Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113272 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 566(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Or she could fly.
And she so wanted to fly.
“I want to come first with someone. All I’ve ever wanted is to be loved. To feel important and not like a tool to be used. And it’s not that I think you guys will use me. I just . . . I just . . .”
Everything was building inside her and she couldn’t get her words out. It was so frustrating!
“Yell,” Kellan said suddenly.
“What?”
“You need to yell. You’re like me in a lot of ways. You keep things close to your chest, locked in. You should let it out.”
“Our father picked on Kellan,” Eli said. “Everything was always his fault. He’d call him names, he’d beat him as punishment for things he hadn’t even done. And Kellan would always just take it. If one of our older brothers was home, they’d stick up for him. But if it was the younger ones . . . Kellan would take it so we never had to.”
“Oh, Kellan,” she whispered. She’d known it was going to be bad.
She hadn’t realized how bad, though.
And here she was complaining over her life. At least her father had never beaten her.
“I always had trouble expressing myself. Showing emotion. And it seemed he liked to take that as a challenge,” Kellan told her. “He wanted a reaction and yet the more he beat me, the more I held everything inside.”
“It was just a vicious cycle that went on and on,” Eli said with frustration.
“Why did no one do anything? Why did no one help you?” she asked.
“The sheriff back then wasn’t a good guy like Jake,” Eli told her. “He was an old hunting and fishing buddy of our father’s. We knew he’d just turn it back on us. Tell us that we needed a good whipping to be kept under control.”
“That’s terrible,” she said.
“It’s why I hate this place,” Kellan told her. “They claim that this town is safe and that they take care of the people in it . . . but we all slipped through the cracks.”
“In fairness, we learned early on to hide what was going on because we didn’t want anyone to find out,” Eli said. “We thought we’d all be separated.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” Kellan said.
“Some people might have helped us,” Eli said, looking at Kellan. “But we just thought we were better off together with the devil we knew.”
“Things are a lot better now with Jake as the sheriff,” Eli said. “He’s a good man. A decent man. But that doesn’t mean that he should be your guardian. He has a lot of people to take care of and you need more care and attention than he can give. Plus, you deserve more.”
She sucked in a breath. She deserved more. It was hard to believe it.
But perhaps it was time to start.
And she would always wonder if she didn’t.
Be daring.
Be brave.
Live.
She’d moved to a new town, away from a fiancé she didn’t know, leaving everything behind.
Already she was being far braver than she thought she could have ever been. So maybe she could be even braver and get everything she never thought she’d have but really wanted.
“All right,” she said. “I guess sometimes you have to take a risk to reap the rewards and honestly if I didn’t say yes, I’d regret it. So maybe I’ll end up hurt. But also maybe I’ll end up with everything. Because being with the two of you is a dream that I never thought I’d get.”
“Well, you haven’t seen Eli when he doesn’t get enough sleep yet,” Kellan told her. “So I’d hold off about the dream stuff.”
“Oh, and what about when you watch murder mystery movies? You got so frustrated at the inaccuracies that you broke our last television.”
“You didn’t.” She let out a small giggle. It was hard to imagine composed Kellan breaking something in frustration.
“I didn’t break the television,” he said. “I simply threw the remote and it happened to hit the television. Two different things.”
Another giggle followed by a snort. She clapped her hand over her mouth in mortification. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Eli asked.
“Um, for snorting like a pig. How embarrassing.”
“I thought it was adorable,” Eli told her.
“Definitely adorable,” Kellan added.
“You’re beautiful,” Eli told her.
She’d heard that before but she didn’t know that she truly believed it.
“But you’re stunning when you smile,” Kellan added.
It was like they were doing a twin thing even though they weren’t twins. Maybe it was just that they spent so much time together.
“Even while snorting?” she asked in disbelief.
“Especially then,” Kellan told her.
Sheesh.
“What . . . where do we go next? We can’t stay in this hotel room forever and you guys don’t live here. Are you . . . are you wanting me to move to Houston?”
The thought made her want to cry. But that’s what you did for the people you cared about, right? You sacrificed. They were willing to take a chance on her and all of her baggage. She could do this for them.