Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
“I like you,” he said, and as the sweetly accented words hit my ear, I wanted to move across the seat and wrap my arms around him. I didn’t know Cromwell well, but I knew he didn’t say those words easily. He lived behind high walls, yet with me, they had started to lower.
I didn’t want to be the cause of them growing back high. In my heart I wanted to be the one to smash them until he was free. But I couldn’t. It just wasn’t fair.
A sudden wave of anger hit me. At the unfairness. That I couldn’t just be here right now, enjoying the moment, falling into his arms.
“Bonnie?” I wanted to sob when my name left his lips. He’d never called me Bonnie before.
“I like you too.” I looked into his blue eyes. I owed him that much. “But it’s more complicated than that. I shouldn’t have let it get this far. It isn’t fair. I’m so sorry…”
The feel of his hand slipping into mine silenced me. “Come with me to Charleston tomorrow night.”
“What?”
“I’m playing at a club.” He held my hand tighter. “I want you to come.”
“Why?”
“To see…” He sighed. “To see me play my new mixes. To stand beside me and see how it is. To make you understand. It’s only an hour away.”
“Cromwell, I—”
“East is coming.” Disappointment dripped off him in waves. “It doesn’t have to be anything you don’t want it to be.”
I wasn’t sure I could be around East either. When Sunday came, I would have to tell him. And Cromwell would no doubt find out too.
I thought of one night. One last night where I got to be free. Surrounded by music and Cromwell. My brother and us, sharing laughs. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll come. But I have to come back here afterward.”
Cromwell’s lips pursed, the promise of a small smile. “Good,” he said. “Let’s get you into bed, Farraday.”
Cromwell got out of the truck and held my door open like before. And like before, he held out his hand for me. He held my hand until he brought me to the door of the dorm. My heart flip-flopped in my chest when he faced me. He put his hands on my face and pressed a single, soft kiss to my lips. “Night.”
He turned and walked off. I wasn’t sure I could move. Then, just before he got into his truck, I said, “Cromwell?” He looked up. I could feel my cheeks burning before I even spoke. “What color is my voice?”
Cromwell stared at me, eyes full of some kind of light I couldn’t decipher. That small, beautiful smile pulled on his lips again, and he said, “Violet blue.”
I tried to breathe. I really did. I tried to move. Violet blue. Cromwell got in his truck and pulled away. A memory from last week came to my mind.
“Cromwell?” I asked, and he turned my way. “What’s your favorite? Your favorite color to see?”
“Violet blue,” he said in an instant.
Violet blue. His favorite color to see…and also the sound of my voice.
If my failing heart hadn’t let him in before, it did just then.
Chapter Fifteen
Cromwell
“This is gonna be fucking lit!” Easton bounced around on the seat of my truck. I eyed him, wondering what the hell had gotten into him.
“Easton.” Bonnie put her hand on his arm. “Calm down.”
“Calm down? My boy is playing at Chandelier, and you’re telling me to calm down? No way, Bonn. The Barn is one thing, but seeing Cromwell spin tonight at a real venue is gonna be sick. You know how many people are coming to see him? A few thousand at least!”
I drove us toward Charleston, listening to Easton losing his mind over tonight. Easton hadn’t even been concerned about why his sister was coming. I thought he’d give me shit. He’d been asking about Bonnie and me the past week. I thought he suspected something, but ever since we’d got up this morning, he’d been all over the place, high as a damn kite. The daft bugger had even woken me up at four a.m. asking me to go for food. I’d only gone to bed half an hour before. I’d created a mix just for tonight.
I couldn’t wait to play it.
It took just under an hour to get to the venue. The security at Chandelier told me to pull my truck around back. A couple of guys tried to take my new laptop from me. Not a chance. No one ever touched my laptop. Easton walked on one side of me. Bonnie was on the other. I’d lost my mind, I must have, because I wanted to reach out and hold her hand.
And I couldn’t get last night from my head. Couldn’t get the taste of her lips off my tongue. But more than that, I couldn’t get my head around the fact that she said we couldn’t happen.