Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Devastated that he couldn’t give me the perfect life that they’d imagined.
Somewhere along the way, he’d turned to hoping for that perfect life for me.
“I think you need to hear Pruitt out,” he pushed.
“He’s said everything he needs to say.” With that, I tugged at the reins, and I turned my back to him as I led the filly around the side of the stables to the entry at the far end.
A power tool whirred up the way, carried on the breeze, the sun blazing down from the endless expanse of blue sky and covering the scenery with glittering light.
My heart that had been pounding with regret and anger sped in a completely different way.
I slowed, stumbling to a stop.
Unable to look away.
Cody stood over his crew who were digging a long trench to put in a new watering system, and he pulled the cap off his head and dragged his fingers through his hair as he pointed at something and gave instructions.
Even in the distance, I could see the sheen of sweat that glistened his golden skin, his white tee dampened with the exertion. His big body towered like a sanctuary I had the foolish notion to run to.
He must have felt me staring because he shifted to look back at me.
His promises from earlier pummeled and bashed into my consciousness, battering in the sweetest way.
His oath to be there for us. To stand as a hedge of protection.
I kept worrying that would only make matters worse.
Inflame a situation that was already volatile.
At the brink of imploding.
The presence bristled beside me, and I turned to find my father glowering with loathing, hatred rolling.
Wave after wave.
“Please tell me you aren’t acting a fool and messing around with that loser.” His teeth gritted as he released the words.
Arrows of affliction speared through my spirit.
I struggled to get a breath of air in around the barbs of pain my father inflicted.
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
Horror creasing his face, he grabbed me by the wrist as I went to pass. “Tell me you wouldn’t do something so reckless and stupid.”
Air wheezed from my lungs.
“What I do is none of your concern. I know you think you know what’s best for me, but I’m a grown woman, and I don’t need you or anyone else to tell me what I need.”
It wasn’t like Cody and I were anything. But that didn’t mean I was going to allow my father to debase Cody’s name when he didn’t know anything about him.
“Now, I need to get back to work.” I wrenched my arm free of his hold and started down the path.
“Hailey.” In an instant, my father’s voice had changed, my name becoming a plea when he realized how offensive he was being. “Hailey, I’m sorry, I just…don’t want you making mistakes you can’t take back.”
“I think this conversation is over.”
He vacillated behind me, clearly wanting to continue, to apologize, to mold.
And how could I really blame him that he would never truly get it, but I’d chosen that. I’d chosen to keep him in the dark.
But I could blame him for judging. Judging a man like Cody when he was so much better than the garbage dressed as prestige that was Pruitt Russel.
Soon I might have to shed light on the secrets that I’d been keeping like a festering wound. A weight that made me sick to carry, guilt eating away at my conscience.
Soon, my father might really see.
“I love you, Hailey,” my father murmured before he finally relented and strode back up the pathway to where he would have parked his truck on the other side of the stables.
He might have tried to hide it, but there was no missing the storm that raged around him.
Unease twisted my stomach when Cody caught the action, his giant body rigid as he watched my father leave.
And this mess I’d dragged him into? I was sure it’d just gotten dirtier.
TWENTY-THREE
CODY
“What all do we need?” I asked as I pushed the cart through the double sliding doors and into the grocery store. In an instant, the heat of the summer was squashed by the cold air that pumped from the AC in the small store in Hendrickson.
I’d felt like I’d been being burned alive the entire day, and the temperature outside didn’t have a thing to do with it.
It was this woman ambling along at my side that made me feel like I was getting singed.
“I just need to grab a couple things for dinner and some milk for breakfast in the morning.” She walked ahead of me, guiding me into the produce section.
“And what are we having?” I asked.
It was a wonder I didn’t knock into the displays around me considering I couldn’t look away from her ass. That lush, ripe peach swaying with each step that she took.