Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Sounds fun.”
“It should be after being in the hotel, although I’ll admit, this has been like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I could get used to these sheets. Even the duvet is amazing.”
“What are you going to do before they get here? You have several days to fill before the tournament, and a couple after.” His hand moved to her thigh. He just rested his palm there, but she was acutely aware of the weight of it. The heat of it. His breath on her skin through the weave of her leggings.
“My mother lives here in Vegas with her partner, Ellen.” She made it a point to look at him, to watch his reaction. If he dared to make a snide comment, he was gone. Out of her room, out of her life. But he didn’t so much as blink, so she decided to continue. “My mom raised me alone. I never knew my father, and Mom never told me about him. We were really close, kind of an us-against-the-world mentality. She ended up with breast cancer, and I gambled in order to pay the medical bills. They were so high, and we needed a lot of money. She met Ellen at the infusion center.”
Without thinking, she dropped her hand into the thickness of his dark hair. There was so much of it. Wild with unruly waves. She’d always loved his hair. She needed the solace of touching him, of burying her fingers in all those soft, thick waves.
“Tell me, Vienna. I can feel the sadness in you. Is your mother okay?”
“Yes, she’s in remission and I’m eternally grateful for that. I won a tournament. It was a pretty big win. On the way home, someone ran me off the road. They tried to rob me.” When he started to lift his head, she held it down. “That was a long time ago. It isn’t as if you can go hunt them down now. And how silly of them to think I’d be carrying cash.”
“I’d like to hunt them down. Were you hurt?”
“Not really. Mostly scared. I wanted my mom. She had discovered love and couldn’t wait to tell me. She was dancing around the house and couldn’t see the state I was in. I was so upset I couldn’t see the state she was in. We ended up in a terrible fight. Things were said that should never have been said by either of us. Things we didn’t take back. I moved to Knightly and made a new life for myself.”
“How often do you talk to your mother?”
She was grateful that there was no judgment in his voice. She judged herself often enough.
“I call her once a week, but our conversations are very stilted. I ask her and her partner to come for the holiday dinners my friends and I put on, but they always decline.” She ducked her head. “If I’m being honest, it’s a bit of a relief. I don’t know what to say to her anymore.”
“Are you sorry for the things you said to her?”
“I’ve apologized for the things I said, and I meant every single word of the apology every time I’ve said it. It was the things she said,” Vienna corrected. “They made no sense. She was angry and she blurted out things she clearly regretted telling me. When I’ve called her on them, she’s tried to backtrack and tell me she lied, but I know she wasn’t lying.”
Zale was silent, not looking up at her, just waiting for her to make up her mind to give him the entire story. What difference did it make if she shared? If he knew? Who was he going to tell? He was a ghost, one of those men who hid in plain sight, who was there for a short period of time and then vanished as if he’d never been.
“She told me that she’d given up so much of her life to raise me and I wasn’t even her daughter. The moment she said it, she tried to take it back, but I knew it was the truth. So many things fell into place. No grandparents. No pictures. No family anywhere. When I asked her later, she refused to talk about it. After that, she didn’t want to be alone with me or talk for any length of time because she was afraid I’d bring it up. It was very clear she didn’t want me to know who my parents were. At first, I wanted to talk to her about it, but then, when I realized I was losing her, and the cost for knowing was going to be too high, I just stopped asking. I didn’t care if I ever found out. I didn’t want to chance making things worse with Mom.”
He rubbed his chin on the duvet while he considered the possibilities. “There are many child abductions that go unsolved.”