Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
She wiped at her face and pushed her shoulders back. “I’m sorry, Hunter. I never wanted to hurt you. But we can’t be together.”
I was stunned into silence. Arabella opened her mouth to say something else, then quickly shut it. She turned on her heels and walked into her house, quietly closing the screen door, and then the large oak door, shutting me out of her life.
When I managed to get my feet to move, I started for the door. But I stopped when James, Arabella’s father, appeared in the doorway.
“James, what’s going on?”
He slowly shook his head. “I don’t know, Hunter. All I know is Arabella came home yesterday and said she quit school. Then she locked herself in her bedroom. She only came out long enough to speak to you.”
“I don’t…I don’t understand. Why would she do this?” I could feel tears burning at the back of my eyes. Arabella was everything to me, and I’d thought I was everything to her.
How in the hell could this be real?
James drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Give her time, Hunter. She’s clearly upset about something and refuses to talk to anyone about it. Even us.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Maybe some space is what she needs right now. I bet in the next week or two, you’ll both be inseparable again. You’ll see.”
I felt my brows draw in as I nodded, wanting to believe the words were true, but somehow knowing deep in my gut that nothing would ever be the same again.
Hunter
Present Day
January in New Hampshire was cold as shit, but seeing my Belgian Malinois K9 partner, Jack, running with pure joy seemed to warm me up. On our days off, I still tried to do some obedience training mixed in with a bit of fun. It kept Jack—who also happened to share my father’s name—sharp.
My phone rang as I tossed the ball into a snowbank and watched while Jack dove for it. When I saw it was Arabella, I answered.
In just the last year, Bella had been starting to come out of the prison she’d locked herself away in after we’d broken up nearly ten long years ago. She was slowly talking to me more, especially after becoming friends with my youngest sister, Willa. So, any chance I got to see her or talk to her, I jumped on it.
“Bella, is everything okay?”
She let out a giggle, which sounded like music to my ears. To hear happiness in her voice was a nice change. “Everything is amazing. Willa is having her baby! She’s been trying to get ahold of you!”
Willa was married to Aiden, one of my best friends. I’d always known the two of them liked each other, but with Aiden joining the Navy and then becoming a SEAL, fate dealt them both a few hands that weren’t in their favor. Willa ended up getting pregnant by a dickhead who shall not be named, got married, left him when she caught him cheating, had her son Ben, and then got divorced. After Aiden got shot and could no longer perform as a SEAL, he finally came back to Boggy Creek. Needless to say, when the two of them eventually ended up together, no one was surprised. Least of all me.
“What? Shit, I just turned my phone back on and you called. Do my folks know?” I called for Jack and headed to my personal truck, a Ford F-150. I opened the back door and Jack jumped in. He was used to both my truck and the police-issued Tahoe that was outfitted for K9 units.
“I’m not sure. Greer called Abby while I was talking to her, and she told us. She said Aiden freaked out and Hudson had to drive them to the hospital. I figured she might not have called you because she thought you were on duty.”
I laughed. Oh hell, I wasn’t going to let Aiden live this one down. “I’ll give my parents a call. I need to get Jack home, but I can swing by and pick you up on the way to the hospital, if you want.”
There was a brief moment of silence, and I braced myself for a no. I’d run into Bella a few days ago at Schmick’s Market, and for once she hadn’t pretended not to see me. She’d actually stopped, and we’d talked for a few minutes. I’d even asked her to have coffee with me this week, and she’d said yes. I’d nearly jumped and fist pumped right there in the middle of the damn grocery store. I wasn’t about to get my hopes up that she’d say yes to me twice in one week, though.
The last ten years had been fucking torture. The first year after Arabella broke up with me, I had only saw her a handful of times, if that. It was clear she was keeping to herself, locked away at the apiary. As the years slowly ticked by, I’d seen a bit more of her, but she always treated me as if I was a casual friend. I hadn’t seriously dated anyone since Arabella. I’d had a few flings here and there, but none of them meant anything.