Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 43239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43239 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Rolling off the bed, I put on my robe and head to the kitchen.
I pull out all the ingredients for a brownie and turn on the oven.
As I’m cracking an egg, Harrison walks into the living room.
“You want a few brownies?” I ask. “You’ll save me from eating the entire pan by myself.”
“I told you I’d call you back.” His voice is terse. “Did I not tell you that?”
Huh?
“Just give me ten fucking minutes.” He hisses. “I’m going to call you back. I always call you back.”
I set down the bowl, confused.
“Okay, five minutes then,” he says. “Just five minutes.”
“Harrison?” I move closer, noticing that there isn’t a phone in his hand; he’s talking to himself.
“Harrison?” I wave a hand in front of his face, but he looks right through me.
His eyes are glossed over like he’s still in a deep sleep, and before I can shake his shoulders, he turns away and heads down the hall.
“Just hold on,” he calls out to someone. “I’ll be right there.”
Grabbing my cell phone, I cautiously follow him from a distance. He opens a door I’ve never noticed before and walks up a narrow stairwell.
“You promised you would wait…” His voice is louder now. “You promised you would fucking wait.”
When he opens the door at the top, the wind slams it shut. Undeterred, Harrison pushes it open again, stepping onto a landing.
The garden he’d once mentioned is here, the rows of tightly placed flowers and shrubs reaching out to the sky while Harrison reaches out to something—or someone—I can’t see.
“I never said that. You said that.” He starts pacing back and forth near the edge of the building.
He moves close to the ledge, a little too close, and fear washes over me. I rush toward him and grab his elbow, pulling him back as hard as I can.
“Stop.” He snatches his arm away from me before spinning around.
“Why couldn’t you just fucking wait?” he growls. “All you had to do was wait!”
Wait? “Harrison, it’s me…Eliza.” I look into his eyes, but they’re still glazed over… He can’t see me at all.
“You were supposed to be here with me,” he says. “This was your idea to get away from the family. Your fucking idea, not mine.”
“Harrison…” I grab his hands and squeeze them. “I think you’re sleepwalking. Please try to listen to me.”
He doesn’t.
Instead, he drops my hands and steps back.
“Do you know how much you’ve fucked me up?” He glares at me. “Do you even care?”
“I do care…” I pull out my phone to call 9-1-1, but my fingers are too wet and they slide across the screen. “I really do care…”
“Care about what, Eliza?” His expression slowly softens, and he furrows his brow. “What are you talking about?”
His eyes are normal now, and he looks just as confused as I feel.
I stare at him, unsure of what to say.
Rounds of thunder roar above us, and my phone slips from my hands and onto the concrete.
“Here, I’ll get it.” He picks it up and looks at me. “Why are you out here in the rain?”
Not waiting for a response, he pulls me against his chest and walks me back inside. He leads me down the steps and to his bedroom. As if I was the reason we were outside, he presses a kiss against my forehead.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I don’t know…”
“Here.” He unties my wet robe and peels it off me, letting it clump on the floor. He eyes my naked body and picks up a towel, pressing it against my skin until I’m dry.
He grabs one of his T-shirts from a drawer and pulls it over my head.
He pulls off his sweats and changes into dry briefs, sitting on the edge of his bed.
“You were sleepwalking when I was in the kitchen,” I say. “I followed you outside because you were ranting about something and scaring me…”
“I haven’t had a sleepwalking episode in years.” He looks concerned. “What was I saying?”
“Something about waiting. Well, someone who couldn’t wait.”
“Oh.” He clenches his jaw. “That.”
“Is that why you owe my brother a favor?”
“No,” he says. “That’s… an entirely different thing.”
His tone makes it clear that it’s also off limits to discuss.
“Well, um…” I stand up. “You should probably tell Harold to make sure the roof is locked from here on out, just in case it happens again when I’m gone. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Where are you going?”
“Back to bed.”
“There’s one here.” He pulls me back toward him. “It’s big enough for two.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea…”
“Well, lucky for you, the sexiest woman I’ve ever met once told me to remove the word ‘think’ from my vocabulary, so I know it’s a good idea.”
He pulls back the sheets and motions for me to get in.
Before I can protest, he pulls me against him, so my back is against his chest and his mouth is near my ear.