Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
The universe. It was magical and powerful and scary, and yeah, it could happen.
“I’m going to go see Jojo.”
My mom’s eyes had widened, and she’d paled. She’d reached for me, her blond hair sweaty and dirty from not showering. “No, honey. You can’t. We have to get ready for dinner. We have—”
I’d shaken my head, sticking out my bottom lip. “No. I’m going.”
Ben had come to the doorway. He didn’t say a word, but I’d seen the hope in his eyes. He wanted me to go. He wanted to hear about it afterwards.
Mom hadn’t wanted us to make friends. We’d moved from place to place wherever she could get a job. But in every town, her boss was mean, her boss was a bitch, her boss tried to steal from her, set her up. She’d had a different story every time she was fired. Then onto to the next place. Eventually she’d just said we couldn’t get to know people. We’d have to leave again anyway, so it was easier.
I sucked in my breath, pulling out of the memory.
It hadn’t been easier that way. It’d just been lonelier.
That’d been the first time I went to Jojo’s over the summer.
This wasn’t the same. Vicky, Howard, Lo, Roger, Cynthia, Charlotte, Luna—they weren’t the same.
I looked at my face in the bathroom mirror. I could be someone worth not fucking it up with. I could. I’d come so far from being that twelve-year-old who’d dared to defy my mom and make a friend.
But I was still that person too.
My hair had been more blond back then, longer too. I swept it back and drew in a breath, seeing the fullness of my face. I was a woman now. I’d lived back then. I’d smiled. I’d laughed. I’d felt I could be happy and knew no reason why I couldn’t.
Life had shown me different.
It wasn’t all gone, though. I was strong. In mind and body, but not in my heart. That’d been shut off for so long.
Was I going to turn my heart back on?
“You gotta always make sure that light in there is shining and bright, as bright as you can make it. The world needs it.” My mom had pointed to my heart, her face lit up because my face was lit up when I told her about Jojo’s uncle, who told stories about trying to fire his newest employee who refused to be fired. Jojo’s uncle had said that by the end of his employee’s speech, he’d ended up hiring him back, only to fire him again the next day because he was four hours late.
I looked at where my heart was and touched there.
I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t thought about a light in there for so long.
There was a soft knock on the door. “You need anything else?”
It hurt right now, to feel my heart bursting because Brett could make me want to put the light back in there. But I knew this was a good pain to have.
I opened the door and found him waiting, his gruff eyes concerned. I smiled. “I’m ready.”
The universe wasn’t going to punish me because I let anyone in too close.
At least I hoped not, because I was already too far gone.
24
BRETT
My phone rang out through the room, and cursing, I checked the time before answering. Six in the morning. I muffled another curse before answering. “One second.” I slipped out of bed, glancing back, and then froze because Billie was awake.
She looked terrified.
“It’s someone from back home. This is probably about my sister, that’s all.”
She expelled a ragged breath, her eyes closing.
I frowned. “Babe.”
She blinked a few times before shaking her head. “I’m okay. Honestly. I’m okay.” Her eyes moved to my phone. “I hope everything is okay there too.”
Right. Home. My sister. I jerked out of my—whatever that had been. I was unsure, just knew I didn’t like my woman seeming like she’d seen a ghost. “I’ll be back. You want coffee or want to sleep some more?”
She grinned ruefully. “Coffee probably.”
“Okay.” I shut the door and brought the phone back up to my ear. “What the fuck, Monroe?”
He was laughing. “You crashed the date and you got the girl. That’s the Broudou I know.”
“Fuck you. You don’t know shit about me.” My lip twitched as I made my way downstairs and to the bathroom. “I’m muting myself for a second, but I can hear you just fine. Why are you calling?”
“Christ, you’re taking a piss, aren’t you?”
I laughed, but just waited until he sighed and started in. “I got a call ten minutes ago. Your sister’s being released from county in an hour.”
I cursed, finishing exactly what he thought I was doing and washing up before unmuting myself. “I didn’t think about the time difference. She’s being released at five?”