Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
He had tanned skin, black hair, and brown eyes so dark that they were almost considered black, and this feel about him that told me he would protect me no matter what.
His eyes, though, had a life to them that I’d never seen before in anyone else. An exuberance, a love for being here almost resolutely, that felt like he was pure energy. It was like warming my hands on a bonfire, but I knew if I got too close, I’d get burned.
Then again, I tried not to look too many people in the eyes.
It was easier to avoid conversations that way.
He didn’t have any visible tattoos, but every once in a while, he would walk just right and the hem of his shirt would shift enough for me to catch a flash of black.
He was wearing a dark gray, almost black Henley with his hospital scrubs. I wasn’t sure that was allowed, seeing as we had a strict rule of ‘wear royal blue hospital scrubs only’ but there he was doing it.
“What are you over there thinking about, Poppet?” he asked after an extended time of silence.
I looked over at him, studying him for a long moment, before saying, “I worked at a circus before I came here.”
He blinked, then said, “So you said.”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“And you’re bringing that up because…” He waited.
I smiled, and the man walking in front of me winked because he thought I was smiling at him.
I quickly averted my gaze, because I most definitely wouldn’t be looking at a man twice my age who had a shirt that said ‘check out my dick.’
I would’ve avoided that one at all costs.
“My job for the circus was—and still is I guess, since my father didn’t agree to let me leave for more than it took to do my first semester—to do the whole fortune teller thing,” I continued. “I got really good at reading people.”
I could feel him looking at me when he said, “Okay.”
“There were always these people, ones who sparkled more than the others, who had a way of drawing people into their orbit.” I continued.
He was about to say something more, but I kept talking.
“You give off this vibe. Like you’re the sun, and all the rest of us are just orbiting around you, drawing off of your energy.”
He snorted. “I don’t really agree with that.”
I looked over at him and let him see the honesty in my words. “I don’t think there’s a single person in class who wouldn’t have been falling over their feet to go eat with you today for lunch. Why me?”
“Ah.” He nodded. “Well, I guess I’d have to say that you intrigued me. You came in that first day, took the seat farthest away from everyone. Listened and learned. Walked out like you had something better to do. I guess that’s one of my faults. I just want everyone to like me. And every time I talked to you, I felt like maybe you wanted to squash me like a bug.”
I offered him a small smile. “More like, you were making everyone pay attention to me, and that’s an introvert’s worst nightmare.”
“Ahh.” He nodded again. “I understand.”
We kept walking, and we were right around the corner from the school when the first drop of rain fell from the sky.
I stopped and looked up, doing what I’d always done in a rainstorm, and waited for the next drop.
I didn’t know why I did it. I just did.
It drove my family insane, because they always had to wait for me to feel that second rain drop before I could leave.
Sometimes it never even happened, and we’d be standing there for forever.
But I waited.
When I finally felt that drop a few seconds later, I started walking again.
But not before I saw the look of awareness and adoration on Felix’s face.
Little did I know, he’d be okay with a lot of my quirks.
Little did he know, I’d make him love me, then be forced to leave.
CHAPTER 3
If you keep your house at anything higher than 75, don’t invite me to your terrarium, you lizard.
-Pops to Felix
FELIX
Now
“What are your plans for tonight, honey?” Tammy, my best friend and charge nurse, asked.
The calmness of the day wouldn’t last.
Though we’d had very little in the eyes of emergencies come through the doors, it was January, in the middle of what could be Snowmageddon, and it was only a matter of time before shit hit the fan.
It was possible I wasn’t going to be doing anything tonight because we’d be stuck here due to the ice that was supposed to hit sometime midafternoon.
Or nothing at all could happen, and I could be going home to my dog and my grandpa at normal time.
With Texas weather, one never knew.
“As of right now, I don’t have any plans,” I admitted, my gaze going toward the door three separate times in that small sentence alone.