Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
He had taken his second chance. It had been a good one. A great one that brought him a best friend for life. He’d learned all the lessons about manhood from an honorable man, from Unc, since the father he never knew hadn’t bothered. And a rare, kind, compassionate woman had been a mother to him in every way but blood. And he’d stumbled through some rough times, screwed his way through too many women to remember, married the wrong woman, and made mistakes that still haunted him, but he’d met the love of his life when they were twelve years old. Only took him seventeen years to do anything about it.
He walked out to the gazebo by the river, pulling his suit jacket closer around him to ward off the cold.
“Jo!” His voice echoed back to him, and there was still no sign. He eyed the backyard swing, so much like the one he’d painted on his wall. He thought about the jar of fireflies, and the light he and Jo had used to communicate with each other that night when she’d laid out her secrets.
And then he knew where she was. He hated to be the one who had driven her there.
He entered Ms. Kris’s suite for the first time since her death, and he understood right away why Jo came here. Ms. Kris’s spirit lingered here. Not in a haunted, creepy way. Her gentleness, her strength had stayed like companions waiting for her return. His steps slowed as he approached the closet, hoping Jo was here, but hating it if she was. He could be wrong.
But he wasn’t.
The first thing he noticed were the red-bottom shoes, blaring, glittering chartreuse with the soles dipped in costly blood. Jo sat on the floor in the deepest part of the closet, back pressed against the wall, long legs stretched out in front of her. She wore the richly colored silk robe. Her hair spilled around her shoulders, wild just the way he liked it. Not a scrap of makeup. Her tear-puffy eyes narrowed on him.
She folded her arms over her chest, like that was supposed to guard her heart from him. Thank God she’d never figured out how to actually do that.
“What are you doing here?” Jo inlaid the words with ice.
“You’re here.” He squatted until they were level but not coming too close.
Jo squeezed her lips together, dropping her eyes to the hands in her lap, toying with the belt of her robe.
“I’m asking you nicely to get out of my house until I’m ready to see you.”
“Just give me a few minutes. I’ve figured some things out. Thank you for giving me the space to do that. It helped.”
“Well now I need some space.” Jo corralled the wavy mass of hair tangling down her arms into a rope over one shoulder. “I want you to go.”
Cam let the words settle in the closet around them like snow. He sighed. Anything but that.
“Baby, I can’t do that.”
“You are such a hypocrite.” Her sharp stare and words lacerated the air between them. “You run tattling to my father so I won’t come after you, but when the tables are turned, you can’t give me space to think.”
“I don’t want you thinking. I want you feeling.” Cam stood on his knees, scooting closer to her. “I want you remembering how it is with us. How it’s harder to breathe when we’re apart. How we miss each other during the day and can’t wait to see each other at night. Feel that, baby.”
“I have been feeling that ever since you left.” Jo scooped her hair back from her face. “And this whole time you were with her. That was a betrayal to me, Cam.”
“Sweetie, nothing happened. You know you’re the only one I want. The only thing I want in this world. You’re my one essential.”
“Oh, now I’m your one essential, yet you’ve managed to live without me while you were in Crete with Etty.”
“Will you stop acting like Etty is the damn issue?” Cam’s patience evaporated. He’d wrestled against himself for weeks, denying himself air. Choking without Jo. He was ready to move forward.
“She is the damn issue.”
“No, she the hell isn’t, Jo.” Cam forced himself to stop talking before he screwed this up worse. “I didn’t let her in. She was a body in the house. I didn’t share anything with her.”
“Well you certainly didn’t share anything with me, either.”
“And I get that. I admit that. After this last session with Dr. Stein, I realize I should have.”
“I don’t want to hear about your epiphany.” Jo pulled her lips in and closed her eyes. “I’m not ready for anything you have to say.”
“Jo, I know I shut you out.”
She opened her eyes and they accused him before her words even began.