Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
“I’m supposed to believe that.”
“Look, Everything around here is all about you. I’ve worked hard as fuck to make this happen for us.”
“Then why didn’t you include me. I’m twenty-one and you knew I had feelings for you. Why did you let me hurt?” I close my eyes and try to control the rage I feel because she’s right. I hurt her and it was never my intention, kissing her that night had been a mistake and letting her think that it wasn’t the best fucking thing in the world was another. If I could have snatched her up and made my fantasies a reality that night I would have, but life isn’t that simple.
“That’s the complicated part.” How do I explain that I’d never want to leave our bed and go back to school or work again? How do I say that nothing else would matter?
“Complicated part?”
“My obsession with you is hard to comprehend. I’ve held it back for so many years afraid of what would happen if I gave into it.”
“Why would you fight it?” She stands up to leave, but I pull her back onto my lap.
“Because the second I claimed you, I’d never let you go. How would I force myself to be separated from you?”
“Why would we be separated?”
“Babe, we were college students. Hell, you were a high school student at one point. Until last year, I was living in a dorm, waking up to go to classes, then driving all the way back to Holly Hills just to work forty-plus hours a week to sneak a peek at you. My money wasn’t shit, and it had to go to pay for my medical books, room, and board. I was barely making my bills and racking up student loans.”
“I could have helped,” she insists.
“No, you couldn’t.”
“Oh, don’t start that macho shit. I pay for everything.”
“That’s not what I was going to say.”
“Bethany Faith, do you know why I quit med school?”
“It got too expensive?”
“No, because…I tasted those lips of yours and I couldn’t imagine spending any more time waiting to build a life with you. I wanted to give you the life you needed. One where I came home to you in a bed where we could make love in every damn night where we weren’t worried about paying the bills to keep the lights on.”
She shakes her head, trying to process what I’m saying, so I continue.
“I had two more years before I finished med school and then I’d have to start my residency which might take me out of state for another one to three years. It wasn’t worth it. Lennox made me an offer and I jumped on it.”
“So you’ve been here and you still didn’t come get me?”
“Baby, I had to make enough money to ensure that once I had you in my arms again, we could afford for you to take time off with all the little North babies I plan to put inside you.”
“You’re so damn self-assured.”
“No, I know what I want, Beth, and that has always been you.”
“Has it?”
“Always. Come here.” I slide her off my lap and then stand, sticking out my hand for her to take it. “Let me show you something.” I lead her to my bedroom where I have her photos in different frames around the room. Each one is from the past year, a snapshot stolen from when I couldn’t be with her. Then I have one on my nightstand that is an electronic frame that has an entire collection of rotating pictures of her.
“Why?”
“Why? I told you, Bethany. I’m obsessed.”
“How did you get these pictures? I got this hat for Christmas this year.” Tears fell from her eyes.
“I know. You might not see me, but I stalk you sometimes.”
“Colt.”
“I love you so much it killed me to be away from you, but I had to make a life for us. I couldn’t wait years to have time for us.”
“Being in school was that time consuming?”
“You work and go to school. How much free time do you have?”
“Well, it’s different, but I don’t have a lot of free time.”
“Exactly, my free time was studying. I slept a max of four hours a night if I was fucking lucky. I would have made a terrible husband or a doctor. It would have been one or the other. When it came to you, I’d refuse to make a terrible husband, so something had to give, and I made my choice.”
“Colter, why didn’t you come to me when you finally got this place set up and ready. It’s clear you haven’t been living at your parents for a long time and you dropped out before the new semester started in January.”
“I still didn’t have my shit together. This place was like a bachelor pad for sure. I had a mattress and whatever I had from my dorm. It was shit until recently.”