Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 131821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131821 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
My anomaly.
She’s my everything.
Yet she’s not even mine, is she?
“So what do you say?” I look at the headstone once more. “Do I learn to let go or keep fighting?”
Thunder breaks from the clouds then, and the rain pours in heavy streams.
I close my eyes, pointing them to the sky.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too.
She’s inside me now, and no matter how sharp the blade, nothing is cutting her out.
All I can do is weather the storm and hope when the clouds clear and the sun rises, I’ll still have the strength to stand.
Even if it’s not at her side.
With a sigh, I pull out my phone. “Okay, Big D. Time to teach me a little something…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Payton
Before, March
One week.
One glorious week of doing absolutely nothing.
It’s exactly what I need after the last couple of months I’ve had. The internship kept me busy and bouncing around each day, which I’m grateful for. I’ve learned so much from it, and I’ve already made it halfway through the online, go-at-your-own-pace courses they enrolled me in, but I am so ready for all the free time I’m about to have with my son.
My hours are still just part-time, so he’s only in the organization’s care center or with Lolli for four hours, five if I count drive time, a few days a week, and I only do my course work once he’s asleep for the night, but oh my god. It’s going to be so nice not having to jump up first thing every morning and get our asses together.
I understand now why in all the movies, the moms are up and ready before the kids even roll out of bed. We need that precious silence as much as we need the chaos that follows.
Warm coffee in one hand and monitor tucked beneath my arm, I slip out the back door. I flick on the gas firepit and drop onto the little couch on the back deck, gazing out at the early morning ocean.
I bring my cup up, taking a long whiff, and a smile crosses my face. “Early morning breeze, coffee, and warm fire is my exact idea of spring break.”
“And here I thought I would be the highlight.”
I jump at the sound of his voice, my coffee spilling over the edge slightly. My head whips around, spotting Mason on the sand, only his head visible through the planks of the high deck.
“What the heck?” I squeal, setting my mug down and running to meet him at the stairs.
I don’t know what comes over me, but I jump, knowing he’ll catch me at the foot of the steps.
My legs wrap around him, and he laughs, jogging up with me in his arms, his lips pressing to my cheek before he pulls back.
“Damn if that wasn’t the exact greeting I was hoping for.”
“Why are you here?”
He raises a brow, looking to the monitor on the table, Deaton still fast asleep in his crib.
I roll my eyes, wiggling until he reluctantly sets me on my feet. “I mean aren’t you supposed to be getting on a plane right about now?”
“Oh, that?” He smirks, moving into the house and straight over to the coffeepot to make his own cup.
I trail his every move, following him back out to the patio and lowering into the seat I jumped from when he plants himself into the space beside it.
“Are you going to talk now?” I playfully scold.
Mason lifts a finger, takes a sip of his coffee, and nods his head. “You’re right. This is my kind of spring break.”
I glare. “You were supposed to be headed to Mexico.”
“Was I?” He tips his head, laughing when I smack him playfully on the back of it. “I heard Parker was able to get off and he and Kenra decided to go, too, which meant—”
“I am fine on my own, Mason.” I frown.
“—that I had a chance to have you two all to myself, and I took it,” he finishes as if I didn’t speak.
Damn if I don’t get all warm and fuzzy at that. God, I’m such a girl. “Stop.”
“I’m serious.” He grins, eyes traveling over me like he knows I’m happy about this. “Cashed in my plane ticket and got something better.”
“What could be better than a trip to Mexico with your friends?”
“A trip to Disneyland with my girl.”
His eyes widen as if he didn’t mean to say that and before I can respond, not that I have a response other than the blush I’m trying to fight, because oh my, I don’t hate the sound of that.
I should, right?
Wait.
“Did you say Disneyland?”
Mason grins wide. “Better soak up these next two days of early morning breeze, Pretty Little, ‘cause the three after that, that breeze will be rolling in on a balcony overlooking downtown Disney.”
I try to rein in my excitement, I really, really do, but I can’t help the squeal that escapes, and I dive into his arms, hugging him tight.