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)
We jumped out of our hiding spot and beelined across the field. Their little feet went at full blast beside me, though Eva was about half the speed of Addy, who pulled out ahead.
“There they are!” Colin shouted. “We gotta get ’em.”
Blood sloshed through my veins as they started behind us.
This quick elation that I shouldn’t feel. But it was there, rushing and ripping.
“Hurry! We have to go faster!” Addy shouted, tugging and pulling at my hand.
“Go, go, go!” I shouted, releasing her so she could go flying across the lawn. I swooped Eva into my arms.
Eva squealed and hung onto my neck. “Run fast!”
With each pound of my feet, I could feel heavier ones advancing from behind.
A thunder that rolled.
“Get ’em, Mr. Cash! Get ’em!” Colin urged.
“Hurry, Daisy, hurry!” Emery and Piper were shouting from the stairs, the whole babble of kids jumping up and down. “Hurry it up, Ms. Daisy!”
That energy grew denser. So fierce and unrelenting and perfectly unbearable that I couldn’t breathe. I was five steps away when I set Eva onto her feet so she could make it the rest of the way by herself.
My tiny girl scuttling along with wild laughter rolling out of her as she hurried to the base.
Colin suddenly flew around me, hightailing it toward Eva who dove into Charleigh’s outstretched arms.
“You did it!” Charleigh praised and twirled with my little girl in her arms.
I was one step away from making it when a giant arm looped around my waist from behind. Tugging me back against the hard, rigid planes of his big, big body.
A gasp left me at the crash of severity that ripped through me.
His aura surrounding.
His heart thundering as deliriously as mine.
He pressed his mouth to my ear. “Not quite, fiancée. Looks like you owe me one favor.”
A shiver raced down my spine, my belly flipping and flopping while he held me there for a long moment. I could barely stand when he released me, my breaths shallow and my chest heaving as he strode around me like nothing had happened, going for the kids who were chanting, “Ice cream party! Ice cream party!”
The man only glanced back at me once.
Wearing that old smirk that I’d loved so much.
THIRTY-EIGHT
CASH
“Thank you so much for having us.” Daisy kept the words quiet as she squeezed Emery’s hands.
We’d stayed for fucking ever. Darkness gathering at the windows and the night growing long.
After playing outside for hours, the kids had insisted on a movie, and now every single one of them was asleep in the family room.
Little slumbering bodies littered all over the place.
On the left side of the sectional, Addy and Maci were on the cushy couch under a blanket. Nolan was draped off the far-right side’s arm like he’d fallen asleep halfway crawling over the top of it, and Colin was splayed out in the middle with one leg hanging off.
Eva and Finn were snuggled on a blanket on the floor, both on their sides and lying so close to each other their little noses were almost touching.
My chest tightened. Tightened in a way I couldn’t let it.
The fact that Daisy was all wrapped up in the girls made it a hundred times worse. Their voices lowered as they whispered like they’d been friends all their lives.
“We love that you were here,” Emery returned.
“And know it will be on repeat a thousand times over because you are now one of us.” Even with the hushed words, there was no missing the sass that remained in Raven’s tone.
My spirit thrashed at the claim.
A violent beat of refusal and a vicious clawing for surrender.
All of them were getting so deep under my skin I couldn’t make sense of it. This feeling that swept through me every time I heard one of their little voices.
Daisy peeked at me then, where I stood off to the side. Shifting on my boots and not fucking knowing what to do with myself since I never did this. Hanging out all day like I was an intrinsic part of this family and not someone who was only meant to be hovering in the periphery.
Playing.
Participating.
Stepping into places where I didn’t belong.
It was brutal, knowing I was only committing a thousand more sins by enjoying it. Slipping into the comfort.
But fuck. That’s what it felt like.
Like I belonged here with Daisy and the kids.
So fucked up.
Charleigh stepped up and hugged Daisy tight. “We’ll see you really soon.”
Daisy nodded, though it looked like she wasn’t sure that she should commit to it.
Daisy shuffled over to Addy, and she softly nudged her arm. “Hey, sweet girl. It’s time to go home.”
Home.
Fuck.
Addy blinked her eyes open, groaning in confusion before she gave her mother a giant pout. “Already?”
Daisy laughed a soft sound. “We’ve been here the whole day. I’m sure we’ve outstayed our welcome.”