Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
I grab one of the stuffed bears off the end of her bed and launch it at her, unable to wipe the smile off my face. “I am not having this conversation with you.”
“Ewwwwww,” she laughs, throwing herself off her bed just so she has more space to point while she’s laughing. “You want to kiss her.” She makes a fake gagging sound, pretending to shove her fingers down her throat. “Smooch her and do all icky things with her.”
“Dare I ask what icky things you think I want to do with her?”
Her whole face turns bright red as though she’s about to burst from the seams. “You want to touch her boobies.”
Ahhhh, fuck. I just had to go and ask.
I shake my head, springing to my feet, more than ready to hightail it out of here. “Okay,” I say, needing to get the image out of my head. “I take it you’re not upset anymore?”
“Oh, no,” she says. “I haven’t been upset since after my chocolate sundae. I heard you coming up the stairs and faked it. Zoey tried to teach me how to fake cry on the way home and said something about getting you right where it hurts. But I couldn’t make the tears come, not even after pinching myself.”
“She said that, did she?”
“Uh-huh.”
I can’t help but laugh as I make my way back to her door, only she calls out to me, forcing me to a stop. “Noah?”
I pause in her doorway and glance back. “What’s up?”
“I’m really glad you’re not mad at us anymore.”
I give her a tight smile and let out a heavy breath, feeling the weight of her words slamming right against my chest, threatening to bury me right here where I stand. “I was never mad at you, Hazel. At any of you. I never could be. I was just . . . mad at myself.”
Her brows furrow, clearly not liking that. “Sooooo . . . Now that you’re back, does that mean you’re all good now? You and Zoey can go back to how it used to be?”
“Honestly, Hazel,” I say, really having to think about it. “I don’t know. I think there’s some shit that needs to be figured out before that could even be considered.”
She gives me a sad smile, and as she drops back down on her bed, I walk out of her room, giving her some peace and quiet to get back to doing whatever the hell she was doing before I barged in here.
As I make my way back down the hall, I find myself pausing in front of Zoey’s door, my hand twitching at my side.
Don’t do it, Noah. Keep walking. Don’t be that asshole. Give her space.
Damn it.
I reach for her door.
It swings wide, and I hover in her doorway just like I’d done with Hazel. Only, unlike her sister, Zoey is lost in her music, gently swaying her hips as she stands in her full-length mirror, putting her long hair up.
She spots me almost immediately, her gaze meeting mine through the mirror, the loud music fading around us. Her eyes widen for just a moment before hurt flashes within those green depths. It tears at my chest. I hate that I keep hurting her, whether it’s intentional or not.
Zoey holds my stare through the mirror, her hands falling from her hair, watching as I slowly step into her room and nudge the door closed with my foot.
Just like after the dinner, the room fills with undeniable tension and it’s as though that tether between us is tightening, physically pulling us together.
I take a step, and she shakes her head, not daring to take her eyes off mine through the mirror, but I don’t stop. How could I?
I keep going until I’m standing right behind her with my chest pressed against her back. I see the rapid thrum of her pulse at the base of her neck and notice how her chest rises and falls with heavy breaths.
She visibly swallows, and as her hands tremble, I skim my fingers down the length of her arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps across her skin until my hand closes around hers. “Noah,” she breathes, her fingers clutching on to mine like a lifeline.
God. This feels so right.
Zoey slowly turns in my arms, and as she stands right before me, I press my fingers to her chin and lift until her sweet gaze is locked on mine. There’s a reluctance in her eyes that kills me, but it’s deserved. I’ve done nothing but hurt her, and in those times when she needed me the most, I wasn’t there.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispers, a crack of pain in her tone. “You should leave.”
I shake my head, both of us knowing that it would be impossible for me to walk away now. “I can’t do that.”