Protecting My Heart by Melanie Shawn

Author:Melanie Shawn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary
Publisher: Red Hot Reads Publishing
Published: 2018-02-12T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Ella scrolled through her contacts, debating who she should call. She felt the itchy, restless need to talk to someone. She just wasn’t sure who.

Genevieve’s over the top energy was a little too much right now. She wanted to hear a voice that would center her and make her feel calmer. Genevieve was absolutely perfect for some situations—like when she needed to laugh, or needed to feel more confident. When she needed to feel calmer? No.

She stared at name after name as they passed by, only to be swept aside by the momentum created by her ever-swiping thumb. None seemed exactly right for her mood.

Of course, the person that she really wanted to talk to about Donovan and what was going on between them was… Donovan.

He’d always been her go to sounding board. It’d taken her a long time to get used to the feeling of him not being there in her life, just a door knock or phone call away. And now that he was back, all of that hard work she’d put into excising his presence bit by painful bit was destroyed.

It had taken her five long years to remove him from her heart and her life, and it had only taken him five short minutes to move back in.

Finally, she made a choice and hit a button on her phone. It wasn’t Donovan, but it was someone else that she could always count on when the chips were down and she needed to talk to someone who loved her unconditionally.

“Hello, darling! How are you?”

Ella closed her eyes and exhaled. She had definitely made the right choice. Just the sound of her mother’s voice brought her anxiety level down ten notches.

“I’m good, Mom. How are you doing?”

“Oh, I can’t complain. The girls were over for poker earlier tonight. We had a great time.”

Ella smiled in spite of herself. Even though her mother’s social life was limited by her fear of leaving the house, she liked knowing that friends still came to visit, and that they had a lot of fun when they did.

“That’s good. Did you win?”

“You know it. Now, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Maybe I was just calling to find out if you’d cleaned out the rest of the over-40 set tonight. Those ladies form a big chunk of my customer base, by the way. Don’t go taking all of their disposable income.”

“I’m only doing it for you, dear. So you won’t have to support me in my old age. Now, why don’t you tell me why you really called? The truth this time, please.”

Ella grimaced. Her mother knew her too well. “Can’t fool you, huh?”

“I’m your mother, Ella Fletcher. There’s no getting around me. Now, tell me what’s bothering you.”

She took a deep breath before diving in. “Donovan’s back in town. For a few days, at least.”

“I know. He came to see me.”

Ella’s jaw dropped. Of all the ways that she’d imagined her mother might react to the news that Donovan Valentine was back home, that one was last on the list.

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