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)
He placed the gauze pad on her head and looked toward me.
He gestured toward Iris and said, “Let’s get her inside.”
When I reached for her, she instead threw herself into Beau’s arms.
My lips quirked up at the edges.
“I got her, just do the stitches,” he ordered, her blood soaking his Carhartt jacket.
“Fine with me,” Odin said. “But it’d be easier if we had a table.”
Josephine, Denver’s oldest daughter, gestured toward a picnic table that’d been cleared of food. “There.”
Beau carried Iris to the table and took a seat with her on the tabletop, his feet resting on the seat.
Denver brought a trash can over and placed it next to the table.
Meanwhile, I helped Odin prep for stitches.
In the end, Iris got two more to go with her three on the opposite side of her forehead.
“You look like Frankenstein.” Beau tapped Iris’s nose with one finger.
She frowned. “No way.”
“Yes way.” He laughed.
She signed something to him, and I watched the two interact.
“That’s so sweet,” Constance whispered.
“They’re really good together,” I agreed. “We’re so lucky that he came into our lives.”
Because no matter what Beau said, he was helping her.
Sleepy from the long day, we made our way back to my place.
I was so tired that at first I didn’t notice the person that was parked in my driveway until I went to turn in and found it blocked by a rental car with California plates.
I frowned and parked on the other side of the car, barely squeezing into the spot because the car was parked so poorly.
When I shut the car off, Beau was already there, parked in the street and staring at the black sedan with suspicion.
“Who’s that?” Beau asked when he opened my door.
I opened my mouth to say “I don’t know” when the door to the sedan opened and my worst nightmare got out.
“You’re a hard woman to find,” Cain McDuff drawled.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Why would you want to find me?”
And I was not a hard woman to find.
I played professional soccer. It was honestly laughable that he thought that I could hide who I was when it was mandatory to live within twenty minutes of the stadium. Plus, there were only three small towns to choose from in the area that fit that requirement.
His eyes moved to Beau. “I wanted to talk to you. Alone.”
“Cain,” I said, using his name to warn Beau who, exactly, it was that stood in front of us. “It’s late.”
“I only have a few questions.”
Beau stiffened next to me, making the connections that I needed him to.
“Listen, man,” Beau said. “My daughter needs to get to bed, and Magnolia has a game tomorrow. We don’t have time for questions. Maybe if you’d have called before you came, we could’ve made time for you to talk with her. But we don’t have that time tonight.”
Cain’s eyes flicked toward Beau.
He took in his stained white t-shirt, that funny enough didn’t look like dried blood after some cow had smeared shit all over it, and curled his lip in disgust. “Listen, I don’t need you or your daughter to have this conversation with her. It won’t take long.”
“I don’t think you’re understanding me,” Beau said. “She doesn’t want to talk to you. She doesn’t have any desire to be in your vicinity at all. Now, leave.”
Cain was so unaccustomed to people telling him what to do that it gave him pause. Anger rose on his face, and I could tell he wanted to lash out, use his prestige and wealth to get him what he wanted.
But he wasn’t in his hometown anymore. He was in Beau’s. And Beau didn’t give a flying fuck what Cain’s net worth was.
Nor did Cain have any pockets lined in this part of the country.
Money wouldn’t buy him what he wanted here.
“Fine.” Cain rolled his eyes. “I was just going to tell you that Rose had a life insurance policy, and they won’t give it to me.”
Of course he was here about money.
That had also been the source of nearly every one of their fights. Money.
I blinked. “Why would they?”
He snorted. “Because I was her husband.”
“You were her fiancé,” I corrected. “Not her husband. And I was listed as the beneficiary. Even if you were married, if I was listed as the beneficiary, then it’d still go to me. That’s how beneficiaries work.”
Not that I’d ever cashed in that life insurance.
A million-dollar policy wouldn’t bring my sister back.
The money felt like blood money to me, so I hadn’t touched it. Nor had I contacted them in any capacity.
Which, maybe I should have, seeing as if I’d followed through, Cain would have no reason for being here right now.
“Well, they keep saying that you haven’t claimed it yet or answered any of their inquiries about it.” He threw up his hands. “I feel like it’s owed to me, anyway. So just accept it and sign it over if you don’t want it.”