Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
But first, Wells had to meet his nephew.
Then he had to go back to New Jersey, where he would swallow his pride and make an effort to fix things.
For Matty.
Because Wells loved him, and he wasn’t giving up on what he knew they could have.
Twenty-Five
Matty sat at the bar in his kitchen, kicking the bottom of his chair as he stared at his phone, begging it to go off.
And for it to be Wells.
Man, if he could do the previous day over, he would. He would have had the balls to truly stand up to his dad. To correct him, to defend Wells, and not to say the hurtful things he’d said. He hadn’t been thinking, he was just freaking out, and because of that, he may have lost Wells for good. In a way, he’d known it would happen. Wells was too good for him. He was a good person with great intentions, while Matty was so closed off from the world that he couldn’t find any way to complement Wells’s good qualities. But man, Wells complemented Matty. He made Matty a better person, but because of Matty’s inability to let shit just happen, combined with his overthinking, he may have pushed away the only person he’d ever truly love.
He remembered reading an article on Facebook once, something about how a person only had three true loves in their life. He had his first love, his high school crush, Caleb. Then his relationship in college with a guy named Graham, who, at the time, he thought was it. But then Wells walked into his life, and everything changed. The love he had for Wells was Caleb and Graham in one, and then times a million. Wells was his home.
So why was Wells being so difficult?
Had Wells been a bit selfish when everything went down with Matty’s father? Yes, he had, but he’d had every right. In a way, Matty had been leading him on. Running hot and cold. One minute, ready to come out to the world, and then the next minute, he was hiding, begging Wells to hide with him. Matty couldn’t do that. That wasn’t fair to Wells.
But his anxiety about what people thought of him was freaking him the fuck out, and that also wasn’t fair to Wells.
It wasn’t fair to him either.
When his phone went off, he almost fell off the stool trying to turn his phone to see who it was. It was a picture from Wells. Opening it, Matty saw it was of Wells with his nephew. Gunner Cade, it said. The baby was precious, so big with a sweet round face and long lashes. But Wells stole the picture. His grin was unstoppable. Tears were in his eyes, and he looked elated, over the moon. When the next picture came through, him kissing Gunner, Matty smiled. Wells was smitten with that baby, that was obvious.
Wells: Isn’t he perfect?
Matty: He is. Looks a lot like Wren.
Wells: Yeah, he’s great.
Matty: Wish them the best and give him a kiss for me.
Wells: I will.
Matty: Thanks for sending that to me. Did Wren get the flowers?
Wells: She did. She said thank you. And when Vaughn gave me my phone back after taking the pictures, the only person I wanted to text was you.
Matty’s breath caught as he opened the picture once more to stare at Wells. He missed him, so much, and he wanted to fly out there, be with Wells and his family. Though he knew maybe the two of them needed a little space. He’d hurt Wells, and he was aching over it. Wells didn’t deserve that, not with everything he continued to do for him, not with how much he loved Matty.
As he went to text Wells back, he was surprised when there was a knock on his door. He wasn’t expecting anyone, and he knew it wasn’t Wells. He almost ignored it, but when they knocked once more, he got up, putting his phone on the bar as he went to the door. Pulling it open, his eyes widened when his mom looked back at him. Unlike his father, his mother, Thea, was smiling as she reached up to him with her small frame, squeezing him in her arms. He went willingly, wrapping his arms around her.
“Oh, baby,” she murmured against his neck, kissing him before pulling back and cupping his face as he gawked at her. His mother did not travel anywhere without his father, and she also hated the city.
“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“You needed me,” she said, patting his arm as she walked in. “I’m livid with your father, so I took a shot of vodka and got on the train that came into the city because I’m not driving in this awful town.”
Matty smiled as he shut the door behind her. “You took a shot?”