Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 75193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75193 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
It lacked ‘shit’, as I liked to call it.
No clothes. No knick knacks, whether it be spare change or dirty clothes.
Hell, the pillows and bedding even looked new and unused.
I doubted anyone ever slept in here.
In fact, I doubted that anyone ever stepped foot inside the room except to change the sheets and dust every once in a while.
So there I sat, in the middle of my borrowed bed, and thought about what I’d gotten myself into.
The longer I sat there, the more I decided that I really should just leave.
I’d made a promise to stay, but that was before I realized I was falling in love with someone that was still pining over his dead wife.
A wife that I didn’t know a damn thing about, and hadn’t known anything about until earlier in the day.
To add insult to injury, I hadn’t even learned of the wife from Ridley. I’d learned about her from his sister.
A timid knock had my head turning to face the closed door.
I knew for certain it wasn’t Ridley.
He wouldn’t have knocked.
So I got up, sighing all the way, and walked to the door, waiting to see what was on the other side of the door.
Surprise lit my face as I opened the door to find Core on the other side.
“Can I help you?” I asked him, exhaustion rolling over me.
I’d had a long day.
I’d helped Kitt clean after the men had left, and I hadn’t stopped cleaning until about a half hour before when the house went quiet after everyone had retired to their bed.
“Your dog’s here,” he pointed behind him.
I smiled and opened the door wider, uncaring that my hair was a mess and I wasn’t wearing shorts. The shirt I was wearing was my brother’s, and it was long enough to be a dress on me.
I dropped down to my knees and held my hands open for Sharpy.
Core let him go and he bounded to me, licking me from head to toe in excitement.
“Oh, I missed you,” I told him excitedly.
I’d boarded him. The place where I was staying didn’t allow pets, and although it’d broken my heart, I’d taken him to the vet and given him to them with the promise that I’d be back to get him soon.
“Thank you,” I said to Core. “I really appreciate you going to get her.”
“It wasn’t him,” Ridley’s deep voice said from the darkness beyond Core.
I followed the sound of the voice, finding him deeper in the shadows.
“Thank you,” I replied softly.
He shrugged, then disappeared down the hall as if he’d never been there in the first place.
“Where are you going?” I called to him.
“To bed,” he muttered darkly.
“But you just got back!” I yelled, looking at my watch and seeing it was only eight.
“So what?” he asked, his voice cut off abruptly by the slam of his door.
Frowning, I watched where he’d disappeared, and then looked up at Core in confusion.
“Like I said,” he muttered. “Gotta give him time.”
I didn’t want to give him time. That was the problem.
I’d given him plenty.
I looked at the room behind me, seeing all of my stuff that’d been driven in my car by one of the prospects straight to Ridley’s place, then back at Core.
“Yeah,” I said. “Thanks.”
He nodded, then he, too, disappeared.
It took me about five seconds to decide to leave.
I blame it on my period—my inability to think straight.
But I’d had enough.
For some reason, even the thought of staying here when he obviously didn’t want me in the space that he’d shared with his wife was unbearable.
So I did what any woman who was hurt, pissed off and not thinking straight would do.
I left his stupid ass and went back to my house.
I wasn’t driving all the way home in the dark.
And I had to grow a pair and get it done eventually.
Now was better than staying at Ridley’s where I wasn’t wanted.
It proved to be a very bad decision on my part.
Very, very bad.
Chapter 18
Sometimes I use words I don’t understand so I can sound more photosynthesis.
-T-shirt
Ridley
I woke up two hours after going to bed in a cold sweat.
Nightmares swirled in my brain, and I swallowed thickly to coax the bile back into my belly where it belonged.
Freya dying.
That’d been the fourth dream this week about her dying.
I picked at the comforter that covered my body.
It was the same one Aerie and I had gotten on our wedding day.
I hated it.
Hated the color. Hated the way it felt. Hated that it reminded me of her.
Hated might not be a strong enough word for what I felt about the stupid comforter.
My eyes scanned the space surrounding me, and what I saw made my heart hurt.
Everything screamed Aerie.
The curtains. Her jewelry box.
Without thinking, I threw off the comforter covering my lower half, wadded it into a ball, and threw it onto the floor.