Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 522(@200wpm)___ 418(@250wpm)___ 348(@300wpm)
When I’d realized I was relaxing a little too much in his presence, I’d panicked and scrambled to get my brain back on track. I hadn’t been as subtle as I should have been, and now Dev was entirely closed off.
Which wasn’t a thing I should feel upset about, I told myself firmly. Lellie was my priority here; that wasn’t in doubt. I needed to determine whether Dev was a fit parent or the kind of person who might take advantage of Lellie’s wealth. I didn’t want to think ill of him, for Katie and Lellie’s sake, but I also knew this world was harsh, and sometimes desperate situations made people… desperate.
I cleared my throat. “I’m… ah… sorry to just show up here with no warning. It’s just that I couldn’t find a phone number for you. I tracked you down to the ranch, but I didn’t want to contact the owners and potentially get your employer involved in a private… situation.”
His jaw ticked as he pulled off the highway and onto a gravel road and under a wooden archway that read Fletcher Ranch. “Appreciate it.”
The awkwardness deepened again as he made his way slowly past an old sprawling ranch house and acres of horse pasture.
“It really is beautiful here.” I winced at the repetition. It had been years since I’d felt this wrong-footed. “I should have asked before we left town, but is there a place I can get a room for me and Lellie, after you and I talk? A bed-and-breakfast or something? I expected to find a hotel or motel on my way from the airstrip, but I didn’t see anything.”
“There’s an inn off Poke Street that probably has room, but you’re not taking Lellie.”
He pulled up to a large barn and pulled my rental next to a dust-covered but very expensive-looking SUV and several late-model horse trailers. Fletcher Ranch must have been doing very well to be able to afford high-end equipment.
It took me a minute to realize what he’d said, and Dev was out of the car before I could respond. I jumped out and scrambled around to face him, but he’d already pulled open Lellie’s door.
“Okay, hold up. I’m not leaving her with you,” I said, feeling the culmination of stress, exhaustion, and annoyance ball together in a dangerous simmer. “You saw how she reacted when you tried to hold her.”
“Then you can sleep on my floor,” Dev said gruffly. “Because if I’m reading you right, and I think I am, I just inherited my own… my own daughter.” He turned to pin me with a familiar hazel stare that swirled now with an explosive mixture of hurt, confusion, sorrow, and yearning. “I don’t know exactly how that will work going forward… but if you mean to take her away one minute after I learned she existed, you can think again.”
“Learned she existed?” I shot back unwisely. “You just go around donating sperm for the hell of it? She’s been alive for over a year, Devon. You never bothered to learn she existed until now.”
The anger radiating off him told me I’d made a mistake even before he leaned closer to me and bit out, “Because she had a mother until now. And I wasn’t aware I owed you an explanation for my choices, Tully.” Something in the firm set of his jaw, the determined intensity of his gaze, and the soft but commanding tone of his voice made my heart hammer.
I was torn between respecting the hell out of him for taking up Lellie’s cause and panicking at the thought of him fighting to keep her without knowing any of the details or having the capacity to give her the life she deserved.
“I’m not leaving her,” I said again. “If that means I have to stay on your floor, fine. You don’t even know what a toddler needs, do you?”
“And you do?” he snapped.
“This particular toddler? Yeah. I do. A hell of a lot better than a perfect stranger, anyway. Which is what you are,” I added unnecessarily. “No matter what DNA you share.” I felt my back teeth grind together. “I was there the day she was born. I held her when she couldn’t sleep for teething. And I’ve changed her diaper more times than you can count. She knows me.”
I didn’t mention that I also had carefully detailed care instructions from the nanny, a brand-new paperback copy of What to Expect the Second Year, and my own mother on speed dial, just in case.
He grunted and nudged me out of the way, pulling open the car door and leaning in to unbuckle the car seat.
Lellie was still fast asleep, her head dangling to one side and her hair blown every which way from the open windows. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until Dev successfully extricated her without waking her.