Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 95311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Emily's brow quirked up and she put down the magazine. "Forget something?" she asked, placing her long legs on the floor.
"Not exactly," Hannah said, pulling her toward the stairs.
Emily let her into the room with her ring of keys she kept at her waist and Hannah rushed to the window, cracking it a sliver and reaching out to grab the bra before it slipped and fell onto the front porch.
When she turned around with it, Emily's face had broken into a smile. "He hung your bra out of the window?" she asked, a dimple showing in her left cheek.
"Yeah, he didn't want me to wear one today," she admitted, trying to stuff it into her pocket. "I thought he had just put it in my or his bag. I never thought he'd be the kind of person to..."
"Wave a flag of conquest," Emily supplied.
"Exactly."
Emily shrugged. "Men are weird," she mused and Hannah silently agreed.
--
It took her another hour to finally say her goodbyes. She got into her car feeling strangely sad and nostalgic. While she always missed her family and friends after a visit, she never quite felt so sad about going.
She wondered if maybe it was just a result of her uncertain future. Try as she might to not think about it, a tiny voice deep buried whispered about what was going to happen in a few weeks or months. How was she going to feel when she found herself cast aside eventually? How would she react to being told that she didn't need to let herself in and be in his bed?
Hannah shook her head, pulling onto the main road and noticing, with rising concern, an odd clanging. Just as she had worked herself up to a valid worry, smoke started pouring out of the hood, gray and billowing and blinding. She slammed for her brake and found, with startling vividness, there was no more brake. Holding her foot on the brake regardless, she reached frantically for the emergency brake and pulled.
The car skittered, resisting, before finally stopping. She turned off the ignition and jumped out of the car, running blindly toward the gas station.
Her heart hammered in her chest and her hands were shaking and she thanked the heavens that it was a small town and she was only a few hundred feet from the mechanic.
As she closed in, she saw a figure propped up against the building, tall and slim with black hair and stubble. Eric O'Reilly. Noticing her, he pushed off the wall and walked over, casualness being his dominant state of being.
"My car is smoking," she yelled, "like really really smoking. And the brakes aren't working," she yelled as he got closer.
Up close she felt the shocking response to Eric O'Reilly. He was the most attractive man she (or many other women) had ever set eyes on. With his jet black hair, sharp jaw line, and impossible cheekbone hollows- he exuded raw sexual energy and danger. She had the biggest crush on him when she had been younger, a silly girlish thing that Sam laughed at because "everyone thinks he's good looking".
"Did you turn it off?" he asked, taking off toward the direction she had come from.
"Of course I turned it off. I'm not stupid," she snapped, running after him.
Her car was parked cross way over Main Street, blocking both lanes and only slightly smoking now though the smoke from before thickened the air all around it. A dozen or so people had gathered on the sidewalks, concern etched into their faces.
Eric walked up casually in his blue mechanic one-piece jumpsuit that was impossibly attractive on his swimmer's body. He opened the hood, a rag covering his hand. Grey smoke pillowed out and he swatted at it, trying to look around.
Hannah stayed a few feet behind him, trying to give him space and thoroughly freaked out that her car might actually blow up.
Eric slammed the hood and turned, walking back toward his shop. When she fell into step next to him, he looked over and sent her one of his wicked smiles, revealing a scar in his cheek cut deep. "I'm gonna go grab the tow and bring it in to look at it, baby."
Hannah felt her belly do a little flip-flop and cursed herself for still being affected by his ridiculous habit of using pet names. "Okay good. That was crazy."
Eric shoved at her shoulder with his gently. "Yeah, it's not normal to smoke and to lose your brakes. Gotta see what's up. Good job turning it off. You'd be surprised, most people freak and run, leaving the ignition on. And then it turns into a nice fire." She followed him to his tow truck and attempted to climb in, but his hand landed on top of hers on the door handle. "You just hang out here, babe." He saw her disgruntled look and chuckled. "There's nothing you can do. I got this," he said, winking at her and going around the truck, climbing in, and pulling away.