Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Her entire body relaxes. I see her shoulders fall, and there is something in her eyes that I’d like to think is a hell of a lot more than friendship when she peers up at me. “Be safe. Call me if you need me.”
“I always need you.”
Her smile grows. “You know what I mean. Go. Be safe.”
I want to kiss the hell out of her and tell her that I love her and that I’ll be back home to her soon, but I can do none of those things. Instead, I settle for a soft press of my lips to her cheek, a wave, and then I’m back in my truck, headed to see my little brother who’s nursing a broken heart, and I’m sure is raging mad that Jordyn left without a goodbye.
As soon as I’m on the road, I start calling more of my brothers. Time to rally the troops.
By the time I get to Ryder’s, the twins are already there. Merrick meets me at the door, a somber look on his face.
“Well?” I ask, even though I can already guess how he’s feeling. I’d be fucking wrecked if Alyssa left me without a goodbye, even if I did know she was going. Hell, I struggled with leaving her on her front porch to come here.
“He’s already drinking.”
I nod. “The others are on their way.”
“Intervention?” Merrick asks.
“Nah, we’re going to let him scream and yell and get it out of his system and see what we can do to help him work through this.”
“How in the fuck do we do that?” Merrick asks.
“Just be here. There is nothing that we can say or do that’s going to make this easier on him. He just needs to know we’re here. He needs to know that his brothers have his back, always.”
Merrick nods. “Done.” He steps back, and I follow him inside.
In the living room, we find Ryder sitting with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in his hands. Maverick’s sitting next to him. There’s not more than a couple of shots missing from the looks of the bottle. He looks up when we walk in and nods. No words are spoken as Merrick takes the empty space on the opposite side of Ryder. No one says a word as I take the recliner.
We sit in silence until the sound of a knock at the door echoes through the house. We don’t rush to answer it. We all know it’s one of our brothers. Within fifteen minutes, we’re all here. Chairs are brought in from the kitchen, and Orrin brought his own. He has his zero-gravity lawn chair set up next to the couch. I shake my head at him, but I’m cursing myself that I don’t have mine with me. Those fucking things are legit.
“Tell me how we’re doing this,” Orrin speaks up. “Are we hating on her? Getting drunk to temporarily forget? Are we taking you to the airport? Tell us what you need, Ryder.”
“Whatever you need,” Brooks reiterates.
“I’m in love with her.” Ryder’s voice is low and laced with so much pain I feel it deep inside my chest.
We remain quiet. He needs to do this his way, and we’re just here for moral support.
“We had plans to talk about it today. We were going to spend the day working out the details. I got there to pick her up, and Gianna said she was gone. Her flight left at six this morning.” He tells us this while staring at the floor. He lifts his head and starts on his right with Maverick. He lets his gaze fall on each of us, ending with Merrick on his left.
“She never intended to have that talk. She just left as if I meant nothing to her.”
“Maybe she was scared?” I think about my own situation, and fear is a huge factor in me dragging my feet with Alyssa. Sure, I’ve already decided I’m going all in. I need a plan, but it’s been weeks. I’ve been pussyfooting around, worried that if I tell her how I feel, she won’t feel the same, and I’ll lose her. That fear has kept me silently loving my best friend.
“I can’t fix it if she doesn’t tell me,” he says as there’s a knock on the door. “Come in,” he calls out.
“Are we taking bets that it’s Dad?” Archer jokes.
“I love Raymond, but he’s got a good twenty years on me,” Deacon says, stepping into the living room. He surveys the situation, smirks at his best friend sitting in his lawn chair, and moves to sit on the floor next to me, propping his back up against the side of the recliner.
“Do you pack that thing with you everywhere you go?” Deacon asks Orrin, laughing.
“It was still in the back of Jade’s SUV from the movie in the park. She was parked behind my truck, and I didn’t want to wait once I got the call.”