Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1180(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 787(@300wpm)
Carter stepped out of the kitchen and swept her into his arms. “Been missing you, sweetheart.”
She forced herself to relax against him. Made her lips form the smile he expected to see. “You just saw me this morning,” she reminded him. “It’s not like I’ve been away for a year.”
He snorted. “For five minutes as you rushed out the door. It’s not enough. It’s never enough.” He leaned in to kiss her.
For a moment she let herself go, set aside all the stress and worries to just be in the moment with him. There was a tartness on his tongue, citrus and something green from whatever he was cooking.
She’d never even liked deep kissing before him. Never understood the point. Part of her even thought it was gross, but when his tongue pressed against her lips, invaded her mouth, it was different. It was like opening a connection between them and it drew them together.
Her body reacted, as it always did, and she melted into his arms. There was peace there, and safety too, if she allowed herself to accept it. It was perfect… for a moment.
With reluctance she broke the kiss and pulled back, ignoring the look of surprise on his face. “I’m starving and it smells like dinner’s almost done,” she offered as an explanation.
His eyes fixed on hers and held them in silent examination as seconds ticked away and then he nodded slowly and deliberately. He obviously had questions and she was grateful he didn’t ask them. “It’s ready now. I turned down the heat to keep it warm. Do you want to go change before we eat?”
Getting out of her heels and the pantsuit sounded like the best thing in the world and this time the smile he got was real. “I can’t even tell you how much I want to be in something soft and cozy right now. I’ll be right back.”
She kicked off her heels and was already unbuttoning her blouse as she headed to the bedroom. It didn’t take long to dig out her favorite pajamas and shove her feet into fluffy slippers. Scrubbing away the make-up took a little longer, and when she looked in the mirror, she was tempted to put the mask right back on.
The woman in the glass looked even more tired than she felt—if that was possible. Her skin was washed out. The dark circles under her eyes had been a near constant companion lately. She hesitated and then dabbed a little concealer over them, so Carter wouldn’t worry.
It wasn’t until after they’d started to eat that she realized it wasn’t a date night. This was her husband’s idea of an intervention.
He’d made one of her favorite dishes, Pasta al Limone. There was a glass of rosé from the small local vineyard she adored, and a plate full of crispy hot garlic bread. It smelled heavenly and tasted even better. Taking small bites took real effort, when what she wanted to do was stuff her face as fast as possible.
God, this is soooo good. Even if it hadn’t been her first meal of the day, she’d have wanted to devour it, but—
“I’d like to talk about some texts I saw on your phone last night.”
She froze with the fork on its way to her mouth. “You checked my messages?”
“No, but I checked on you when I woke up late and realized you’d never come to bed. I found you passed out on the couch. You were so out of it you didn’t even wake up as I got you comfortable.”
It had been a late night thanks to a client dinner after an already long day. She vaguely remembered sitting down when she got home, promising herself it would only be a few minutes, and then she’d go shower and get into bed. None of that had happened, of course.
“You still had your phone in your hand,” he continued. “I noticed it was dead, so I plugged it in for you and a bunch of messages started popping up. They came too quickly for me to read them all, but I got the gist of it. Is this a new thing, or has it been going on for a while?”
She could feel his eyes drilling into her, but she didn’t meet them. Instead, she drew in a deep breath and then calmly let the fork continue its journey to her mouth. Chewing gave her a minute to think about how she wanted to respond.
He had to find out eventually. She’d expected it. Hiding things from Carter never worked for long, he was too attentive. But explaining wasn’t going to go over well. “It doesn’t mean anything. It just sort of happened. I…” She trailed off with a jerk of her head.
“Just sort of happened?” There was a note of incredulity in his voice. “Hiding things from me doesn’t ‘just sort of happen’, Allegra. That was a choice you made.”