Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
My sister had made the team ride the bus to the games, which took fucking forever.
I’d splurged on a contract with the same team that flew the Condors around to games.
It worked out well, raised team morale, and was a big “fuck you” to my sister for being so stingy.
This was a professional team, for Christ’s sake. She should act like it.
“Perfect,” she said. “Where are the bags?”
I poked my head into the first room as we passed and said, “There.”
She walked with me to the second room and watched as I gently laid Iris down.
“Today was the scariest day of my life.”
I tucked the blanket up over her and stared at the mark on Iris’s forehead.
“These sheets and bedding are Lysander approved,” I mused.
“Yeah?”
Her voice trembled.
“Yeah.” I turned to her. “Let’s go out to the kitchen.”
She followed me, her footsteps hesitant to leave her girl behind.
When we got to the kitchen, I poured her a glass of chocolate milk, and she smiled. “Didn’t know that you kept chocolate milk on hand here for yourself.”
“I don’t,” I admitted. “I keep it for you.”
She blinked.
“I’ve been in love with you for eight months, Noli.”
Her inhale was swift as I handed her the milk.
She took it with a trembling hand.
“Today, when I got the call that Iris was hurt, I felt like my heart took a flying leap out of my chest,” I said. “I didn’t realize how much she’d come to mean to me.”
Magnolia placed the glass down on the counter, then threw herself into my arms.
I caught her, bringing her into my chest, and burying my face into her neck.
“I’ve never been so happy than to get there and see her smile at me,” I said against her skin. “I can’t even imagine what would’ve happened had I had to see what you did today. You’re so fucking strong.”
She sniffled. “I’m so scared. All the time.”
I squeezed her shoulders. “She’s okay.”
She blew out a breath, then pushed away from me, staring into my eyes. “It’s not just that.”
TEN
My tits are too nice for my life to be like this.
—Magnolia to Beau
MAGNOLIA
Was I really about to do this?
My stomach was doing somersaults, but I blundered out the words before I could stop myself.
He was really honest with me just now on how he felt, so it felt only right that he know the whole story before I let him get any deeper with us.
I had a huge secret.
One that might come out one day, and he needed to be prepared.
“Iris isn’t mine.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Iris was my sister’s child. Rose.” I ran my hands up and down my arms, trying to heat a chill that would never dissipate.
“Rose and I were best friends as well as sisters. One year apart. She and I were both adopted by our aunt and uncle after our parents died in a drunk driving accident,” I blurted. “When she met her fiancé, he seemed like a great guy at first. Did all the right things. Was so nice and loving. Then he asked her to marry him. She said yes.”
“What happened?” he asked.
“He started to drink. He was abusive. And Rose and I…we were lost. Our aunt and uncle had just died in their own drunk driving accident. It’d been their fault, and we were trying to reconcile ourselves with being alone in this world. Rose started to lean heavily on Cain while I focused solely on soccer. We were both lost in our own grief, and we just…”
He caught my hand and brought it up to his lips. “Keep going.”
“I don’t know when we both realized that her situation was dire. She’d been hurt so many times, and we just ignored it. I pretended like it wasn’t happening, meanwhile she kept the worst of it from me. Until the day she found out that she was pregnant with Iris.”
“Fuck, honey,” he rasped. “What happened?”
“She tried to run. And he wouldn’t let her.”
He inhaled sharply. “What did he do to her?”
“Beat her so badly that she couldn’t walk. That was when she pressed charges against him. This happened on the base, and things were swept under the rug. But one thing that happened that was great for her was within a week of that incident, Cain was slotted for a deployment. Nine whole months without him.”
“Just enough time to hide her pregnancy,” he guessed.
“That’s right,” I said. “But we both knew that it wasn’t going to be enough to keep him away. And now there was a little girl in the picture.”
“So what happened?” he asked, his eyes intense.
“She moved to Texas with me. When she was born, Rose asked me to keep Iris,” I explained. “She told me that Iris was my daughter now. We could never tell anyone anything about the switch, either. Because if Cain found out that he had a child, he would kill her.”