Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
“And I don’t mean that as an insult or I’m pointing fingers. I was working so hard on the gym and lost my focus. It wasn’t until you asked me to leave that I realized what I had done. And the worst part was, even though I was completely miserable, I knew you’d be okay. You are strong and independent and would have gotten up, dusted yourself off, and come out stronger on the other side. You’re amazing, Winnie,” he whispers, kissing the hand that doesn’t have the IV. “Always have been and always will be.”
I sniffle and wipe my eyes. I’m sure I look even worse now that you add in tears. “So what now?”
He strokes my hand and gives me a knowing smile. “Well, I thought I wanted to remarry you,” he starts, making my heart slam against my chest.
“And now you don’t?” I ask, the words hurting more when they’re said aloud than when I just thought them.
“Oh, hell no, baby. My end game is to remarry you,” he says with a smirk. “But first, I’m going to date you.”
That catches my attention. “Date me?”
“Yep,” he says, that cocky swagger I fell in love with back and written all over his face. “I’m going to date you like we did in the beginning. I’m going to pick you up for dinner and steal kisses in the back of the movie theater. I’m going to hold your hand when I’m driving my truck, and hopefully, cop a feel in the library when no one’s looking.”
I laugh. “The only library I’ve been to lately is the one in my classroom, and I don’t think it would be appropriate to cop a feel with preschoolers in the room.”
“You’re probably right. I’ll have to come up with another creative way to get my hands on your amazing body,” he whispers, flipping my hand over and kissing my palm. A shiver sweeps through my body.
I stare into his dark eyes, wishing with everything I have that things could have been different. Wishing the ending was different.
And maybe now it is.
In fact, something tells me this is a whole new chapter beginning.
Harrison sets our joined hands down on my abdomen. “We still have a lot to figure out. We have a lot of talking to do, something we stopped doing there at the end. That’s my fault.”
“That’s both our faults,” I assure him. I played a big part in that problem too. When he stopped talking because of work, I shut him out.
“Maybe,” he says, rubbing his thumb over our baby. “I’ll still always blame myself fully for what happened. I did so much wrong.”
“We both did.” My throat feels tight and burns a little from all the emotion rolling around in the small hospital room.
“We’re going to fix this, Winnie. For you and me, but for the baby too. Our baby. Peanut.”
There’s no way to stop the tears that fall. “What if we still can’t make this work? What if we try and just can’t fix it? I don’t think my heart could go through another breakup, Harrison.”
“Then we won’t, sweetheart. I’m not going to let us fail this time, and do you know why? Because you are my world and I won’t let us fall again. I won’t let go of us.” His words are everything I’ve wanted to hear, yet everything I fear. Because what-if?
“Don’t be afraid, Winnie. I let you down once, but I’d rather die than do it a second time. Trust me.”
I take a deep breath. “I want to.”
“You can. You will. Eventually, when you’re ready, when I’ve proven it to you. I have a lot of ground to make up now, but I’m in this for the long haul. I’m going to fight for you, baby. I’m going to fight for us… our family,” he says, moments before he punctuates his statement with his lips on mine. His kiss is chaste, yet urgent and full of so much emotion. “We’re gonna take this slow, okay? We’re going to get to know each other, trust each other again.”
“We’re going to date,” I reply, my mind swimming with uncertainty and fear, yet buried deep down is a tiny bubble of hope.
“Exactly,” he agrees, placing his lips on mine once more. “I am so gonna love dating you, Winnie.”
I offer a small smile, hoping I’m not making a big mistake by considering this entire plan of his. He wants us to date, to get to know each other, and hopefully, together, work through and get past our problems. Easy peasy, right? Probably not even close to easy. I have a feeling this is going to be hard.
But I also have a choice: I could walk away. I could move forward and put my previous life behind me… but that won’t work. With this tiny life growing inside me, there’ll be no walking away. Harrison will always be there. Maybe not as my husband, but as my child’s father. He’ll be a part of my life in one way or another for the rest of my life.