Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Women had always loved Brody. With his undeniable good looks, physique of the professional athlete that he is and stature as one of America’s most admired quarterbacks, there wasn’t much not to like. Add a heaping dose of confidence and the ability to make a woman feel like she was the only person in the room, and it was no wonder women literally chased after him. But the thing that makes him a man who was impossible to get over is exactly who he was right now. The most devoted person I’ve ever known. When the man loves, he loves hard, nothing stood in his way.
God, I would have given anything to have my old life back again. To turn back time so I could appreciate everything I had, rather than throw it all away. I deserved to be the one sitting in that bed, not Grams.
I spent the next hour mindlessly fiddling with my necklace, watching the two people I cared about most in the world, and falling in love with them all over again. When Brody’s eyes fluttered open and found me sitting across the room, our gazes locked for a long moment. I saw the moment he gave in. He might hate me down deep, but he was letting go of his anger. For now at least.
“How is she?” he asked.
“The same.”
“How long was I sleeping for?”
“Two hours, maybe.”
“You sleep at all?”
“Not yet.”
He stretched out in the chair, arms reaching up and neck going from side to side. “Why don’t you go home? Get some sleep. I’ll call you if anything changes.”
“I want to stay.”
It looked like he was going to say something but then changed his mind. Instead, he just nodded.
“Still drink sugar with some coffee in it?” He stood.
“I do. Still drink it black and disgusting?”
He chuckled. “I’ll go find us some.”
Things between Brody and I relaxed a lot more after that. We weren’t best friends again, but I also didn’t feel like he was shooting an imaginary bow and arrow, with my forehead as the target.
“How long has she been in Broadhollow Manor?”
“A little over three years.”
I nodded. I had no idea how long it had been since I’d seen the two of them. Years of my life had been wasted and gone. The screwed-up thing was, now that I was sober, it felt like the world had stood still for me. I’d aged, but life had never progressed. It was as if I were picking up after pushing pause on my life for a long time. The thing was, my life had been the only thing paused. The world had gone on around me.
Brody and I made small talk while we kept vigil. It was better than the silent treatment, although there were so many meaningful things I needed to say that I still didn’t have the courage to speak. When the nurse came in a few hours later and asked us to step out for a little while so she could wash Grams and take her vitals, Brody and I headed to the cafeteria to grab a bite to eat. We wandered into a gift shop first.
“You need anything?” He had a baseball cap in his hand.
“A toothbrush would be nice.”
The woman at the counter recognized Brody when she rung us up. Walking out of the store, he pulled on the cap, bringing the bill low on his face.
“Disguise?”
“Sort of.”
“Is it everything you thought it would be?”
“What?”
“Being famous.” When we were teenagers, we used to spend hours dreaming of what being a famous football player would be like.
He glanced at me. “Nothing turned out the way I thought it would.”
We ordered two egg sandwiches from the cafeteria and sat down to eat. Brody finished his in what seemed like three bites. I ate only half of mine.
“You’re not going to eat that?”
I smiled. Brody always had a ridiculous appetite. Wherever we went, both of our plates were wiped clean, but it was usually because Brody devoured everything on his plate, then attacked mine.
“Nope. Help yourself.”
He finished off my breakfast and guzzled his small black coffee.
“Do you remember when we went to that Oktoberfest during senior year, and you ate that guy’s full plate of food because you thought it was mine?”
“Yeah. I almost got my ass kicked by Paul Bunyan in lederhosen. That was the biggest person I’ve ever seen wearing overalls in my life.” We both laughed at the memory. We had snuck into a German festival, but only had twenty bucks between the two of us and were starving and unwilling to forego beer. So we each ordered an appetizer and the biggest mug of beer we could afford. Brody was off talking to some guys from the football team, and when he came back, I told him he could finish my appetizer while I headed to the bathroom. He proceeded to eat the entire fifteen-dollar meal that was on the table. Only it was on the table next to where my leftover appetizer had been. We had one large, pissed-off German guy to contend with when he realized that his meal was gone.