DECEIT (B723) by Hazel Grace (ebook reader for surface pro .TXT) 📕

“It’s okay to be scared, Em,” he mutters close to me. “This particular mission is going to evolve your life, but it’s rewarding. My children do for me every day.”

“You have kids? I’ve never heard you mention them.”

“They’re a pain in the ass.” He chuckles then rubs the pad of his thumb along my skin in comfort. “It’s going to be alright. You have all of us. You will always have all of us.”

My eyes flick down the table.

Kyson.

Marty.

Mills.

Blue.

Alexander.

But no Bishop.

“This is important to him too,” Ledger pledges when he must notice me observing the empty chair. “Family is vital.”

I shake my head slightly as to not have Alexander catch that something is wrong when he spent so much time making sure this dinner was perfect. How these people here are everything.

“He’s bull-headed,” I reply. “He’s mad at me. We…had a fight.”

“I noticed.”

Of course, he had; he’s Ledger.

How he sees, hears, and knows all is beyond me.

However, I think he picks everyone’s brain that might know the best details of a situation to get the whole picture. Like a father would do to his flock of children.

“It’s okay,” I reassure him and me. “He’ll have to come around.”

“And he will.” Ledger squeezes my hand. “He is right now.”

My neck snaps to the group around the table, and my heart skips in surprise at his words.

It’s more like hope.

Hope that he came and changed his mind.

Not because I wanted him to see me with Alexander but because I was selfish and needed to see him for myself.

Kyson tells me he’s been his typical self. Working out, killing, smoking, and hanging out with his family. That he’s more pissed off than usual but he didn’t make a thing about it.

Ledger’s soft green eyes meet mine when I look back at him. “Remember what I said.”

I bob my head. I’d listen to anything he said short of him telling me that Heath Ledger wasn’t the best Joker of all time.

“Hey, Bish!” I hear Mills call out, and I can’t help my reaction. My eyes flood with tears and Ledger gives me a small grin, still holding onto my hand and becoming my anchor.

I hear Alexander’s chair slide back from my left but I don’t dare look now. Not until I have my emotions under control. I don’t want to talk to him about what’s wrong.

Because everything is right now.

“Think of how Kyson always forgets not to put mayo on sandwiches,” Ledger emits. “Or when Marty steals your phone charger all the time and you have to keep buying a new one. And do I even need to mention the things Blue does to you?”

A broken chuckle escapes my lips as my adopted father-parent tries to fill my head with things that normally piss me off to keep my tears at bay.

I love him for it.

And it works.

I’m able to shove back waterworks that were about to crash to my cheeks and straighten my spine. Ready to stand to greet the man whom I haven’t laid eyes on in forever when a deep voice halts me altogether.

“You don’t have to get up,” he rumbles over my head. I feel him ease closer without needing to see him. His pleasurable scent of leather and nutmeg with the slight and regular mix of weed envelopes me.

His full lips press a kiss to my cheek, the rough edges of his short beard abrading over my skin, and I melt in my chair.

Yep, melt.

His touch still gets me to fall victim to him and everything that is Kace Bishop.

“You look beautiful,” he whispers as he pulls back. My body immediately rejects him stepping away from me, but he does.

Rounding the table, he stops to say something to Stormi, and Marty’s head shoots up to where Bishop answers him back with a feeble smack to the back of his skull. His light blue tee and dark jeans mold to his body and I watch with too much unnecessary interest.

He settles in next to Mills, who hands him a glass of dark liquid, and he immediately takes a hefty sip. A light smirk illuminates off his features at what my best friend says and I blink a few times to make sure that I hadn’t just imagined the last two minutes.

He seems…okay.

Not that I wouldn’t want him to be.

I was just expecting him to be livid pissed at me and still hold a grudge. I mean, he had for me wanting him to open up to me for three-plus years. He did the exact same thing by evading me, but now I couldn’t take back what happened.

I’m pregnant and he’s fine.

Two things I should want.

Two things that I have to want.

Alexander heads most of the conversation with my friends during appetizers. At the same time, Ledger seems very interested in knowing more about him, but I can’t eat a thing.

The boys are courteous—sweetly so because they know how much this means to me—and Blue cracks her inappropriate jokes which don’t phase me anymore. Poor Alexander will have to get used to it at some point or another.

He does wonderfully and answers every damning question from Marty, asking if he carries any weapons in the house and if he works exceptionally late hours. That he’ll be stopping by with his kid so they can have what he called “those playdate things” and to hang out with me for pizza night.

Kyson is silent for most of the time, which isn’t too out of the ordinary, but I can tell he’s conflicted. Mills is trying to crack stupid puns, but I catch his eyes a few times, and it’s then that I realize he’s trying to hide it too.

They don’t like him.

And I can’t make them.

If they hate him, I can only hope that within time it’ll change when they see how well he treats me. In their vision, no one will ever be good enough.

I can say the same for them even though Marty has Stormi, and I enjoy her company.