Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
And this was why I’d gone to see Rome. I knew the devious bastard had to have some tricks up his sleeve.
“You need to send him little reminders that your door is always open for him. Entice him back to your side.”
“How? I think he’s still got a key to the house, but Franks would always let him straight in if he—” I cut off my words when Rome began waving his hands at me.
“Not what I mean. Smaller. Subtle.” He lowered his voice to a whisper, as if he were telling a secret. “You’ve got to be sneaky.”
I frowned. “Sneaky is not my strong suit.”
“Yeah. I know,” Rome huffed. “I’m gonna guess you’ve never sent flirty texts to Parker.”
“No, I haven’t.”
Rome nodded and took another drink of his water. “Yeah, you flirting suddenly would probably cause him to have a heart attack or run for the hills. Too suspicious.”
“No texting. Got it. Email?”
Rome was quick to shake his head. “No, texting is still best for you. I’m afraid if you email him, they’ll sound like business proposals.” He suddenly narrowed his eyes at me. “Have you texted him since he moved out?”
“No. I wanted to give him the space he needed to figure things out and not feel pressured by me.”
Seven days and not a single word from Parker. It had been pure hell, and I wanted it to end now. There was still the commission, but it was put on pause as Parker got resettled. I was sure we’d talk about it eventually, but I didn’t want to pressure him about work and potentially push him even further away from me.
“Okay, good!”
“This is not good.”
“It is. Because you can now send him a very simple ‘How’s it going?’ text. You’re just checking on him and Joy. Very low-key conversation starter. Don’t get into a long conversation unless he instigates it.”
“Why would I do this?”
“To remind him you still exist and that you care about him and Joy. Very simple. Get him thinking happy thoughts about you.”
Okay. That made sense. “Next?” I prodded.
“Share something from your day. Small things. You tried something new for breakfast. Saw a pretty bird out your window. Little things. Just that you saw something nice, and you wanted to share it with him. Or! Ask him for help with something. Tiny, simple questions. Like ask for some advice or an opinion on something. This shows you need him and value his opinion. Everyone wants to feel needed.”
“That way, he knows I depend on him.”
“Exactly. The important thing is that you need to keep these brief interactions. Plus, you do this only once or twice a day at most. You don’t want to overwhelm him.”
“And eventually, after enough time, he’ll want to move back in?”
Rome’s nose wrinkled up as he cringed. “That’s the long-term goal. Short-term goal: a date. You want him to ask you out on a date. Or maybe after a few weeks of casual texting, you can ask him out to dinner with Joy. If you include the baby, you show him you want the kid in your life and you’re not expecting it to get too sexy. He might feel more secure with the baby there.”
That made sense. Not to mention, I missed Joy as well. A dinner with Little Miss and Parker sounded like heaven to me.
“Okay. I can do this. I will win Parker.” His advice was surprisingly simple and smart. Maybe he spent a lot of time trying to win over his exes. Or Rome had gotten better at handling people because he so often put his foot in his mouth. Either way, I felt like I finally had a plan.
“There is one thing,” Rome said softly.
I looked at him, expecting to see that cheeky grin of his, but he was serious. “What?”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” I opened my mouth to argue, but Rome held up a hand, stopping my words in my throat. “Parker is great—don’t get me wrong. I like the guy. But he’s a package deal with that kid. You never struck me as the type to want a family. You go down this road with Parker, and that means your goal is to be husband and daddy. Are you sure you want that? Because right now, Parker has handed you the perfect opportunity to take a step away and reassess your own desires.” Rome shrugged, seeming unsure. “Not trying to be a dick or anything. Just worried about you.”
His concern for me was touching but completely unnecessary. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket as I stepped around to his side of the island. Standing next to him, I opened the photo app and let him see as I scrolled through nearly two hundred photos of Joy until I finally located the video Parker shot of her first attempt at crawling.