Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“She’ll keep the baby if I commit…to her.”
Silence is a weird thing—it can say more than words alone. The utter quiet between us settles over the room like an ominous cloud, thunderous in its roiling presence.
“You gave in to her.” There’s no question in her tone. Just heart-wrenching certainty because Sadie knows me well enough to know what I’d do if faced with such an ultimatum.
“She was threatening to kill my child. What else was I supposed to do?”
She walks to the door and opens it. “I think you should leave.”
“Don’t do this, Sawyer. It’s only temporary. I just need some time to figure out how to handle the situation.” My feet eat up the space between us, and I take her face between my hands. “My heart belongs to you.”
“But your obligation belongs to her.” She backs away until we’re an arm-length apart. “I won’t stand in the way of that.”
“You asked me for time. Now I’m asking for the same.”
“Are you going to fuck her?”
“No way in hell. Do you really think I’d do that to you?”
Lowering her gaze, she stares at my work boots. “Until you straighten this out, I think we should just be friends.” She pauses, and I realize I’m holding my breath. “Or maybe we shouldn’t see each other at all.”
“Not seeing you isn’t an option, and I sure as hell don’t want to be your goddamn friend.”
She lifts a shoulder as if this isn’t pulverizing her innards like it is mine. “That’s all I can give you right now.”
Fuck this shit. I grab her by the nape and claim her mouth, making it known with every frenzied dart of my tongue that she’s not getting away so easily.
She’s mine.
Driven by pure instinct, I deepen my possession of her mouth until she’s whimpering on my tongue. I’ll be damned if this is the last time I get drunk off the taste of her. She can fight me, guns blazing, but in the end, I’ll come out victorious.
Before the kiss turns into something neither of us can walk away from, I tear my lips from hers. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting you give up on us.”
She parts her lips, probably to protest or reason or appeal to me with her annoyingly infallible logic, but I press a finger against her mouth. “Don’t bother arguing. You won’t win this one.”
One…two…three seconds pass before I drop my hand.
I need to leave before I can’t. Before her watery jade eyes and quivering lips make it impossible to walk out the front door. Weakness is the ruination of fools, and I’m its bitch because I brush my mouth across hers one last time in a kiss so brief it barely counts.
Because if I truly made it count, we’d end up in her bed, the door to her room shut, clothing a discarded path on the floor, and I’d show her exactly how serious I am about not giving up on us.
For both our sakes, I leave her breathless in the hall and bolt into the rain.
Chapter Thirty-five
Sadie
“No way,” I tell Mandy, my tone leaving no question about my feelings on this. As usual, she ignores my protests as she moves around the wasteland that is my bedroom, picking up dirty clothes off the floor and stacking dishes containing half-eaten food onto the dresser. She’s always been on the overbearing side, but she’s my best friend, so I let her get away with it.
Not this time.
“I’m not in the mood for going out,” I say, crossing my arms.
She wags her finger at me. “Uh-uh. You already begged off once, and I let you since you’ve been a heartbroken mess, but it’s time to get out there again.” She starts folding the clothes I left in the hamper a week ago when I mustered enough give-a-fucks to do a load of laundry.
“Comb your hair, brush your teeth, put on some clean clothes—just do something.”
I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping. I’m tempted to ask her if that counts, but I bite back the retort.
“I can’t stand to see you so depressed,” she says, heading over to my closet. “You need to have some fun.”
I also need to find a job, but that hasn’t been happening either, and my savings account isn’t big enough to enable an extended bout of heartache.
Ashton has completely wrecked me.
“I’m not in the mood for fun.” And I’m sure as hell am not in the mood to go on some blind date.
“It’s been three weeks, Sadie. You said you’d at least think about it, remember?”
“I did? When?”
“The night of your parents Jerry Springer style dinner.”
“That was before…”
“Before my brother got inside your head and turned you into a moping zombie queen, I know.”
“Moping zombie queen?”
“Would you prefer lovesick fool?”
With a wary sigh, I flop onto my bed and hug my pillow. “You said I should give it some time.”