Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
That endless depth of twinkling blue.
My guts fisted and my heart felt like it would fail.
And maybe for the first time in my life, I got it.
Got why my brothers would take the chance.
How could I even think it, though, after everything I caused?
The suffering I’d meted?
The sins I’d committed?
How could I even consider dragging someone into the dangers that we lived?
This was only supposed to be temporary.
Pretend.
A quick solution to give Daisy peace of mind before I gutted that motherfucker who wanted to do her harm.
But if it was me? If I was still that same kid who held her in his arms in the middle of the night on his bed? If I hadn’t done what I did?
I’d be on my knees begging her to really be mine.
Permanently.
I guess the whole problem was that I always chose her.
THIRTY-SEVEN
DAISY
“Did you taste it, Mom? It’s the best watermelon I ever had.” Colin slurped the juice from the slice of watermelon that he had his face buried in. His cheeks were a mess and his clothes were filthy.
Details that didn’t matter since he had the biggest smile on his face.
The sun shone from the fading blue sky. Its warmth caressing my cheeks. The heat was tempered by the shade of a tree that we sat beneath and the gentlest breeze that blew through the meadow. A few hundred feet away, a stream babbled, adding to the peace.
“Your mom ate three pieces,” Raven told him. “I’m pretty sure she loved it. Probably because I picked it out, and I’m pretty much the best melon picker there is. But you know, I’m basically kind of amazing at all things.”
Raven knocked her shoulder into mine, sending me a wayward grin with her tease.
She was a wild one. Always laughing and joking. Talking herself up like crazy while still being one of the most humble people I’d ever met.
I guess that was the way she injected herself directly into your heart.
“Whelp, you sure did a good job, Auntie Raven, so you gotta be pretty good at everything,” Colin told her before he dove back in. A stream of watermelon juice dribbled out onto his shirt.
She laughed a tinkling sound.
Baby Luna copied her.
This tiny laugh and the most precious smile filling the baby’s face. The child cooing at her mother who sat with her legs crisscrossed beside me. Holding her up under the arms as the woman seamlessly loved on her daughter and bantered with the rest of us.
“That’s right. She’s pretty great,” Otto murmured where he was lying on his side, basically wrapped around Raven from behind.
“Don’t fill her head any more than it already is.” Sitting on the other side of me, Charleigh reached into the bowl of fruit and popped a grape into her mouth.
“Oh, I plan on filling her with something,” Otto mumbled low enough that Colin couldn’t hear.
The sip of iced tea I’d just taken spurted from my mouth, and I clapped my hand over it like it might stop the riot of laughter that wanted to tumble out.
Piper groaned and threw a grape at him. “Gross, Otto. You are the worst.”
“Nah, I’m the best. Ask my Moonflower.” It was pure suggestion.
On the other side of Charleigh, a growl rolled out of River. “You’re not going to have the ability to do anything if you keep up with that.”
The death glare he sent Otto essentially confirmed he was capable of murder.
Otto howled. “Ah, come now, brother. No need to get up in arms. You know the only thing I’m trying to do is take care of your sister. Really, really good care.”
Giggles rolled out of Raven.
River grunted, and I suppressed another laugh.
The whole afternoon they’d been this way.
Constant razzing back and forth.
Across from me, Emery sat between Kane’s legs, resting against his chest. Her expression was soft as she sent a glance toward me. Clearly checking to see how I was fairing in the middle of this.
An outsider who’d been dropped right in the middle of the sweet chaos.
At the thought, my eyes skated to Cash, where he and Theo stood in the middle of the field. They watched over the rest of the children who were playing ball, ensuring they didn’t wander near the stream.
Finn was in Theo’s arms, and the man dribbled the ball between his feet, kicking it back and forth between Maci, Nolan, Addy, and Eva.
Cash stood off to the side. Not participating, yet his eyes steely and keen.
For a beat, that hazel gaze drifted to me. Rays of sunlight slanted down to kiss his masculine face. Every inch of him rippled with that undefinable strength.
My stomach bottomed out.
“Colin, watch this!” Nolan shouted as he backed away from the ball before he shot toward it, kicking it as hard as he could and sending the ball rolling across the field.