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)
The two reuniting in a profound way.
It wasn’t supposed to be sad. It wasn’t supposed to cause someone to weep.
So, Daisy fought and fought the tears that burned at the backs of her eyes and raced up and down her throat.
God, she tried so hard to keep the sob from ripping from her chest.
But it was too big, and she choked on it.
The sound strangled and small.
Arms suddenly wrapped around her, pulling her close, her ear tucked against the thunder at his chest. “Hey, hey, hey,” he murmured at the top of her head. “What happened?”
The ball of fire rolled in the base of her throat, and she felt like she was being strangled.
“I’m right here. I’m right here. It’s okay, you can let go.”
At his words, she broke.
Tears burst free and sobs raked from the depths where she kept everything important to her hidden.
She fully turned into him, her hands fists in the fabric of his shirt.
“I miss her so much,” Daisy quietly gasped into Cash’s neck. “I miss her so much, and I’m never going to have that. Never.”
“Oh, shit,” Cash whispered as he realized why she lost it.
A subject she’d avoided like the plague since she was placed with Ms. Lopez.
Cash’s arms tightened further, and his heart thudded like a drum beneath her ear, sympathy spilling out as he held her hedged in the safety of who he was.
“I can only imagine, Daisy. Or maybe I can’t. I have no clue what that would be like.”
“It’s the worst thing in the world, Cash, knowing I will never see her again.” She clung to him like he could stop her from drowning. “She should have only been gone for fifteen minutes, and I waited and waited for her to come back, and she never did.”
She never did.
And their mother was the only thing she and her sister had.
“I hate it for you, Daisy. I hate it.”
“I feel so empty. Like a shell that has no shape. Like I might collapse in on myself.”
“I know it might feel that way, but I can see you. Feel you. And I bet your mom can, too, even though you can’t see her.”
“Do you really believe that?” she whispered, still clutching to him.
He ran a hand down the back of her head. “Yeah, I’ve gotta believe we are more than only this.”
Her mouth tweaked at the side, though the tears wouldn’t stop falling. “I want to believe that, too.”
“What do we have if we don’t believe?” His lips moved against her head.
She could only nod, clinging to the idea.
She stayed like that for the longest time before she peeled herself away and sat up.
Cash sat up, too.
A knee drawn up as he faced her on the bed. He peered at her through the shadows cast by the credits that rolled on the screen.
His shirt was soaked with tears and she was pretty sure some of her snot.
Embarrassment rushed. Sniffling, she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
A frown cut deep between his brows, and he reached out and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “You’re my best friend, Daisy. You don’t have to be sorry. I’m here. You’re not alone anymore.”
SIXTEEN
CASH
I followed Theo through the back door of Ivy Threads, maneuvering a ridiculous mannequin that was naked and as tall as me through the storeroom and out into the main area of the boutique. Trying to keep my shit together as I continued to war with the request that Daisy had made.
My insides in knots and my mind so twisted and tied I couldn’t make sense of a single thought.
Wrought with worry and dread and the long ago promise I made that I would do anything she asked.
But what she was asking…
Two weeks had passed with them staying at my cabin.
Two weeks of no one else knowing they were there.
Two weeks of turmoil as I struggled to figure out what the hell I was going to do.
Two weeks of Daisy and her kids under my feet and getting under my skin. Constantly there with those smiles and unending questions and their laughter ringing against the walls.
Invading my space and fucking with my mind.
All while I spent most of my time trying to sniff out the bastard who was at the root of the problem in the first place.
I’d sworn to Daisy that I would protect her. That I would protect all of them.
I’d torn through every detail I could uncover on that piece of shit.
Unfortunately, once he was released from jail, he disappeared.
Not a fucking trace.
But I’d find him.
I would hunt every inch of this earth until I did.
It wasn’t enough for Daisy, though. She was desperate for what she asked.
What tore me up inside was somewhere in that pretty head of hers, she was convinced she was going to die—or at least that there was a significant chance that she would. And what she wanted most was to know, in that event, that her children would be cared for.