Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
He shuddered violently.
My heart was officially hammering, and I could hear a rushing sound in my ears.
I was so close.
“It’s your choice, baby…” I brushed my lips to the corner of his mouth.
I knew what he was doing. He was trying to convince himself to put a stop to this, just…a little bit more. He wanted to indulge.
It reminded me of back in the day when I’d try to dirty-talk him into calling in sick at work. Fuck delivering pizzas. I’d wanted to have him close to me all hours of the day from the start.
That hadn’t changed.
I cleared my throat quietly. “Do you remember when—”
“Don’t.” He wrenched back with a pained expression, and he shook his head and opened his eyes. “Remembering isn’t the problem, Ash. It’s that I can’t fucking forget.” His gaze turned pleading while all hope drained out of me. “You have to stop. We can’t go down this road again. When you moved out—it broke me.”
Because it’d been the worst decision we ever made! Christ, he had to see that. He had to see we belonged together. He’d ruined me for all others the first fucking day we’d met, when he’d burst out of that office to give a brash scaffolder a piece of his mind for ruining their work environment.
I’d ruined him too. He’d lost his words when he’d seen me. For a moment anyway.
Anger and rejection simmered below the surface, but none of it held a candle to the sorrow that overcame me. He’d made up his mind.
“I’m not doing this to myself.” He scrubbed his hands over his face again. “If it’s taken me the better part of a year to take maybe one or two baby steps forward, I… I just can’t.”
All right.
I took a step back and folded my arms over my chest, and I dropped my stare to the ground.
I was such a fucking idiot.
Yeah, he’d taken baby steps forward. Good for him. I assumed one of those steps included dating some little asshole at Mclean.
Truth be told, I couldn’t stomach the confirmation, so I kept my mouth shut.
Thank fuck we only had two days left on our vacation, ’cause I had a feeling it was going to be a nightmare from here on out.
A week later
Alexandria
Nathan Riley
Given the hour, I wasn’t surprised to see so many work trucks outside the red brick building. People had gone home for the day.
Well, most of them.
Not Ash.
He wasn’t even going to say hello?
I killed the engine and watched Ash give Dylan a quick hug. The entrance to Ash and Theo’s office was maybe sixty feet away; I wasn’t expecting him to cross a desert for me, but this was ridiculous. He usually came over to confirm dinner plans. Then again, that wasn’t happening tonight either.
He’d decided to “work late” since we’d returned home from Maine. Instead, he picked up Micah and Lily from school and kindergarten, spent a couple of hours with them, then lied and said he had to get back to work.
So far, no major issues with Micah’s anxiety, except for sometimes at school when I had to pick him up early.
Ash dropped him and Lily off at my folks’ house, all so he could avoid me.
But I’d made my choice, right?
Tasted like fucking acid, but here we were.
Ash exchanged a few more words with Dylan, who handed over his golf bag to Ash until next time they’d meet up. Then Dylan trailed toward my car while Ash returned inside.
Business was going well, I supposed. When they’d first started the company, Ash and Theo, they had rented the top floor only. Now they had all three. And a big concrete lot for their equipment.
Dylan opened the door and climbed in. “Hey.”
“Hey, kid. How are you today? How was school?”
“I got a C+, so I think I can relax now.”
Oh, that was good. He’d worried about that exam.
“You definitely can,” I say, backing out of the lot. “That’s great, son.”
The boy excelled at sports like football, golf, swimming, rock climbing, bouldering, and whatever else he tried. He was also good with numbers—but history? Social studies? English? Ash and I had lost count of the times Dylan had chucked textbooks at the wall.
A C+ was great, though. It might even up his average.
“We should celebrate,” I said. “What do you want for dinner?”
He hummed and slid lower in his seat. “Uh…Thai?”
Thai. We could do that. I’d just pick up something else for Lily. “Done. We’ll get nuggets for Lily on the way. How was golf?”
“It was all right. We just went to the range. Ash brought James today, and that guy can’t hit a ball to save his life.”
James—I’d heard of him. “He’s the new guy at Dad’s office, right?”
“Yeah. Dad wanted me to meet him because James has a nephew my age, and he’s like…I don’t know, trying to get the guy away from shitty friends.”