Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“Are you talking about me”—I point at myself—“or are you talking about you?”
“I’m talking about walking away from someone and sacrificing what you want for them.” Her voice rises. “You are going to leave here and then what? You are going to have to walk away from him again. This time without the hatred in your heart. Without thinking that you never want to see him again. This time, you are going to have to walk away from him knowing in your heart you will never love anyone like you love him, and where will that leave you?” She shakes her head. “You live there; he lives here. He has a child he has to think about. He’s living for his child. I’ve watched him for the past nine years. Watched him live his life just existing, and the only time I’ve seen him smile is with his daughter. The only time I see a little light in his eyes is when he's with her.” She inhales. “I hope you know what you’re doing,” she finally says before walking away from me and toward her bedroom. She leaves me in the middle of the living room, asking myself the same thing. How the hell am I going to leave him again?
Chapter Twenty-Four
BROCK
I watch her walk to her car, or better yet, jog to her car. She doesn’t look back when she gets into it and all I can do is watch her drive away. I hate she is leaving, but I’m happy she was here for as long as she was, especially since it wasn’t supposed to be like that.
I felt her head get heavy on my shoulder as we watched the darkness, neither of us saying anything. I was too scared to say a word and then have her leave, so I just stared into the darkness, and for the first time in a long fucking time, I wasn’t angry. There was no anger left inside me, and it felt like a fifty-pound weight was lifted off me. Her head slipped from my shoulder and I softly laid it down in my lap.
My arm then came down and rested on her arm, she curled up in a ball and slept with her head in my lap. I put my head back, looking at the stars, and thanking whatever forces of nature for bringing her back to me. I didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep, but I did and woke when my neck was sore. As I looked down at her, still with her head in my lap, seeing her, feeling her, my cock was awake even before I had a chance to talk it down. Looking at my watch and seeing it was two thirty, I knew she had to get up. I had no choice.
I wasn’t going to kiss her. That was never my intent. Did I want to kiss her? You bet your ass I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to spend the night kissing her on my couch. Wanted to spend the night lying with her in my arms. Just that, lying with her, nothing else, and I would have died a happy man. She got on her tippy-toes and kissed my cheek. It was one of the sweetest kisses I’ve ever gotten. My arm moved before I knew what was happening, and I buried my hands in her hair. Hair that felt like silk on my fingers. I wanted to just peck her lips. My head, however, wanted so much more, and it took it. Fuck, the kiss was everything I remembered it would be and more.
I watch the car until the lights disappear from view and walk back into the house. Picking up my phone from the counter, I text her, pulling up the group chat that Ryan has me in when he was discussing things for the truck.
I save her number to my phone, wondering if it’s the same number she had all those years ago. After she left, I deleted everything about her, almost everything. There was a locked part of my phone where I stored all the pictures I had of her. Someplace I never opened. I pull up her name and text her.
Me: Let me know when you get home.
I walk toward my bedroom, not wanting to take off my shirt that still smells like her, so I just fall on the bed. The phone beeps ten minutes later with her text.
Everleigh: Home.
I put the phone down on the side table and close my eyes, dreaming of her. Always fucking dreaming of her. This time, the dreams are with her smiling and laughing. I don’t even hear the alarm when it goes off, so when the phone rings, I open my eyes, snatching it up and seeing it’s Saige.