Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Clara—”
“Please,” she pleads, her eyes swimming with tears. “I’ll go over and explain what happened and see if I can get Elliot to calm down. Hopefully she didn’t tell anyone else.”
I don’t like this at all. “Let me come with you.”
“No,” she tells me, her eyes imploring. “I gotta do this alone.”
“It will mean more from me.”
“I need to do this alone,” she insists, her eyes still dripping tears.
“Clara. Why? Let—”
“Please, Riggs, let me handle this.”
I fight back my own tears as I gaze down at her. “And you’ll come back home?”
She shakes her head. “Not tonight.”
“Clara—”
“Riggs, your words hurt me. Even if you were only saying them to get Alex off your back, they hurt. Let me process.”
“Process with me,” I beg, cupping her jaw so she can’t look away. “Let me make it up to you, prove that I meant not a single one of those words I said.”
She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, and much to my dismay, she shakes her head. “I can’t think straight when I’m with you.”
“Good. I like how you think when you’re with me.” Her lips tremble, and she moves out of my arms, breaking my fucking heart. “Clara, stay.”
She ignores me, and I watch as she throws on a pair of leggings before grabbing her charger. I follow her out of the room, the dogs hot on our heels. “I don’t like this.”
“I don’t like that you said what you said.”
“I said I’m fucking sorry! I didn’t mean a fucking word.”
She whips around, her eyes narrowed. “Don’t yell at me or cuss at me. You messed up, not me!”
“Clara,” I plead, sucking in a deep breath. “I don’t know what to do here. You’re killing me.”
“Now you know what your words did to me,” she throws back at me.
“I didn’t mean them,” I roar. “Stop this. You’re overreacting.”
Her brows slam together, and her eyes look as if they could cut glass. “You said I was nothing, I was a mistake. But I’m overreacting? Okay, Riggs.”
She moves through the house, and I’m following right after her. Thankful that no one lives around since I’m in my boxers, I follow her to her car. She lets Darcy in, and when she stops Gordie and Gretzky, her tears start to fall faster. “Not today, boys. It’s okay. Mommy loves you.”
Her words make my insides explode. “That’s right. You’re their ma, and you can’t leave them—or me.”
Her eyes cut to mine. “I’m not leaving them or you. I’m giving us space.”
“I don’t want fucking space, Clara.” I hold the door, my eyes burning into hers. “Please, don’t leave.”
She gets in the car without another word, her tears like waterfalls down her sweet face. As she backs down the driveway, Darcy barks out the window, making me realize I love the fool as much as I do his ma. The boys whine beside me, and I reach down, cupping their scruff when I’m met with the taillights of her SUV when she turns to drive down the road. As the pain eats me alive, I’m reminded why I never wanted to fall in love. The problem with that thought, though, is that there was no way in hell I wasn’t falling in love with Clara Drew McDavid.
She was made for me.
Not a fucking thing will change that.
Feeling helpless, I let my head fall back, and at the top of my lungs, I yell, “Fuck!”
And the dogs howl beside me.
CHAPTER 34
Clara
My tears flow freely as I drive away from Riggs. When I hit the main road, I pull over and let the sobs take over my body. I hate that he said anything. I wish he had just told Alex to fuck off like he usually would. Especially when I know his words aren’t true. I know deep in my soul that he loves me, that I am everything to him. It’s so frustrating because now I have cleanup to do. When all I want to do is go back home to my man and my dogs.
I wipe my face and pull out my phone. Before I can even check my sisters’ locations, I find four texts from Riggs.
Riggs: I don’t like this.
Riggs: Just come back.
Riggs. Let me go talk to everyone.
Riggs: Call me, Clara. I love you. So fucking much.
When Darcy licks my tears away, I cuddle into his muzzle. “And he calls you a fool.”
Ignoring Riggs, I look at my sisters’ locations to see they’re all at Dirty Pages. Which means that Elliot has probably spilled the beans. Why can’t life be easy? Rolling my eyes, I put the car back in drive and head toward town. My phone sounds with missed calls and messages from Riggs, but I can’t talk to him right now. I’m so fucking annoyed, and I need him to know his words have consequences.