Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Famous?
My smile dropped.
No one had said a word about what I’d told Dominic, and I’d held out hope that maybe he hadn’t believed me and hadn’t told anyone…. That Pascal’s dad hadn’t either, and Agnes….
So many people knew, now that I thought about it. I couldn’t comprehend how I hadn’t heard a word about it. None of the parents had started acting differently either. Literally, nothing had changed since.
But now….
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Green Eyes backtracked. “I’m sorry. The kids, all they do is talk up how you smell like a cake—and they don’t even like cake usually, but you smell good to them—and nobody else around here has a scent like yours.”
I felt dumb. “No, I’m sorry. I jumped the gun,” I apologized, wincing. I needed to quit being so sensitive and expecting the worst. I was what I was… and now I knew what that was, didn’t I? “I’ve gotten a lot of crap for it, and I’m sore about it.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for,” he claimed before something caught his attention, and he seemed to scan the area around us. He suddenly looked tense, staring hard into a spot in the distance, in the direction of the clubhouse.
“Something out there?” I asked, going on alert. Today was not the day….
“No.” His gaze was definitely locked on something. “Henri.”
“Oh” was all that came out of my mouth.
Those pretty emerald eyes met mine, and his smile that time was smaller than the one before. More restrained? He swallowed hard. “Henri’s the best of us all,” the man said carefully. He even shrugged a little. “Just so you know. Everybody understands.”
I was about to ask what he meant by that, but he was already walking away.
“See you around, Nina,” he called out before turning directly right and disappearing in between cars.
That had been weird… hadn’t it?
On the bright side, he’d been nice, and just as handsome as I remembered. Before he’d gotten distracted, he’d seemed interested in talking to me.
And I felt nothing. A pretty face was usually just a pretty face. What a bummer.
I slumped just as I heard heavy footsteps and picked up on the feel of a big ball of familiar magical energy.
All coming toward me.
Henri wasn’t trying to be discreet.
I thought about waving at him, but my arm stayed where it was.
He didn’t owe me anything. I had been fine. The kids had needed him more than I did. Fact, fact, fact.
But accepting that those statements were all true didn’t do much. The best I could do was give him a little smile and hope he assumed I was tired. Which I was, but….
He didn’t smile back anyway. He must have been too busy grumbling, “What was that?”
I raised my eyebrows. “What? Me talking to Keegan?” There went my big mouth. Hadn’t I literally just told the guy I wouldn’t tell anyone? “He was checking on me because I was sitting out here.”
Unlike someone else I knew.
And that was an unfair thought. I wasn’t mad. I wasn’t trying to punish him for anything.
Henri’s nostrils flared, and his mouth went flat. “He shouldn’t be talking to you,” he replied, his tone deeper than usual.
“I didn’t mind,” I explained, watching his features. “He didn’t do anything wrong.”
Someone didn’t like that answer, and the closer he got, the more I could read the lines of stress and tension in his whole frame, not just his face.
“If I didn’t want to talk to him, I wouldn’t have. He was nice. It’s fine,” I added. Did I sound as defensive as I felt?
Henri didn’t like that either, and I figured right then that I wasn’t the only one who’d had a long day. It made me feel slightly bad. I didn’t want to argue with Henri. I didn’t want to be frustrated with him either.
Not today.
I had missed him, and the only thing I’d wanted all day, other than love from my donut, had been a hug from Snarly, Emotional Henri. And just like I’d thought a moment ago, maybe I wasn’t the only one not having the best day of their life. If I wanted to think about it from an optimistic perspective, other than the cuts on my hand and some scrapes, I had probably gotten more injured in the past chasing Duncan around.
“There’s no reason to be a grumpy wolf, Henri,” I tried reasoning. “Nothing bad happened. We were just being friendly.”
I struck out again.
“Is that what you think?” he asked too slowly as he came to a stop directly in front of me, all the fine lines of his body even more imposing in the darkness. He was a physical mountain, and I was a tree in its presence.
One of those tan hands scrubbed down his face, taking its time around his mouth. Then he slowly lowered his chin. His eyes shone in the darkness.