Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 157162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 786(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Despite all the things I was battling with right then, it was pretty great seeing Beau back where he belonged. The restaurant had always felt partially empty when he wasn’t in the kitchen. It was the whole reason we’d opened the place, for it to be a family business. I didn’t like running it alone.
“I’m glad you’re back,” I told him genuinely. “Even though you’re a grumpy old bastard, you do bring a sense of cheer to the place.”
Though I didn’t expect Beau to smile back at me, I didn’t expect him to glower either.
“You need to rethink this relationship,” was Beau’s reply, while continuing to chop onions.
He’d somehow finally let us convince him to hire a nanny to look after Clara. She was in her last year of nursing school and had an extensive background check, and managed to somehow survive his grueling interview process.
I’d met her. She was younger than I’d expected. Pretty. Kind. Barely five feet tall yet stood up to my brother. Interesting.
“Excuse me?” I didn’t mask my ire from my tone. It was no mystery who and what he was talking about.
“I heard about what happened.” He ignored the uncharacteristic warning in my tone, even though I knew he heard it. Beau wasn’t going to be scared away by me, not when he had something to say.
I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. “Of course, you did.”
I’d had enough foresight to call my father earlier that morning, giving him the blandest version of the story I could. Though there wasn’t really a bland way of explaining we were shot at.
My unflappable father took the news as well as a parent hearing their child was shot at might’ve, simply asking, “Your girl, she okay?”
I had smiled at the warmth and concern in my father’s tone, mentally making a note to organize a dinner with them once I’d convinced Calliope to come back. “She’s okay,” I’d told him. “Although I doubt she’d appreciate you calling her a girl.”
“You’re probably right,” my father had chuckled. “But I’ll do it. Because I’m an old man, and she is a girl to me. And I’m sure I’ll find it a little amusing to see Calliope Derrick’s claws.”
I’d shaken my head at the mischief in my father’s tone, a sudden warmth blooming in my chest at the prospect of seeing them at a dinner table together. At threading Calliope into the fabric of my life.
“You didn’t tell me,” my brother boomed, jerking me back into the present.
An accusation.
Either my father told him, or he heard it through the grapevine. Likely the former, since my brother didn’t make a habit of talking to anyone, therefore, he never knew any of the town gossip. I loved town gossip, so I knew about Finn and Laurie dancing around each other and her latest boyfriend getting a record number of parking tickets.
“I was planning on it.” It was the truth. “But you’re having some well-deserved respite from bad news, and I didn’t think telling you about something like this was pressing since nothing happened.”
“Calliope was shot. That’s not nothing,” he reminded me harshly.
My teeth gnashed together as I remembered the shot, her cry of pain, her blood on my hands and the bone-chilling fear I’d experienced while thinking that I was going to watch her die.
“I’m well fucking aware Calliope was shot.” I cracked my stiff neck. “She’s also, thankfully breathing and will recover fully.” I made a vow to myself that I’d research all the plastic surgeons in the area who could treat her if the wound scarred, thinking of that scar on her eyebrow. She wouldn’t wear another reminder of pain.
“I’m happy to hear that.” At least my brother sounded sincere. His face softened a fraction, which meant it went from straight up hostile to grumpy, his default. “They have any idea who did it?”
I shook my head. I had just gotten off the phone with Finn, who had told me that the tire tracks had been matched to an older model car, which would actually help narrow it down, but it would take a while.
“Curious, though, considering you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in this country you’d consider an enemy,” Beau continued chopping. “Yet I have a hunch Calliope has a list as long as a CVS receipt.”
My eye twitched, feeling both protective and pissed at my brother. “I’m not sure I like your insinuation, brother.”
He stopped chopping to stare at me with a cold gaze. “I’m not insinuating anything. I’m saying it outright. I don’t pretend to know what Calliope did before she came here, but it’s common knowledge she was working on Wall Street and making a fuck-load of money. Those things don’t happen, especially when you’re a woman, without pissing some powerful people off.”
My brother echoed the thoughts I’d been having and more.