Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30980 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 155(@200wpm)___ 124(@250wpm)___ 103(@300wpm)
“Thank you for forgiving me,” I say.
She sits up again and kisses me lightly. Her green eyes are dazzling and glitter in the soft lighting of her room, and the smile that touches her lips is enough to melt my heart. In the bars I’ve worked at, I’ve heard some kids talking about somebody being their “end game.” It’s only now, at this moment, that I fully understand what they mean.
“I love you, Sierra Kelly. I love you with everything in me,” I say.
Her eyes shimmer, seeming to fill with tears as she looks at me. “I love you too, Slater Kirkland. With everything in me.”
Sierra is mine. She is my end game. And I will do everything in my power to make sure she not just knows but feels that every single day for the rest of her life.
16
SIERRA
Sitting at the desk in my dorm room, I sing along with the song playing as I work on my paper. It’s a dry, boring paper, but I’m in an exceptionally good mood, so I don’t mind. Things with Slater have been amazing these past few weeks, and we’ve grown even closer than before. The couple of calls I made to my brother have gone unanswered. It hurts, of course, but like Slater said, it is Derek’s loss. I’m just trying to find a way to cope with it.
As I finish the last paragraph on my paper, I smile. Slater told me he’d take me somewhere special tonight if I finished my paper. I type out a quick text, telling him I finished, so I expect something amazing tonight. Smiling to myself as I hit send. I stand up, stretch my back, and walk around the dorm room, trying to get some blood flowing into my body again. As I do, a knock sounds at the door. My heart jumps into my throat, and I giggle, thinking it’s Slater on the other side of the door. I’m not expecting him, but maybe he wanted to surprise me.
Bounding over the clothes on the floor, I throw the door open and pause, the excitement crackling inside of me quickly fizzling out. The smile slides off my face like melting ice cream, and I fold my arms over my chest.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“Nice to see you too, sis.”
“It’s been weeks. And you haven’t returned any of my calls or texts. Am I supposed to be turning somersaults now that you’re finally at my door?”
“I don’t expect anything,” he says. “I was just hoping we could talk.”
“You made it pretty clear the last time we spoke there wasn’t much to talk about,” I reply. “You even hired somebody else to cat-sit for you.”
He sighs. “Can I come in?”
Gritting my teeth, I somehow manage to keep from rolling my eyes and stand aside, letting him into my dorm room and praising myself for my self-restraint. He walks in and looks around with a look of distaste on his face. My brother is something of a neat freak, so seeing the general disarray of my room is clearly off-putting to him. Not that I care right now.
He perches on the edge of the chair I just vacated and looks at me, clearly waiting for me to sit down. This time, I don’t bother trying to keep from sighing as I sit down on my bed and fix my brother with a dead-eyed stare. His expression and tone make it seem like he’s trying to extend an olive branch, and I suppose I should be glad for that. I miss my brother. This is the longest we’ve gone without speaking. But I’m still really pissed about the way he treated me.
“So? What is there to talk about, Derek?”
His expression is somewhat abashed, and I can see the light of regret on his face. Derek clears his throat and runs a hand through his hair.
“I’ve done a lot of thinking about it all, and I want to apologize to you, Sierra,” he says. “The way I reacted to what happened, it was wrong. I know you’re a grown woman. You’re an intelligent and sensible woman. I know you’re capable of making your own decisions. And I certainly have no right to tell you who you can and can’t be with. I’m sorry for blowing up on you. It was just … surprising to find you with Slater.”
As much as I want to light him up and scream all the things I didn’t say the last time we were in the same room, his apology sounds sincere, and it takes the wind out of my sails. It takes the heat out of my anger. I’ve always had a hard time staying mad at Derek, and on those rare occasions when he’s offered an apology, it’s even harder.
“I appreciate you saying that,” I tell him. “And I’m sorry for going off on you like I did.”