Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
“I’m trying.”
“You are.”
“Okay,” I whispered, wanting with everything in me to believe him. To know this wonderful man would be around once the holiday decorations were gone and real life stepped in.
“I’ll prove it to you.”
“I look forward to it.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
ASHER
My condo felt empty when I returned to it. Vast, filled with furniture, the air warm, and completely lacking any life. I wandered around, looking at the rooms. Four bedrooms, plus my large primary suite. The others rarely used unless Bonnie spent the night or Suzy and she stayed a few days. The kitchen was great for heating up takeout and the furniture rarely sat on. My office was the most lived-in. I spent a lot of time there, even sleeping on the sofa on occasion, watching a movie on the big screen. The rest of the rooms were just…space.
Rosie’s tiny apartment was crammed. The furniture didn’t match, the heat was iffy at times, yet I sensed the love that saturated the rooms. Felt the lives they lived in that tiny space.
I longed to be back on that lumpy sofa with her wrapped in blankets to ward off the chill rather than here in my perfectly temperature-controlled condo with nothing out of place. It was devoid of warmth. Rather like me before Rosie and AJ came into my life.
I loved my sister and my niece. But even with them, I tempered my feelings. I got on well with my brother-in-law. I had a few friends I cared about. But with all of them, I drew an invisible line in the sand. I cared only so much.
That line was erased when it came to Rosie and AJ. I had no control over my emotions. My actions. Normally, I was rock solid. I made rational decisions, and I stuck to them. There was nothing rational about how I acted with Rosie. It was as if she had woken up something inside me that had been locked away.
Last night after AJ had fallen asleep on the sofa, I’d carried him to his bed and stood back as Rosie tucked him in. Seeing the sweetness of her mothering him, pressing kisses to his forehead, brushing his unruly hair off his face, made my chest ache with the tenderness of the moment. Something she was used to, no doubt, but being denied that so much of my life brought out a sensation I wasn’t used to feeling. I wanted to be part of that nighttime routine. To give and get sloppy goodnight kisses. To know the satisfaction of having my children warm and safe, tucked up for the night.
She had impressed me with the haircuts she gave the two of us. Mine looked neater, and AJ’s was far shorter and he had stopped pushing it off his face every few moments. She was a woman of many talents, even though I realized some of them, like cutting her son’s hair, were more of a necessity than a pleasure.
Rosie had bent and bestowed one last kiss to AJ’s nose and tucked the blanket around him. She snapped off the light, leaving the small one in the corner lit. She had told me he didn’t like total darkness, so it was on for him every night.
We had walked to the living room, coming together without words. Our clothing was discarded, and I sank onto the sofa, pulling her to my lap. We kissed endlessly, whispered words of desire, emotion, and shared quiet secrets. I slid inside her, the feeling of rightness at being surrounded by her settling over me. We moved and rocked on that old sofa, our pleasure blanketed by lips and tongues, our bodies releasing the tension we’d been carrying since being apart. Afterward, we dressed, and I held her close, wishing this was how I could end every day. Wondering, hoping, that one day it would be the normal.
I stared around my condo, thinking of that wish. I could see Rosie in the kitchen here. AJ and possible siblings playing on the floor. Studying and doing their homework. Having dinner as a family. Tucking them in and finding Rosie in our bed, waiting for me. Losing myself in her for a while and drifting off to sleep with her beside me.
At the moment, I loathed the fact that I was here in a warm, empty condo and she was across town, prepared to face the cold if need be. Alone. She handled everything alone.
I couldn’t allow that. I couldn’t stomach the idea of it happening.
I shook my head and strode into my office.
I had arrangements to make.
I didn’t sleep well and was up early, heading into the office. I knew it would be busy after the holiday break, and I wasn’t wrong. The building buzzed around me all day. I had investment people who made sure the money source would never end. Another group that scouted for opportunities. Staff who went through applications, sorting out the bad from the good. Lawyers and accountants.