Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
It's been fifteen fucking years, and I haven’t figured out how to do that.
Audrey’s words and her soft blue eyes linger in my mind. “When I’m with you, I feel free. I can be whoever I want. Say things, do things … act on things. Thank you for that.”
She thinks she’s weak, when she’s really a hell of a lot braver than me.
I lift my phone again and find her name in my texts.
Me: Are you packed and ready to go?
Audrey: You said one o’clock.
Me: Yeah, I’ll be there at one. Just making sure you were getting ready.
Audrey: I’m not sure what to bring. Where are we going?
A smirk settles over my lips.
Me: I found a place. You don’t need to bring much. Wear your blue bra and panties, though. I want to take them off you tonight.
Audrey:
I shift in my seat, trying to find a comfortable position with my new hard-on.
Me: Do you know how many times I’ve pretended you were wearing that for me with my cock in my hand?
Audrey: Putting them on right now. For you.
Me: Your nipples under that lace are seared into my brain.
Audrey: You could pick me up earlier, you know.
Me: As soon as church is over, I gotta drop Otis off at Jasper’s. He’s here, too, so leaving early won’t help much.
Audrey: YOU ARE IN CHURCH RIGHT NOW?
I snort, my thumbs flying over the letters on the screen.
Me: Why is that so surprising?
Audrey: It’s not surprising you’re there. It’s surprising that you’re texting me about my nipples and undressing me from a pew in front of a preacher!
Me: God knows my heart.
Audrey: And He apparently knows about my nipples now, too.
Chuckling, I take another swat from my mother.
“Stop texting, you little heathen,” she whispers. “I know you weren’t raised in a barn because I raised you.”
“That’s really more of a reflection of you than it is me,” I say, teasing her.
She swats me again and then faces forward, trying not to smile.
Me: I gotta go. Mom said so.
Audrey: I’ll see you soon. I’d send you a selfie in my bra if you weren’t in church.
Me: I can leave …
Audrey: Why leave when you get to see the real thing in just a few hours?
Me: I never want to hear you say you can’t flirt again.
Audrey:
Me:
The choir begins a song, and I start to slide my phone back in my pocket when it lights up again. I glance down at the screen and chuckle.
Jasper: Who’s gonna tell Lora that Hartley might not be taken, but he’s taken?
Me: Not me. Might do him some good to get laid.
Jasper: It’s hard to watch.
Me: How is this any more important than me asking for gum?
Jasper: Because I don’t know the words to this song, and my hymnal isn’t in front of me.
Me: Fair.
I put my phone away before anyone can distract me again, or before I can start texting Audrey, which is what I want to do. She’s so unexpected. Her humor is sweetly hilarious, and the way she wrinkles her nose when she’s mad is adorable. I have a feeling that there’s a lot more to uncover about Dr. Van than I realize.
Mom pats my leg, and I glance over at her, but she’s not even looking at me. It’s as if she did it without thinking, out of habit. She loves that I’m here, both at church and in Sugar Creek, after having been gone for so long. I love being home, too, but I’d be able to enjoy it more if the circumstances were different.
I groan to myself, slinking back in the pew and waiting for the tension that I’m certain will stiffen my shoulders and tighten my stomach to set in. It happens without fail when my mind goes to fighting and the shit that’s happening that’s out of my control. The unanswered questions. The uncertain future. The theories I have about how this is happening to me—and why—will eat me alive if I let it.
A piece of gum slides over my shoulder. I grab it before it drops down my chest. Glancing over my shoulder, I get a small, knowing nod from Bobby, Hartley’s right-hand man.
“Thanks,” I whisper before facing the pulpit again.
I unwrap it as quietly as I can before popping it into my mouth. Still, the tension comes.
My shoulders tighten, and my jaw tenses as I chew my gum and try to listen to the sermon. I’m usually fairly good at paying attention. Then again, I’m usually not in this situation.
The only thing that niggles at the back of my brain about this whole thing is Audrey’s brother being Drew Van. Like … how? It honestly feels like the world is pulling a prank on me by sending me the woman of my dreams, even if I can’t have her, and then having her brother be the one person in the universe that I hate.