Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145231 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 726(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
There’s something different about Delly today that makes me wonder.
She’s dimmer, more subdued.
Evelyn’s betrayal, probably. It’s wilting her like a bright flower under a merciless heat lamp. The warm, easy smile that’s been there ever since we met seems more forced now, a mask she wears for appearances only.
It makes my heart hurt.
This lovely woman shouldn’t have to fade like this.
Not when she glitters like Kansas City itself on a long summer night.
“I’ve got a spare room you can use,” she says, changing subjects so fast I almost get whiplash. “I made them up for you. You don’t have to stay, of course. But Arlo can, if you’d like, while your parents are visiting.”
My jaw pops from being clenched.
I don’t know what possessed them to call, really.
But that’s a lie. I do.
In my panic after Arlo was rushed to the hospital, I stress-dialed my mother. She didn’t answer, of course, but I’m sure she heard me crying on the voicemail, desperate for comfort from a source I can’t trust.
The damage was done, even after I texted and told them it was a false alarm.
She called me yesterday and insisted they were flying in on a charter jet from some pharma guy Dad met at the golf course. They’re due very soon and I don’t know what I’m going to say to them.
I don’t know what I want to say—if there’s anything to say at all.
After so long apart, effectively estranged, we barely know each other.
Motherhood has changed me a lot, obviously. I’m guessing they haven’t changed one bit.
I chew on a hangnail anxiously.
It’s a real relief to have Delly helping with Arlo so I’m free to meet them without him—they don’t deserve to see him right away after what they’ve pulled over the years—but the uncertainty makes me break out in hives.
I don’t know if I even want him meeting his absentee grandparents, the same people who wanted me to give him up the minute he was born.
I also hate that Patton won’t return my messages.
He’s opened my texts, leaving them on Read. That’s worse than not knowing if he ever saw them at all.
I almost crack and ask Delly where he is, but I’m not sure I want to know.
I was worried for him after he made noise about going off on his own to find Evelyn Hibbing. How dangerous could she be?
And what prayer would I have of stopping him?
We arrive at Delly’s house soon, just before sunset. It’s blazing with light against the pink stained sky when we go inside.
Arlo’s stay has left him sleeping, and he dozes on my shoulder. Dexter and Juniper are there in the great room, along with Archer and his son, Colt.
“Good to see you,” Juniper whispers, giving me a brisk hug. “Need some help putting him to bed?”
“Just show me the way.”
We leave Delly to settle in with her family. I follow Junie upstairs to the spare room Delly made up for us. This house must be about a hundred years old, yet the guest room is still bigger than my apartment.
And although Junie hasn’t been part of the family for that long, she seems completely at home in this enormous space.
“Don’t feel obligated to stay up and chitchat if you’d like to catch up on sleep. You’ve been through a lot,” she says, catching me looking at her.
Unlike Delly, whose sense of style is immaculate, Juniper looks more comfortable in jeans and an old tee than high fashion. And although she’s beautiful in her own way—could she be anything else to wind up hitched to Dexter Rory?—there’s a sweet simplicity to her, too.
I’m a little in awe of the way she seems so confident here when she must be around my age. Does that all come from Dexter or from running the best bakery in town?
If I had a successful venture under my belt like her, I might flit around glowing too.
“You look like you manage pretty effortlessly,” I say. Arlo stirs as I lay him across the big plush bed and pull off his shoes. “How do you manage it?”
She laughs. “Delly, that’s how! The brothers, they take a bit to get used to—Archer especially was slow warming up to me—but Delly? She’s always treated me like the daughter she never had. Not bad for a boring baker girl, huh?”
“If you mean an awesome one, you’re right. I’m going to come in and try some cupcakes soon. Arlo could use a little spoiling after this scare.”
She smiles. “That’d be cool. We certainly try to make everything yummy at the Sugar Bowl. But this family, I thought they’d be more stuck up. Giant sticks up their asses, just like I thought about Dex at first.” She winces. “But they’re not like that at all. I was so wrong. If you’re worried you and Patton—”