Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I had a crush on him the size of Texas for a while now, and it only seemed to be getting worse.
Which might explain why I accepted his next offer.
“Go with me.”
Not even hesitating in the slightest I said, “Sounds good.”
***
Six months later
I always knew he was too good to be true.
My eyes started to leak as I listened to my boyfriend and his friend talk about me.
Sure, I might be technically eavesdropping, but it surely wasn’t intentional.
I mean, he was the person who got shot, of course.
Not bad enough to warrant any emergency surgery, apparently.
He was sitting there, laughing, with Alexa—his friend— in front of him.
“She’s going to freak out,” Dean said to Alexa.
Alexa’s eyes narrowed, and I saw her lean forward and press a strip of gauze over what likely was the gunshot wound on his back.
“You need to do something about her if she’s going to continue to make you feel bad for doing your job,” Alexa murmured gently.
Except it wasn’t ‘gently’. Her words were calculating.
She was trying to get what she wanted, and I stood in her way.
I always knew I was, but I never thought Dean would fall for the bullshit she was shoveling.
Apparently, I was wrong.
“I know,” he said. “I’m likely going to call it quits tonight, depending on how she reacts to this.”
He patted his shoulder with his opposite hand, and the floor dropped out from under me.
That had to be the explanation for why my stomach was suddenly in my throat, and why it felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“I think that’s for the best,” Alexa said softly. “It’s likely not going to get better if it hasn’t already.”
It’s only been a few months! I wanted to scream. I’ve only had a short amount of time to come to terms with the fact that he puts his life on the line!
“You’re just going to have to tell her that she needs to chill,” Alexa sniped. “Either she chills, or you leave. It’s as simple as that.”
Dean’s voice, deeper and filled with pain said, “I didn’t think she’d react like this. I thought for sure she’d get over it; or, at least, learn to control her reactions. You should’ve heard her on the phone when I told her I got hurt tonight. She screamed and started crying, making me feel terrible.”
I had done that. But the scream hadn’t been for his benefit. It’d been because I’d fallen off the counter that I was standing on when his words had torn through me. Then I’d promptly twisted my ankle, which was about the size of a watermelon at this point.
“Well,” Alexa said softly. “You gotta do what you gotta do. Lay it all out, let her see what her fear and words are doing to you. If she doesn’t understand, then she’s not the right one for you.”
I stood outside Dean’s hospital door, my belly fluttering with nerves as their words poured through me.
“You’re right,” he said. “She always makes me feel so bad, though. Guilt’s a bitch. Unfortunately, I think you’re right. I’ll talk to her tonight. Tell her it’s not going to work for me if she can’t get control of herself.”
He would rather leave me than quit?
He would rather throw away six months of happiness, declarations of love and explorational talks about marriage and babies, and keep doing a job that could kill him? A job that he knew for a fact had nearly killed my brother?
I knocked on the door, and Dean’s guilt-filled eyes found mine.
And I knew.
Yes, he would most certainly leave me rather than leave his job, which he proved in the next couple of moments.
“You heard,” he guessed, knowing I had.
I nodded, keeping the tears at bay.
I would not guilt him. I would not!
He breathed out a sigh.
“Okay,” he murmured. “Do you want to talk?”
I shook my head.
My eyes took in his shirt, the gash on his bicep where he’d gotten shot—though from what I could see it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d envisioned—by a criminal tonight, and I felt resolve fill my spine.
“No,” I declined.
“Then I don’t think you have any reason to be here,” he replied gently.
My throat felt like it was going to explode due to the tears that I was holding back, but I pushed it down.
Only a few more seconds.
I walked toward where he was sitting on the bed, forcing myself not to limp and let him see that I was hurt. Then he’d want to know why, and I didn’t think I could talk to him without the waterworks.
“Here,” I said softly, taking his hat off.
I handed it to him, and he took it, his eyes ravaged.
The next thing to go was the necklace he’d given me.
Placing it almost delicately onto the bed beside his thigh, I limped out of the room and didn’t look back.