Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 553(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
West
When I woke up, I was somehow sprawled over Lincoln, and Jessie was on his stomach with his arm thrown over my waist. Both men were sleeping peacefully, that tension that had been threaded through them for the past week now gone, both of them finally sleeping peacefully. They’d apparently crashed into bed with me once they worked out their shit. And considering I’d slept peacefully, I figured they’d worked out their problems.
Being extra careful, I managed to get out from beneath their arms and crawl to the end of the bed, slowly getting off the mattress.
I turned to look at them, a small smile spreading across my lips as I ran my eyes over them. Both of them continued to peacefully sleep, undisturbed by my lack of presence in bed.
My stomach let out a low rumble, so with a sigh, I slipped out of the guest room and walked downstairs to see what I could find in the kitchen. I was absolute shit at cooking anything. Normally, one of the guys made something for dinner, but judging by how dark it was outside and that both of them were currently passed out upstairs, I was on my own to fend for myself.
I finally found some leftover food in the fridge from the night before and heated it up, my stomach rumbling louder when my little girl began to kick my belly. I rested my hand above where she was kicking, a small smile on my face when I felt her kick against my palm.
“Babe!” Jessie called as he came rushing down the stairs, Lincoln right behind him.
“Yeah?” I asked, looking up at them, my eyebrows creasing together in confusion.
“You okay?” he asked me as he walked over, running his eyes over me.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. I waved my hand in the direction of the microwave. “I got hungry,” I explained with a shrug.
Lincoln pressed a kiss to my temple before he moved around me, going to the microwave. He stopped my food and pulled it out, stirring it before putting it back in. I looked between the two men. “Are you two okay now?” I asked.
Lincoln softly sighed. “Not a hundred percent perfect, but we’ll be okay eventually,” he told me. “I fucked up bad with you, West. That’s not something Jessie can easily forgive me for.”
I frowned. “But I understand it,” I told him. As much as it had hurt, I did get it. I understood how he was feeling.
“Babe, it doesn’t make what I did to you right,” he told me. “I fucking hurt you, West. Regardless of whether you understand it now or not, I fucking hurt you—almost made you lose yourself. That shit’s not okay. It’ll never be okay, and I’ll never forgive myself for the shit I put you through.”
“Lincoln,” I soothed as I stepped over to him, pressing my hands to his abdomen, “we all make mistakes. I’ve hurt you both. Ghosting you guys, pushing you away, that shit should have never been forgiven. Yet, you both accepted me back with open arms, never once judging me because you two understood that. You two understood what I did.”
“That’s different, West,” he rasped.
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Is it?” I asked him. He stayed silent. “You came back to me, Lincoln. I had no intention of coming back to either of you.” He swallowed thickly at that admission. “Had Jessie not forced me to stay by stopping my car from starting, I would have left this town, never once stopping to come say hi, to tell you that I’m okay—nothing,” I told him honestly.
“I came back because Jessie told me what happened,” he told me, his blue eyes running over my features. Jessie stayed silent behind me.
I shrugged. “But you came back, Lincoln,” I adamantly reminded him. “You didn’t have to be forced. You loved me and cared about me so fucking much that you still came back without Jessie dragging you to that hospital.”
“She wasn’t staying,” Jessie spoke up from behind me. I stepped back from Lincoln a little so I could look at Jessie. Jessie stood up straighter, his eyes flickering to me before they moved back to Lincoln. “I get her point, Lincoln. I fucking had to force her to stay in Farley that day. The second she got up, she was trying to leave—to hell with her truck. She had no intention of staying and talking to me, or to come seek you out.”
Jessie released a soft sigh. “And I forgave her for it,” he said quietly. “I forgave her so easily for all the shit she did, for all the pain she put me through.”
“So, why can’t you do that for your best friend?” I asked him. Jessie stayed silent. I walked over to him, my eyes staying locked on his dark ones. “Jessie, why can’t you forgive him, too?” I whispered.