Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104869 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
“Maybe we should talk privately after all,” she suggested.
Kenny didn’t know what she’d been expecting after walking in earlier to find Smith demanding to know where his wife was, but this certainly wasn’t it. She thought maybe he’d returned to pick up the rest of his things.
She’d demanded he speak in front of her family because she’d expected to need their support.
She wasn’t sure what this was, but seeing how frantic he was, hearing his desperation…
No. This was definitely not a discussion she wanted to have in front of her brothers.
He shocked her by sinking to his knees in front of her.
“Smith, what are you doing?”
His hand went to his breast pocket, and he fumbled for something before holding her wedding rings aloft.
“I don’t want a divorce!”
The words were tossed down like a gauntlet. Combative. Loud and a little desperate.
He stared at her through wild eyes. He looked so tired and a little beat up, thanks to the fading bruise around his eye. He’d spent the weekend camping and then had driven most of the day today to get here. He must be exhausted.
Maybe that’s why he wasn’t making any sense.
“What is this? Some kind of reverse proposal?” There was a muffled laugh from someone in the peanut gallery and she gave them a warning look, having momentarily forgotten that they were still there.
“Smith, I signed your papers.”
“No, fuck that. I contest.”
“What?”
“I contest. You can’t have this house. Or the car. Or my easy chair. I contest every damned term you agreed to.”
“They were your terms. Smith, for God’s sake, get up,” she whispered, putting a hand on his elbow and tugging. He glowered but got to his feet.
After another fulminating, frustrated glare at her avidly staring family—she really, really shouldn’t have insisted they talk in front of them—she tried to lead Smith away from the living room.
“Let’s talk in the study.”
“No,” he shook his head stubbornly. “I don’t care if they hear what I have to say. I don’t care if anyone hears what I have to say. I’m not ashamed of how I feel about you. Look, I know I was an arsehole, and if your brothers want to knock the shit out of me for hurting you, they’re welcome to do so, because I fucking deserve it.”
“Most sensible thing he’s said all night,” Nox said. “Although judging by that eye, it looks like someone already beat us to it.”
Kenny gave them an impatient glare, absently noting that none of them looked angry or concerned anymore. In fact, Cade had a half smile on his face.
“You can stay here if you like, Smith,” Kenny told him. “I’m going to the study.”
She walked away and he followed.
She shut the door firmly behind them, before sinking down onto the oversized leather chesterfield.
He didn’t follow suit, pacing up and down for a minute or so, before stopping abruptly and sinking down in the wingback chair. He leaned forward and stared at her intently.
“I. Do. Not. Want. A. Divorce.” He enunciated every word carefully and left them hanging there, waiting for her response.
She pursed her lips and considered that handsome, tired, bearded face for a long moment.
“Of course you want the divorce, you signed the documents before I did.”
“Weeks ago, a fucking lifetime ago…”
Her brain started going over the facts again and she chewed on her lip for a moment.
“If you were up on the mountain on Friday, you couldn’t have known they’d sent the documents.”
“No.”
“I thought…I thought maybe after you disappeared that you’d informed your lawyer to go ahead with—”
“No, sweetheart,” he moaned in anguish. “Fuck, Kenna, I signed those documents right after arriving in Riversend. I was in rough shape. Angry, unhappy, just so fucking miserable. I thought a divorce was the only solution for us. Your lawyer was ill, apparently, which is why there was delay before you got it. Honestly, after you arrived in town, those damned papers were the last thing I was thinking about. You occupied every corner of my mind.”
“Why have you changed your mind about the divorce?” She tried to keep her crazily fluttering heart under strict control, refusing to allow herself to hope yet. “It is because you don’t like failure? You don’t like losing?”
“Kenna, the only thing I’m afraid of losing is you.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
The words were delivered with such aching tenderness it just about turned every one of her organs to mush.
“Smith, what are you doing?” Kenny moaned a little despairingly.
“I’m getting my wife back,” he informed her with a serious nod.
“We’re really terrible at being together,” she said in half-hearted protest.
“We’re even worse at being apart. While I was up on that stupid mountain, I recognized that even when I’m in a place so still, so peaceful and beautiful, you’re always there. You’re the stillness in my soul, Kenna. The peace in my heart, the beauty in my mind. You’re the joy in my life. And I carry you with me everywhere I go. It just took me a minute to cut through the noise and find my fundamental truth.”