Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86367 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
“Well,” he says, “I know how much of a pain in the ass long distance is. When I started dating your mother, she was in New York, and I was in Dallas.” He grimaces. “Worst time of my life.”
“Good talk, Dad.” My voice comes out defeated.
“Have you spoken to her about how you feel?” he asks.
“Not exactly.” My heart races. “I didn’t want to be too needy.”
“How is that working out for you?” he asks, and it’s my turn to glare at him. “I’m not the one you should be glaring at.” He points at the phone. “You should be glaring at yourself.”
“Dad,” I snap, “I think I’m falling in love with this woman, and she won’t even call me back.”
“And who is to blame for that?” He tilts his head to the side. “You, that’s who. She came down to see you, so obviously she must like you a little bit. No one gets on a plane to surprise someone if they don’t like you. Now, when she was there instead of using your,” he whispers and points down to his dick area, “you should have taken a couple of minutes to talk about how you feel.”
“And what if she told me she didn’t feel like that?” My chest gets even tighter. “What if I did all that, and it was all for nothing?”
“But—” he starts, and all I can do is roll my eyes. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me,” he orders. “But what if you did all that, and it wasn’t all for nothing? What if she’s waiting for you to say something, and you said nothing, so she thought she was nothing to you?” All I can do is stare at him, wondering if this is why, when my mother comes into the room wearing her workout stuff.
“Hello.” Her eyes light up when she sees me on the phone, then turns to my father. “Hello.”
“Hey, sweetness,” he says her nickname, which he always uses unless he’s pissed, then it’s full-on Zara Richards even though her maiden name is Stone. “How was Pilates?”
“Hard,” she huffs and then turns to me. “What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so tired?”
“Oh, here we go.” I look out the window, knowing I’m not even going to get a word in because my father is going to spill the beans for me anyway. They always tell each other everything.
“Stone met a woman who lives in Chicago, and he’s smitten with her,” he starts, and I cringe at the word smitten.
“I like her,” I cut in. “Who uses smitten?”
“Anyway, he likes her.” My father continues talking. “He went to see her, she surprised him this weekend, and now she’s not answering his calls.”
“Were you mean to her?” my mother asks me in a tone that means the answer better be the one she wants to hear.
“Of course I wasn’t mean to her. Really, Mom?”
“It’s just a question.” She holds up her hands. “Did you tell her how you felt?”
“Nope,” my father answers for me, and my mother laughs.
“Typical. Your father did the same with me.” She smiles into the camera while my father gasps out loud.
“I did not.” She puts one hand on his chest like she just wounded him.
“You were going to break up with me,” she reminds him, and I have to bite my lip not to laugh. “Remember that after I got drunk. Waited for me to wake up in the morning and you were going to break up with me.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” My father puts up his two hands. “This is about Stone.”
“Wait a second,” my mother says, holding one finger up on her hand. “Ryleigh lives in Chicago.”
“Oh,” my father starts. “My.” His eyes go big. “God.”
“Are you seeing Ryleigh?” my mother gasps.
“I’m not seeing anyone because she won’t answer the fucking phone or the text messages or anything.” The frustration finally pours out of me.
“So sort of a situationship,” my mother reasons, both of us just looking at her like she has two heads. “You know, like before you are in a relationship, but you are talking, so it’s like a situation.” She looks at us. “Zoey told me about it.”
“Is Zoey in a situationship?” my father asks. “Because I really hope not.”
“Can we focus on our son, please?” my mother scolds, so she cannot tell him Zoey is one thousand percent in this whole situationship. “What have you told Ryleigh?”
“Nothing.” I take a deep breath. “I didn’t want to come on too strong.”
“You have to tell her.” My mother’s voice rises.
“Mom, she’s not answering my phone calls.” I clench my teeth.
“Then go to her.” She shakes her head. “I swear, the bunch of you are so strong and macho and then dumb and stupid, all at the same time.” She looks at my father. “I’m going to have a shirt made that says that.”