Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 102834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102834 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
When he walked into a room full of people, it was like I was the only person there. I knew it wasn’t a common thing, that the connection we shared was rare and precious, something to be treasured.
Tingles danced down my spine as I thought of the way he looked at me, the pleasurable shiver a good distraction from my sadness and disappointment in Aunt Nell. Her walking out of that restaurant today without any resolution, and her refusal to apologise, really did feel like the final nail in the coffin. Sadness gripped me that I’d lost a family member I’d once held dear, but sometimes it took half a lifetime to finally see a person clearly.
Slipping off my shoes and cardigan, I laid down in bed, meaning only to rest my eyes for a little while, but I ended up drifting off to sleep.
When I woke up, it was to a soft knock on my bedroom door.
“Milly, are you in there?” Derek called, and I replied somewhat groggily, “Yes, I was just napping.”
He hesitated a moment, then said, “I dropped the girls off at Deirdre’s friend’s house. I told them I’d be back to collect them in a couple hours.”
“Okay.”
There was a short pause before he asked, “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, just tired.”
“You sound upset. Can I come in?”
“Of course, you can,” I replied, then realised I looked dishevelled after falling asleep in my clothes, so added. “Just give me a minute.” Sitting upright, I quickly ran to the adjoining bathroom to gargle some mouthwash and fix my appearance. “You can come in now,” I called as I returned to the bed. The door opened and Derek stepped inside.
He surveyed me intently, his gaze etched in concern. “You look like you’ve been crying. What happened?”
It suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. A tension crackled between us, and my conversation with Aunt Nell made me even more desperate for him. I didn’t want to waste another second after all the time we’d already lost. My heart screamed at me to tell him I loved him. The urgency built like a drumming pulse beneath my skin. My brain, on the other hand, held the words under a tight leash. I’d been putting off telling him about Aunt Nell, but the time had come for him to know. He deserved my honesty, especially since I’d never given it to him when we were younger.
“I had an argument with my aunt,” I revealed, and Derek came to sit by me on the edge of the bed.
“Okay, well, I’m sure it wasn’t—”
“No,” I cut him off. “It was bad. So bad that I don’t think I want her in my life any longer.” My throat wobbled with emotion as Derek took my hands into his, his warm, strong palms soothing some of the ache in my chest.
He caught my gaze, some kind of indecision warring behind his eyes before he asked, “Was the argument about my dad?”
Just like that, the bed dropped out from under me. I was freefalling. How did he … What the …
Blinking, I stared at him in shock. “You know?”
His fingers tightened around mine as he confessed, “I overheard you speaking with my father after he collapsed at Gigi’s party.”
“You’ve known since the party? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Derek’s shoulders seemed to deflate. He looked away for a moment before bringing his attention back to me. “I was going to, but then the more I thought about it, the more I decided it wasn’t important anymore. Whatever your reasons for keeping things from me in the past, I know they weren’t malicious. It’s not in your nature to be cruel. So long as you’re honest with me from now on I don’t care about things you didn’t tell me before.”
“You should care. I could be a terrible person.” I was shaking with the adrenaline of a two-decade old secret finally being exposed.
Derek’s gaze softened as he let go of my hands to move deeper onto the bed. “Milly, you couldn’t be a terrible person even if you tried. I see how you are, how you live for others. If you made a selfish choice, I know that it was ultimately to protect someone else.” He had no idea how close he was to the truth because the whole reason I’d kept him at a distance was to protect Aunt Nell’s feelings. But I wasn’t entirely unselfish. If I were, I never would’ve allowed myself to become friends with him back then. I would’ve stayed away from him completely in solidarity with my aunt, but I hadn’t. I was unable to resist his draw, the connection that always sparked to life in his presence.
Derek reached out as though to pull me into his arms, but I shifted back. His face fell, and my chest constricted. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to hold me, I was just feeling dizzy headed with the revelation and needed a moment to untangle my thoughts.