Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Still do.
Every part of me wants to get over him. To move on and find someone I can share my life with. I know it’s going to be near impossible to do it here. Either I need to move, or Wade does, and there’s no way he’s going to leave Magnolia Grove. He has a successful business here, his family is here, and it’s clear I’m the one with an issue.
Wade has moved on. I need to do the same.
I’ve barely put the lid on the now reorganized box when there’s a knock at the door. I frown, knowing I’m not expecting anyone, and hoping none of the Scouts are out selling things. I hate telling the kids no, but if I buy from one, I have to buy from all.
The box, along with the hat, stay on my bed while I make my way to the front door. There’s another knock. “Coming,” I say as I pick up the pace. I twist the doorknob without looking through the peephole and open the door to greet whoever is on the other side.
And wish I didn’t.
“What are you doing here?”
Arm against the wall, Wade leans in smelling like a sex god, smirking, sleeves rolled up. Freshly showered.
Fuck me.
I swallow hard, hoping and praying he can’t tell I’m bothered by him. He shouldn’t bother me. We’ve been over for years. None of his antics should affect me.
But they do.
“How’s my hat?”
“Is this some sort of visitation request?” I try to make light of the situation. If he wants his hat back, he can have it.
No, he can’t. I don’t even know why I offered. If he says yes, I’m going to tell him it’s at the office.
But then, he’d go there, and I’d have to see him again.
How can I go from never seeing him, from purposely avoiding him for years, to now seeing and speaking to him twice in one day?
I didn’t sign up for this. We’re supposed to hate each other and not want to be friends or chat buddies, or even amical co whatever label someone would add. This isn’t going to be WaLe part two.
“Maybe.” Charm oozes off him in the way he tilts his head. He used to do this while we were dating. I’d like to say it’s how I lost my virginity to him, but that would be a lie. The day we gave ourselves to each other was one of the best days of my life and I have no regrets.
I really don’t want to give him his hat back. But I have no reason to keep it. Sentimental value only means something if you care.
I don’t.
Or at least I need to stop caring. What we had is over and it has been for a long time.
Then why are you still standing there?
“I’ll go get your hat.”
I turn and walk away.
“Lemon—”
The way he says my name is smooth and sexy. It’s how he’s always said it, even when he begged me not to ends things between us. I stop in my tracks and close my eyes. Tears form. I pinch the bridge of my nose to ward them off.
Him being here, saying my name like nothing has happened between us, it hurts my heart. Life would be so much easier if I could turn around and jump into his arms. To press my lips to his and reignite my body with the fire it once felt when Wade and I were together.
And then I think of her.
Of Ana. A woman I have never met but looked up online because I’m that level of obsessed with the man standing in my doorway. She’s gorgeous. Tall, blue eyes, blonde hair. Every man’s dream of a perfect woman.
It’s not hard to imagine Ana and Wade together. To anyone on the outside, it makes sense. But I take it a step farther and imagine them in bed, tangled in his sheets, with her leg over his hip and taking him in.
Then I see myself. Plain. Comfortable. I’m a routine or a habit. We didn’t have the spark anymore, at least that’s what I thought.
He says it was nothing like what he and I had together.
Wade graced me with the details, thinking they would make a difference. Telling me he didn’t even take his pants or her clothes off completely. That when he finished, he cried in the bathroom because she wasn’t who he wanted.
I was.
None of it mattered though because once I was ready to even think about getting back together, he spilled his guts. He had been with someone, and she was pregnant.
I no longer existed in Wade Jenkins’ life.
Even if Wade and Ana weren’t going to be together, there was no room for me.
Every part of me is tempted to turn around, to show him the tears I shed because of him. But I don’t.