayson’s stomps are as thunderous as the beats of my heart when he races to catch up to me. “Where are you going, freckles?”
“I don’t want that crib.” I gesture at the long line of cribs way out of my price range. “It’s ugly and bulky and will never fit into the microscopic and only bedroom in the apartment.”
I’m such a liar. The crib is gorgeous, almost as handsome as Grayson’s sinfully delirious face. It’s just easier for me to pretend I don’t want something than to admit I can’t afford it. Furthermore, I told myself nothing would distract me from my quest to bring Kendall home. This is doing that.
I smack my back molars together, hating that I referred to something for my baby as a “this,” but it gives more understanding of why I didn’t flinch when Grayson called him or her a “that.”
“I just wanted to get Jordan’s hopes up for a big commission.”
“Mace…” Grayson knows I’m lying. He always knows when I’m lying. But mercifully, he lets my lie slip. “It’s a little overpriced, and Jordan deserves the nonviolent throat punch you’re issuing her, but if you think you’re getting out of purchasing us a new toothbrush like you didn’t throw ours in the trash after using it, you’re shit out of luck.”
With his arm back around my shoulders, he guides us out of the baby store and veers us toward the grocery store, chuckling when Jordan’s scoff overtakes the wild beat of my heart from how easily he can read me.
7
GRAYSON
Brandon, with sharp and attentive eyes, steals my focus from the bathroom door. “Are you sure you want to do this now? It seems like you have more pressing matters to attend to.”