Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 134830 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134830 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 539(@250wpm)___ 449(@300wpm)
Kyle instantly moves to the door, opening it and taking the load from her.
“Just set them down. I know you need to get going,” I tell him, and he sends me a grateful look. He waves and steps outside.
Nessa turns demanding eyes my way. “What is going on, girl?”
I sigh, grabbing the bags at her feet and gesturing toward the kitchen with a jerk of my head. “Come on, I’ll give you the long story short version.”
As I unpack the groceries, I tell her about my blow-up at Costco, Kyle chasing me to my car, and then going to the dog rescue where he volunteers. I swear hearts are popping out of her eyes. “He rescues dogs?”
“Well, he works with the lady who rescues them, doing odd jobs for her.”
“Same thing,” Nessa declares.
Then, I tell her about Kyle showing up unexpectedly, taking me for a ride, and inviting me to his family dinner. I don’t share about his family’s financial situation because it doesn’t matter to me. Kyle is who he is, and that’s I care about. When I tell her about Kyle going off on his Dad—leaving out why because that’s his story to share or not—she gasps.
“If I talked to my Daddy some sort of way like that, he would’ve taught me a thing or two about a thing or two, and that’s for sure,” Nessa says before her face sours. “May he rest in pieces.”
She looks up at the ceiling like she’s praying, but the truth is, Nessa doesn’t know if her father is alive or dead. He walked out when her mom’s dementia got bad enough to require constant care, and she hasn’t heard from him since. She has a lot of feelings about that, because he was a good father for her when she was younger, but walking out on your sick wife, leaving your daughter to care for her, doesn’t exactly win you Father of the Year awards in anybody’s book, least of all, Nessa’s.
“Yeah, I don’t really know all of it. But you’ve met Kyle? Big, loud, confident to the point of cocky, right?” She nods, her expression one of ‘duh’. “With his family, he amps that up to the extreme, they roll their eyes like ‘that’s Kyle’, and then they kinda ignore him. And he goes invisible.”
Nessa balks, pointing toward the front door where Kyle left. “That man? Goes invisible?”
I hold my arms out wide, as confused as she is. “Right?”
“What’s he gonna do?”
“I don’t know,” I sigh. “I told him it’s fixable, but that’s up to him.”
Nessa leans toward me, pinning me with a serious look. “More importantly, what’re you doing with him? I told you to get some dick, but long rides, deep conversations, meeting the family? Girl, that man is gone for you. G-O-N-E, gone.”
It’s admittedly been a huge couple of days—for Kyle, for me, and for us.
I lick my lips, knowing that once I say it, I can’t take it back. “I’m falling in love with him,” I admit.
I wait for the chains to wrap around me, tying me down and linking me to a man who will always put himself and his pride first. But they don’t come. Instead of feeling trapped, I feel free. Because Kyle isn’t that type of man. He puts everyone else first to his own detriment, which is something he’s got to work on.
But where I fought against any relationship because I didn’t think being myself inside one was possible, Kyle makes me feel like who I am and what I have to offer are more than enough.
I just want him to know I feel the same way about him—he’s enough, he’s worthy, and he’s very much loveable.
Nessa claps her hands and stomps her feet happily. “I knew it! I mean, who could blame you? Sugarbear’s a sexy man.”
“Hey,” I snap, arching a brow at her, but she laughs, not serious enough to warrant any real jealousy on my part. “It’s not about that. It’s about how he lets me be me.”
She cocks her head, looking dubious.
“Fine, and he’s sexy.”
She snaps her fingers and points at me triumphantly. “Knew it.”
But as she leaves and I get back to cooking for the day, it’s not Kyle’s sexiness that’s on my mind. It’s how hurt he was last night, and if I could, I would take that pain away from him in an instant.
CHAPTER 26
KYLE
The ride home is loud, not from street noise but from the noise in my head.
What have I done? And how do I undo it?
I switch out for the truck, head to Maggie’s, and though Peanut Butter still hits me in the balls with his nose as a greeting, reminding me why he’s nicknamed Nutbuster, he happily hops into the truck and flops into the passenger seat. He’s snoring in less than five seconds, clearly one tired pup.