Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
“Love you, baby girl.”
I read the note again.
Be safe.
They were never flowery or overly sentimental.
Usually just a couple of words, relating to keeping my eyes open and staying safe. Or possibly telling me it was supposed to rain and to grab an umbrella.
But they were there, every morning, and always thoughtful.
I placed Holt in his favorite swing and gave him a little push.
His little legs pumped and his booty bounced as his laughter filled the air.
How could I ever have thought I didn’t want this?
I gave him a few more pushes before I hit the end of my coffee.
Like I did every morning when I got a cup with a note on it, I rinsed it out at the water fountain and stashed it in my bag. When I got home, I’d added it to the others in my closet.
When I got back to Holt, I gave him another push, then pulled my phone back out of my pocket.
I scrolled to my favorites.
There were only two people in it.
The first one was my dad.
The second was Copper.
I held my breath, then placed the call.
He answered on the first ring.
“Baker,” he said, sounding worried. “Are you okay?”
I gave Holt another small push, and his excited squeal filled the air around us. “Yeah, I’m fine. Holt’s fine. I have a favor to ask you.”
He waited without answering.
“I need a date to a wedding.”
Sixteen
I found you in this lifetime, I’ll find you in the next. Consider this your warning.
—Copper to Baker
COPPER
I was a nervous fucking wreck.
Why?
I had no clue.
I had no skin in this game. None of these people knew who I was, or how I wasn’t really Baker’s date.
Yet, just the idea of going with her on my arm had goddamn butterflies bursting to life inside of my belly.
I, a grown ass adult man that’d been to prison, was fretting about what to fucking wear to the rehearsal dinner.
I was still flabbergasted that she’d even asked me.
When she’d called, I hadn’t been able to stop myself from answering on the first ring.
I’d immediately agreed without finding out who this wedding was for, and when she told me not only was it formal, but also going to have the biggest “baddest” upper crust of society in attendance, my excitement had faded.
The bad thing was, I was one of those ‘biggest and baddest.’ Yet, I still didn’t want to go.
I hated those kinds of people.
I hated even more that I’d have to put on this fake smile and pretend like the business that my father had started was perfect.
It wasn’t perfect.
In the months that I’d had bury myself in work in hopes that it would stop me from thinking about a certain someone, I’d accomplished a lot.
In a matter of weeks, the business that my family and I had known for our entire lives would be no more.
I was going to piss off a bunch of people, mostly my board.
And I didn’t care.
Over the last couple of weeks, I’d slowly moved the staff that I cared about to a smaller company, one that had no shareholders, and no board to step on my toes.
It was under a name that wasn’t related to Castanon Enterprises at all and had solely been created to stop the corruption.
It had nothing to do with real estate, unless it was to help investigate those that were fucking others over in that field.
And, the best part, my father hadn’t had a hand in creating it.
I’d built it from the ground up with mostly Keely’s and Apollo’s help.
Apollo had started his own journey, but we’d decided that we wanted to partner together to make the world a better place. And we’d be wiping out corporate greed while we were at it, starting with my business.
Some of that corporate greed would be rubbing elbows with me at this shindig, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to form a good first impression or not.
But before I’d made it out the door to the one next to mine to pick her up—I hadn’t seen a point in fabricating who was living next to her anymore—Shad called.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Few things,” he said. “One, did you know that Joey was going to be there today?”
Anger immediately ignited in my belly.
I grimaced. “No.”
“That’s why she asked you,” he said, sounding apologetic. “Two, can you talk to her about getting her out to lunch with me and my wife this week? It’s been months, and I can see the strain on my woman’s face. I can’t take it anymore.”
The excitement and nerves in my belly immediately died.
I’d thought she wanted me there because she wanted me. But she wanted me there as a buffer for her ex.
I’d deluded myself into thinking that she wanted me there because she’d had enough time to think and she decided that she missed me. Wanted me.