Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
“She has been,” Lacey said.
“Lacey, are you all right? What happened?” Gray asked. “Hunter said you were on the phone and looking upset.”
“My prick of a dad has gone home. He doesn’t want to be part of the wedding. But it’s his loss,” Lacey said. “Because I am done with trying to get his love and attention and he’s the one who misses out.”
Gray blinked. “Wow. How long was I gone?”
Caren giggled and Gray smiled down at her. “How are you, Caren?” His voice was soft, almost tender. Why was he speaking to her like that? He couldn’t even know her that well.
Although he wouldn’t know what she was really like.
Caren had lived in a huge house with her very smart, successful parents. She’d always acted like she was too good for them or something. She’d never wanted to get her clothes dirty, used to whisper things to Lacey rather than speak out loud, and she’d once eaten the last piece of cake that his aunt had been saving for him.
Yeah, she’d been a strange kid that had grown into a stranger teenager. Then at around fifteen or sixteen, she’d disappeared and left Lacey in a state because she couldn’t even be bothered to say goodbye.
“I’m hunky-dory, thank you,” she told him.
Hunky-dory? Who said that?
Well, at least she spoke now. That was an improvement from when she was younger.
“That’s good. I take it you had something to do with Lacey’s attitude toward her loser of a father.”
“Hey, it could have been me,” Travis said with a scowl.
Gray shot him a look. “I doubt it.”
“I’m insulted by your lack of faith in me,” Travis told him.
Gray snorted. “I doubt that too.”
Asshole.
Travis sighed as he looked down at Lacey. “Honey, I’ve tried to tell you so many times over the years not to let him hurt you. You know that the only family you need is us, right?”
“And you have my family now,” Gray told her. “As much good as they are today.”
“How did it go with your mom? Is Rory okay?” Lacey asked.
Gray sighed, looking worried. “I think that Mom is actually making things worse. She’s well-meaning but she’s smothering Rory and feeding her fears.”
“We need to get Rory away from her,” Lacey said.
“Yeah,” Gray agreed. “But I don’t know how to do that. I think Rory needs normalcy. A job.”
“I need an assistant. Maybe she’d like to work for me,” Caren said.
“What do you do?” Travis asked.
“I’m a photographer,” she replied. “It might not be what Rory is interested in, though.”
“Thanks for the thought, I’m not sure she’d want to travel to the places you go to, though,” Gray told her.
The places she went to? What the hell did that mean? Where did she go as a photographer?
“Fair enough,” Caren said. “I’ll keep searching for an assistant. I’m not traveling out of the country until after New York, so another few months.”
“New York?” he repeated.
What the hell? She was going to New York? His territory?
“Oh, did you decide to go to New York?” Lacey asked. “Are you sure you want to?”
“Want to? No. Have to? Debatable. But I’m going anyway.”
Lacey threw her arms around her friend and hugged her tight.
What the hell was going on? Travis didn’t like when he didn’t know something. Although why he cared what was happening with this woman, he had no idea.
She’s a nuisance, remember?
You don’t like her.
Only, she was going to be in his neck of the woods.
It’s a big city.
You won’t even see her.
But why was she going there?
“Travis lives in New York,” Lacey told her. “Perhaps he can show you around.”
Like hell.
But as he opened his mouth to refuse, Caren shook her head. “I might not have been to New York for twenty years, but I think I’ll be all right on my own.”
A woman on her own in New York City? Was she crazy? Anything could happen to her!
“A lot has changed in twenty years,” he told her. “You need to be far more careful now. What area are you staying in? Does it have good security? Do you have personal security to carry on yourself at all times? Are you planning on taking public transportation?”
Everyone stared at him like he’d grown another head.
“What?” he snarled. “These are legitimate questions I’d ask any woman who was moving to New York on their own.”
“Right . . . well . . . I’m probably not moving there permanently. Maybe six months to a year. And I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She gave him a strange look.
“Caren’s traveled a lot and she’s used to taking care of herself,” Lacey told him, patting his arm. “But it’s really nice that you care so much.”
“I don’t.”
Shit. He wished he could take those words back as he saw a flash of pain on Caren’s face. That surprised him. He hadn’t thought that anything he’d say would hurt her. And she’d been the one to quickly reject the idea of him showing her around.