Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83777 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
We weren’t kids anymore. We certainly weren’t the kids we were back then. Time had taken its toll. We’d both been through stuff, and for better or worse, it had changed us. There was a chance I might not even like the woman she’d become, and there was an even better chance she wouldn’t like the man I’d become.
Fuck.
What the hell was I doing here?
I looked around at the trimmed hedges, clean sidewalks, and bulletin boards covered in flyers for poetry nights and tutoring sessions, and I couldn’t have felt more out of place.
I almost turned back.
Almost.
But then I looked up and realized I was already there, standing in front of her building like a damn statue. I stared up at the glass doors like they held the answers to every question I’d ever been too pissed or too proud to ask.
Then, they opened, and Devin stepped out.
She looked quite different than she had at the casino. The mini skirt and low-cut blouse had been replaced with khaki slacks and a navy blouse. Her hair was pulled back, and she held a stack of papers against her chest.
She looked older.
More confident.
And beautiful as ever.
She started down the steps but stopped cold when she spotted me standing below. Her mouth parted, and she muttered my name like it still meant something.
“Jameson.”
And just like that, all those doubts I’d had quickly disappeared.
8
DEVIN
"Hello, Devin.”
“What… how…ah,” I stammered. “What are you doing here?”
I sounded like a blubbering idiot. But I couldn’t help it.
I was in a state of utter disbelief.
After all these years, there he was. The man who haunted me in my dreams was standing right in front of me with a damn smirk. “Good to see you, too, babe.”
And just like that, my knees almost buckled beneath me.
He had a way of doing that to me.
It wasn’t exactly my fault. The man had always been the perfect mix of sex appeal and trouble. And that hadn’t changed. Not one bit.
There was a little more gray in his hair and a few crow’s feet around his eyes, but damn, if they didn’t make him look even better. He was wearing a fitted black T-shirt that clung to his broad shoulders with a pair of jeans and his black leather boots, and he had a few more tattoos than he had when I’d last seen him.
He looked good.
Too good.
“You didn’t answer my question.” I crossed my arms tight across my chest. It was the only defense I had left. “What are you doing here?”
He didn’t answer right away. Just looked at me with something that felt like regret and something else I couldn’t name. His silence stretched too long, thick with everything we didn’t say back then.
And suddenly, I was scared.
Because I wasn’t sure I was ready for what might come next.
“I came to see you.”
“Why?”
“You got time for a coffee?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It’s just coffee, Dev.”
I let out a slow breath, trying to ignore the ache that came with hearing him say my name like that. Like no time had passed. Like we weren’t standing on the jagged edge of a thousand unresolved feelings.
Everything in me screamed that I should walk away, but then, I heard myself say, “There’s a shop on campus. We could go there.”
“That’ll work.”
His mouth tipped into the faintest smile, and the next thing I knew, we were sitting at a table in the back of the coffee shop. It was small and quiet and nestled behind an old bookstore. Students filled the space with the kind of casual noise that should’ve made me feel normal. But nothing about this felt normal.
Jameson sat across from me, calm and unreadable, and I felt like I was about to come unglued. I didn’t want him to know that he was getting to me, so I took a sip of my coffee and did everything I could to avoid his gaze. When I couldn’t stand it a moment longer, I forced myself to look up at him and ask, “So, are you going to tell me what we’re doing here, Jameson?”
“Just a couple of old friends catching up over a cup of coffee.”
“Old friends, huh?”
“Just wanted to see how you were.”
“It’s been years, Jameson. Why the sudden interest?”
“I saw you and your friend at the casino the other night.”
“Oh, so, you were there?”
His blue eyes narrowed. “You saw me?”
“No, but I thought I saw a couple of your brothers. I figured if they were there, you might be, too… Speaking of which, where is your cut? Are you still with them?”
“I am.” He motioned his head over to a table full of students. “Didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention.”
“You avoiding attention? That’s new.”
“I’m a changed man.”
“Um-hmm.” I rolled my eyes with a smile.
He shifted in his seat, and his thumb tapped lightly against the coffee cup. It was a small tell he probably didn’t even realize he had. “I’m VP of the club now.”