Page 17 of The Impossible

During the week he’d disappeared, leaving me with a big ass rock and a security detail that didn’t give a shit about my need for space, I did a lot of thinking. I realized my circumstances were what they were. So I accepted them, but then became extremely pissed because here I was accepting him and he wasn’t even around.

When we parted, I was out of breath and my mind was in a frenzy.

“That amongst other things is what I missed.” His voice interrupted my hazy thoughts.

“Then don’t go disappearing on me anymore, especially since I’m now planning a wedding with your mother.”

He laughed, his hand encasing mine on the expensive leather seats.

“You’re planning our wedding, so make that motherfucker as big as your heart desires. Whatever works for you works for me and I told you I was giving you your space.”

“Where are we going?” I looked out of the window. We far in the suburbs, nearly where the woods started.

“A lil hideaway I keep when I don’t feel like being bothered. I don’t feel like going back to the city and want to spend some time with you. Somebody ain’t decorated our house yet.”

I cackled. “I don’t even have access to the house you took me to under false pretenses. It’s massive. That’s not a one-man decorating job. I need a freaking interior designer for a space like that.”

“Then get with Alora about one of those too.”

“And what are you going to help me with?”

“Filling that motherfucker with everything you said you wanted when we first toured it.” I smiled, unable to hold it back.

For a brute, he seemed to always say the right things.

“On the second day of our engagement, I thought about running. Well, maybe not running, but getting on a plane to Paige’s to think for a minute,” I admitted.

“I figured. Why didn’t you?”

I shrugged. “Because one, my cub Zar can’t be without me for too long. And two, well, this whole mail order bride situation interests me.”

“Yo, what the fuck?” He laughed hard.

I shrugged. “What? I’m just saying.”

“I hope you really don’t think that shit.” He shook his head, lying back and closing his eyes.

“Maybe.” I watched out the window as we stopped at a set of gates. They opened no sooner than we stopped. Up the dimly lit, narrow driveway was a massive home, nearly hidden in the forest behind trees.

“You said little hideaway. Hondo, this is a palace.”

“Nah, it’s somewhere I come when I need a break. A minute away from everybody needing something.”

“Must be exhausting.”

He shrugged, then opened his eyes and sat up. “I’m built for it. How was your day?”

“As if you don’t already know the ins and outs of my days, Mr. Carter.”

He grinned. “Logistically yeah, but from your lips no.”

I shook my head. “It was long, and today was the day before my vacation starts. Of course it isn’t a vacation that I planned, because I never take vacations, but one forced on me.” I shook my head, getting irritated all over again at the micromanagement.

“Then who planned it?”

“The same person who brokered my marriage. While your mother said the next few weeks, they’re expecting us to be married and working on a freaking kid by the end of the week.” I sighed.

The car came to a stop and I felt his eyes before he spoke. “Terms of the agreement, baby. They need the money.”