Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84913 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
And I so was.
She might have loved me the longest.
But I was going to dedicate my life to loving her the hardest.
Vance - 1 year later
I'd had Chris working on a secret project for me for months. A little surprise for Ferryn for her one year homecoming anniversary.
It had taken longer than either of us had anticipated. When I'd told Chris my idea, she'd shrugged her shoulders and said to give her a week or two. Which was great. It gave me a few months to work on it.
As it turned out, I only had three weeks to make it work after Chris had finally gotten me the information I needed.
I'd needed to include pretty much everyone in our lives on the secret since I had needed to leave town for a few days. We'd told her I had to go on a drop. Which meant a few of her uncles had to get lost for a few days as well since Reign would never send me alone on a job.
Even when I had left, I wasn't sure I had accomplished my goal.
Until the middle of the dinner party when the door opened.
And the surprised walked in.
Holden.
See, Ferryn would never outwardly say she missed the man, that she was worried about him, that she wanted to know what he was up to. But every time we went to his old place, when someone else said they were heading there for a little get away, every time she would dust all the wooden carved figures, she would get this faraway look in her eyes that stayed there sometimes for hours.
I wanted to fix that.
He'd been a tough man to track down, settling deep in the mountains of Vermont, existing without most basic necessities because he didn't want to be on the map.
How Chris eventually even found him was completely beyond me. And how I had convinced him to come was an even bigger mystery. When I'd left his place, he'd been giving me a steely stare, one that said he didn't give a shit about me or my surprise to my woman. Even if that woman was a girl he'd helped raise in a way.
Hell, I was pretty sure I was just as surprised as Ferryn when he dwarfed that entire doorway, when he looked around the room, spotting Ferryn sitting on the back of the couch, talking to one of her cousins.
"Kid."
Really, he hadn't even yelled, but his voice was the sort that boomed, that made all conversations around him grind to a halt.
Ferryn's lips fell open, her eyes went wide.
I didn't know what to expect when she turned finally to face her mentor.
I understood their relationship to be an odd one. No personal connections. She didn't know his life story. He didn't know much of hers. They didn't seem to have warm and fuzzies toward each other.
So when she hopped off that couch and made her way to Holden, we all sort of tensed.
When she got in front of him and threw her arms around him, he fucking tensed. His arms never went around her, clearly even more damaged than Ferryn had been when she'd returned to us a year ago, being away from his own warm and soft life for much longer than she had been away from hers. But one arm raised and awkwardly patted her back.
"That's enough of that," he rumbled out, making her pull back, giving him a smile that he seemed confused by.
"What... how..." she started, not sure which question she wanted to ask first.
"You got a persistent fuckin' cousin. And a dedicated fuckin' man," Holden told her, making her look toward Chris, then me, eyes a little dumbfounded.
"I, ah, yeah," she agreed, giving him a wobbly smile.
"You deserve 'em. Heard you're gettin' married," Holden said, gaze moving to her hand.
"Yeah. I mean... we don't have a date or anything yet. But yeah. Eventually."
To that, he made a grunting noise, reaching into his back pocket, producing a box, handing it to her.
"Wedding present," he said, shifting his feet, clearly uncomfortable with the large company gathered around, gawking at him. "Your people know where to find me if you need me," he added, already starting to make his exit. "You look happy," he said, turning back to Ferryn.
"I, ah, yeah. I am."
"Good," he said, giving her a firm nod. "That's good."
With that, he was gone.
She didn't try to go after him, get him to stay. She knew he needed to go. And she respected him too much to try to convince him otherwise.
"I can't believe he came," she said, coming over toward me, cradling the box like a bird with a broken wing. And, well, that was a perfect analogy for Holden, wasn't it?
"Honestly, me either," I agreed. "He might now know how to show it, Ace, but he loves you."