Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 131651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 658(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131651 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 658(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
“For your family.”
“Exactly. Taking care of my people and living the quiet life. That’s the dream.” His eyes shine. “Hell, someday when you’re rich and famous, I’ll bring Kit around to your shows in New York or LA. She’ll love bragging about how she knew you before you got big.”
It’s a joke, I know, but it feels so bittersweet.
My fault, I suppose.
I brought this on by urging him to live in the moment, and I know what he’s doing.
In his own gruff stony-hearted way, he’s telling me we’re too different. He’s telling me that when the time comes, it’s okay to let go.
A sensible decision from a man who’s wall-to-wall sense.
Fantastic sex aside, we’re still complete opposites. Different ages, different lives, different passions.
I want travel. Adventure. Grinding through a career that can get stupidly messy.
Holden, he wants his quiet. Peace dollars rather than fame to support the people he loves.
Kit will be off to college and he’ll be established in a new field. In eight years, I won’t even be the age Holden is now.
My heart stings.
And my eyes burn as I lean over him, draping my body across his.
“She’ll tell her friends she still knows me. She’ll brag,” I say firmly, my voice thick. “If you think I’m walking out on you guys and ghosting after all this, think again.”
He smiles, refusing to read deeper into those loaded words.
The palm of his hand flattens against the small of my back as he kisses me ferociously. He doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t need to.
The seeds are planted.
Whatever I want, whatever I think might be worth exploring, he doesn’t feel the same way.
The irrational, dreamy part of me that’s open to an impossible love rages.
I hate that he’s given up so easily when I’m asking him without asking to just keep an open mind.
But he doesn’t see a future.
He just sees a happy now we keep slipping into. A fling with a young woman who could change her mind tomorrow.
And how could I ever blame him?
He has a kid. He has aging parents.
In the end, Holden’s resistance to wild fantasies is just the bitter truth.
We’re living two different seasons. A decade-plus age gap might not be a problem in twenty years, in ten, but right now, it’s the void between stars.
I close my eyes, turning away and hiding the disappointment as I rest my face on his chest.
My hands are shaking, so I press them against his cheeks, holding him close.
“Cleo,” he whispers.
“I mean it. You can hate me all you want, I’m not going anywhere,” I say, but the conviction fades from my voice.
“I could never hate you.”
Ugh! Why isn’t that enough?
Because I want stupid, pretty promises.
Like somehow, we’ll agree to just try after the egg is gone. Somehow, we can be a happy family and this little bubble we’re living in can float us off to dreamland.
I want to promise him a future I’m not sure of.
I want to promise if he never gives up on me, I’ll prove him wrong about what’s possible.
But I don’t dare say more. I’m not sure what’s true anymore.
Even with Holden right here, tucked safely in his arms, it feels like he’s drifting away.
His hand skims down my side until he finds my hip.
I tilt my head up and kiss him hard, biting his bottom lip, digging my nails into his skin with a desperation that scares me.
Please don’t treat me like I’m fragile, I plead silently. Don’t think I’m so breakable.
But the truth is I am.
He’s older and wiser and I’m young and stupid.
And if I’m not careful, I’ll walk away in pieces.
I might leave so wrecked I break my own promise to stay friends with Kit because I won’t be able to lay eyes on Holden Verity and his ugly doubts again.
20
FRAGILE CONTENTS (HOLDEN)
Me and my stupid-ass jokes.
Telling her Kit will be looking her up in the future like we’ll be passing strangers, ships in the night?
Dumbass.
A massive, raging dumbass who’s trying to avoid his obsession with having any ongoing involvement with Cleo Blackthorn. Let alone a real relationship.
I should’ve known better than to let it invade my head, but when she’s lying against me, it’s easy to imagine more days like this.
Coffee and bagels in bed.
Chaos in the living room.
Kit laughing, learning to make more trouble with a paintbrush.
Paint and plaster splattered everywhere.
Her smile clinging to my heart.
Like I said, raging dumbass.
Usually, I’m up before the sun. Before Cleo wakes up to sneak back to her room for appearances, but this morning I overslept.
When I wake up, her side of the bed is cold. I snap up and check my phone.
Gone to see Margot. Be back soon! Don’t worry about me for breakfast.
I don’t like it, even if it’s a perfectly normal morning between cousins.
The way my body tenses says I really, really don’t fucking like it.