Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
She doesn’t seem at all convinced, but there isn’t much I can do with the scowl that seems to be tainting her pretty face any time I’m around.
“What about my mom?”
She just told me about her mother, but that’s less of an issue than the logistics of getting Mila and three kids to a different state.
“There’s an amazing nursing facility there. After we get settled, we can send for her or even come back to St. Louis to bring her back.”
She seems a little calmer than she was when I first told her of my intentions, but it doesn’t help to calm me down any.
“What will your girlfriend think?”
I watch her for a long moment, wondering what her intention is for asking this question.
“Girlfriend?”
She gestures toward my hand. “Or wife. Maybe you’re just not wearing a ring.”
“There’s no wife or girlfriend, Mila. I never wanted to be tied down.”
She flinches at my honesty.
I came back to St. Louis to make sure she could handle raising two boys, and somehow I’m heading back home with three kids and a reluctant woman who is only coming along because she has no other choice.
It isn’t exactly the stuff fairy tales are made of.
Chapter 14
Mila
“You just need to leave it,” he says when I ask for the keys to my car.
“Leave it? I can’t do that.” Not only is it my only means of transportation, but I also can’t depend on him that much. I’m already giving up everything else.
“I have no doubt they’ve tagged your car, Mila. Driving it isn’t safe any longer. We need to leave,” he says, motioning toward an SUV.
“Weren’t you in a truck yesterday?” I mutter, shifting the direction of the suitcase. I can’t really argue about our safety. “My car will get towed if we just leave it here.”
“Stop worrying about your car,” he says, helping Luca with hands on the child’s waist to climb up in the big vehicle. “We wouldn’t be comfortable in the truck, plus it’s a rental.”
That explanation doesn’t make sense. He didn’t have enough time to get his own vehicle here. Besides, I doubt the man drives a huge SUV.
“This thing has TVs,” Jace says, awe in his voice.
Vincent is going to win that kid over quicker than I ever could just with sheer extravagance.
“Satellite also,” Vincent assures him. “But we won’t be in it long.”
I keep Sutton on my hip as I precariously lift the car seat into the vehicle.
“Let me,” Vincent says, forcing me to take a step back because of the size of his body when he steps in to help.
“Have you ever put a car seat in?” I ask.
“How hard could it be?”
I stand back, watching him look at the pictures on the side of the seat.
“Should it really be this complicated?” he mumbles before taking a step back looking irritated.
Is this the moment his demeanor changes and his true colors come out?
“Let me hold her and then you can show me how to do it.”
Instinctively, I take a step back. I know the man isn’t going to run away with my child, but it still seems too soon to trust him with her.
He waits, his emotions under control, until I lift Sutton from my hip and hand her over.
He positions her on his hip the same way I had her on mine, but she looks tinier than she ever has. I want to laugh when her brows scrunch up in confusion. She stares at him, and he looks so far out of his comfort zone it’s comical.
I make quick work of the car seat before making sure the buckles are correct on both boys’ booster seats.
Sutton is still staring at her father, and I have to wonder what kind of relationship they’d have if I hadn’t deprived him of the first two years of her life. I know what I did was wrong. I knew it was wrong when I did it, but you couldn’t have told my stubborn ass anything different when I found out I was pregnant. Vincent had declared that very night at Carlen’s house, long before I climbed those stairs to his room, that he never wanted to be a father. I held on to that tightly, knowing I couldn’t risk him trying to force me to have an abortion.
I didn’t get pregnant on purpose, but I wasn’t exactly upset when I found out I was. I’d had such a deep-rooted obsession with Vincent Chilton for so long, it seemed kismet to have his child.
It proves just how immature and unprepared I was because being a single parent is beyond difficult. There have been times I’ve wanted to reach out to him, but I knew I couldn’t. That confession would come with the disappointment I keep seeing in his eyes.
It’s more than time to get over whatever crush that may still linger. Getting my hopes up about how this transition to New Mexico will go will only end in more disappointment. Vincent and I were never meant to end up together.