Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 101758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 509(@200wpm)___ 407(@250wpm)___ 339(@300wpm)
I stay silent as he swallows hard.
“Six years after she skipped out, she had another baby. And she’s such a piece of shit that Indie wasn’t even a year old when she left her too.”
“God,” I whisper.
“I feel like a jerk for not being excited about finding out I have a long-lost sister who wasn’t so lost. I like Indie. She’s great. But fuck.”
“It doesn’t make you a shit person to have mixed feelings, Xander. Of course you do. Even if it’s not any of your fault, it’s okay to be angry and hurt. At least you know Indie isn’t an asshole. It could have been a stranger.”
“How do we know there aren’t more?” he asks, his voice so quiet. “Are more people going to show up and say that our piece-of-shit mom is also their mom?”
Well, I hadn’t thought of that.
“There’s no way to know,” I tell him honestly. “Maybe. Probably not. Do you have any idea where she is now?”
“Yeah, I know.”
My eyes widen.
“No one knows that I know. Not even my siblings. As far as they’re concerned, she left and never came back. And that’s true. She’s never been back here since she skipped out with Indie’s dad.”
“Where has she been, Xander?”
He frowns and swallows hard, and when he doesn’t answer, I lean in and hug him again, and he clings to me.
“She wanted money.” I don’t ask; it’s a statement. Because I already know.
He nods against me.
“How much did you give her?”
“Nothing.”
Surprised, I pull back and blink at him. “Really?”
“Really. She wasn’t mean like your mom. And she didn’t come to me in person. She called.”
“How did she get your number?”
“I have no idea. I changed it after that call. Told everyone that I lost my phone.” He licks his lips. “She called out of the blue, said she was proud of me and needed a million dollars.”
I narrow my eyes. “I’d like to punch her in the face.”
His frown eases. “I laughed at her and hung up. Didn’t say a word to her. Because I was just a baby, not even in kindergarten, when she left. She didn’t give me anything at all growing up. I do remember her being loving and fun, but Jesus Christ, she’s been gone for the better part of thirty years. So no, she doesn’t get to ask me for anything now.”
“I’m sorry. Do you think Indie did what she did today because she has ulterior motives?”
“No, I don’t.” He shakes his head. “Indie doesn’t want anything from us. She just didn’t want to keep the secret.”
“I can appreciate that.”
His hand drifts up my arm, my shoulder, and under my hair to the back of my neck, and he gently pulls me to him, so he can lean his forehead against mine.
This might be the most intimate I’ve ever been with a man. Because this isn’t about sex. It’s connection.
“You can feel however you need to feel,” I whisper to him. “It’s all okay. And it might change each day for a while.”
His lips twitch up into a half smile. “You’re smart. I knew that you were exactly what I needed right now.”
I can’t believe that this is Xander being flirty and nice, just because he’s that way with everyone.
That’s not what this is anymore.
“Thanks for letting me crash here for a couple of days,” I whisper.
“There’s no way I’ll let you go back there while she’s there. Absolutely not.” He gently presses his hand over my sore cheek. “Why did she hit you?”
His jaw clenches.
“Because I put cheddar cheese on her sandwich and she doesn’t like cheese.”
He waits.
“And?”
“That’s it.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, Ivy.”
“If only. I would have gotten Cally and me out of there today. She kicked her twice. My poor girl.”
“No my poor girl,” Xander growls and pulls me in for another hug. “You should press charges, Red.”
“Yeah, well. Maybe next time.”
“There won’t be a fucking next time.”
Xander is really good at the whole hugging thing.
“At least I left my work bag here yesterday, so I can still be productive.”
“We’re taking the day off, remember?”
I grin. “What are we doing instead?”
“We didn’t get movie night.”
“Do I get to choose the movie?”
Xander scoffs. “Of course not. Wait, what would you choose?”
I press my lips together and then say, “The Notebook.”
“Fuck no.” He shakes his head. “No. Just you uttering those words means that you never get to choose a movie ever.”
“Hey! Not fair.”
“Totally fair. I want to watch Aladdin,” he says, keeping a straight face.
“Excuse me?”
“I have to brush up on all the kids movies for Bellie Boo. So I can sing the songs to her.”
Welp. There went my vagina, my uterus, and my ovaries, all up in flames.
“Okay, looks like we have homework. But I’m making popcorn first.”
“We need a lot of popcorn,” he says as he stands with me still in his arms, and I smack his shoulder. “Ow! What the fuck, Red?”