Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“No, no, no,” Blair panics, looking at the tree she so carefully picked out.
Quickly unstrapping the big bastard, I launch myself up into the bed of my truck and find a portion of the tree that isn’t currently burning and throw the fucker down into the freezing snow as smoke billows up into the sky.
“What the fuck, Blair?” I demand, jumping down to the burning tree and kicking up snow over it, hoping like fuck this doesn’t turn into some kind of crime scene. I mean, on the bright side, at least all the people in the cemetery are already dead. It’s not like we can accidentally kill them again.
A part of me screams to let the tree burn, to let us soak up the warmth it offers, but judging by the look on Blair’s face, that suggestion isn’t going to go down well. She’d prefer to freeze than to lose the tree she went to all this trouble for.
Blair hurries around to the burning tree, helping me extinguish the flames, and it takes all too long before we’re left with a smoking tree, that’s now nothing more than singed branches. Well, at least one half of it is. The other half is buried in the snow, so the jury is still out on that.
Blair collapses against my truck, her hand on her chest as she breathes heavily. “Holy shit. I didn’t mean for that to happen,” she tells me, her eyes wide as her hands shake. She turns around, looking into the bed of the truck and reaching in before pulling out a lighter. “I just . . . I found this in your coat pocket and I was so cold. I was just playing. You know, holding the flame near my face just to feel a little warmth, and I guess the flames caught on the netting around the tree. I’m so sorry. Did you get burned? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I mutter, clenching my jaw. I reach toward her and snatch the lighter out of her hand before she accidentally sets my truck on fire too. Shoving it into my pocket, I glance over the still-smoking tree. “At least this might act like some kind of bat signal. Maybe someone might come looking now.”
“Shit,” she mutters, moving toward the tree and bending down, trying to pull at a good section of the tree and maneuvering it around to see the other half of it. “I guess this part isn’t so bad. It’s salvageable, right?”
“Just get a new tree,” I tell her.
“Are you kidding? I searched for ages for this tree. It’s the only good one they had left. I’m not abandoning it.”
“Wow. And here I thought abandoning the things you loved was your specialty.”
Blair whirls on me, rage pooling in her eyes, and this time, I know I’ve crossed a line. “For fuck’s sake, Nick? How long are you going to hold it against me? I get it already. I fucked up. I left you. I broke your fucking heart, and it was terrible, but how the hell are your constant string of insults supposed to help? Does talking to me like shit help you feel better? Does it make you feel like the big man on campus? Hell, if I knew you hadn’t matured any further than the twenty-three-year-old asshole I left behind, then maybe I would have taken my chances with the frostbite walking home.”
“Shit, Blair. I’m sorry,” I say, stepping toward her and invading her space, momentarily forgetting that maybe this isn’t okay. “It just came out. I’m still so fucking angry at you that I can’t seem to reel it in.”
“Oh, boo hoo,” she spits, shoving her hands against my chest, forcing me back a step. “Stop acting like you’re the only one hurting.”
Fuck. She’s infuriating.
“You walked away from me, remember?” I seethe, stepping into her and forcing her back against my truck, eating up the distance between us. “You were the one who decided on the future of our relationship, not me. You were the one who ended a six-year relationship with nothing more than a half-assed conversation that came out of the fucking blue. You were the one who took off for the big city and decided that what I could offer you here in Blushing wasn’t enough. And you, Blair, were the one who couldn’t so much as offer me the chance to fight for us. You didn’t even ask if I would be willing to come with you. So yeah, I have every fucking right to act any way I want. You. Walked. Away. From. Me.”
She breathes heavily, her chest pushing up against mine as silence falls around us, but the tension doesn’t break. She holds my stare, the two of us locked in a trance, impossible to look away. My thumb shifts over her knuckles, and before I know it, my other hand is on her waist.