Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“It didn’t feel that way to me.” She’d felt so alone, left behind again. “I worry that part of me wants him back simply because I could lose the family I have if I’m not with him. I’ve come to view his uncle and aunt as my family, and I don’t know what happens if I’m no longer his girlfriend. I’m sure he wouldn’t want that to be the reason I gave him a second chance.”
“You would be surprised at what I would do for another chance with you.”
She felt hands come down on her shoulders and realized the game going on at the end of the table had broken up.
Taylor winced. “Sorry. He moved in quick.” She stood. “I will help them change out the games.”
Kyle knelt behind her as Taylor moved away. He leaned in, and she could feel the heat of his body. “I will take any reason you give me, and then I’ll work to make it better. I promise. If all you want from me is sex, I’ll give it to you. I’ll give it to you until you either love me again or tell me to go away. And even then I wouldn’t ever take this family away from you. Never. They like you better anyway.”
His arms wound around her waist and for a moment she let herself breathe him in. His warmth. The smell of the soap he’d used. The feel of his rough cheek against hers because it was long after five o’clock and that beard was trying to come in.
“Taylor thinks I should use you for the time being.” That wasn’t what she’d meant. “She thinks me using you would be a way to slide back into a relationship.”
“Only if you want one. If you don’t, I promise I’ll stay away. I’ll let you live your life.”
“I could move down to MDWM.”
“My uncle would kill me,” Kyle assured her. “I can find somewhere else to work. Hell, after everything comes out, my uncle might not want me here anyway. Maybe I’ll go back and finish my grad degree and find a job where I don’t have to shoot anyone.”
They’d had so many plans for the future. Was she willing to give them all away? Was there anything to be won by making the decision tonight? Or should she do exactly what Taylor said. Should she take what she needed from him? “If we slept together, it wouldn’t mean anything.”
He nestled his head against hers. “Not if you don’t want it to.”
There it was. He was bending again because she knew his instinct was to argue.
Or was it? Had his instincts been thrown in a bowl and mixed up with trauma, endlessly cycling until he wasn’t sure what was what?
Weren’t those her instincts, too?
This was a compromise between the MaeBe who wanted the world to be a shiny, happy place and the one who’d been left by her father. Between the one who’d loved the Kyle who’d never fucked up and the one who understood that love would be hard.
She could float for a while.
“I think I want you to kiss me, but this is not forever.”
“I meant what I said. I’ll take any time you’re willing to give me and then I’ll wait around to see if you ever need me again.”
She didn’t have to walk away for now. She might later. But for now, she could simply be.
She tilted her head up.
“Hey, I’ve got an alarm going off.” Hutch stood, his cell in hand. “I set the locks from the outside, so it has to be someone leaving. Was anyone else here working late?”
In the distance, MaeBe heard the sound of her desk phone going off. It was clearly hers because no one else had programmed their lines to ring using the Dr. Who theme song.
Why would someone be calling her this late?
“I’m going to grab that.” She got up, looking at Kyle. “You figure out who left.”
“Hot chocolate for everyone,” Maddie said as she walked in with Boomer. She held a big tray in her hand. “And a couple of teas. I found some honey, too. That is a well-stocked break room.”
Boomer had a big bag in his hand. “Hey, Noelle got a work call. She’ll be right back.”
Hutch frowned as MaeBe walked by and toward the door. “Did she walk out into the hall?”
“I think she was going down to get something from your car,” Boomer was saying. “Something about reports.”
Noelle was constantly running experiments. It wouldn’t be the first time something had gone wrong with a machine that was supposed to be running overnight and Noelle had to talk the tech through fixing it and getting the experiment back on track.
They were still talking behind her, but she made her way toward her desk.
“Who would call you this late?” Kyle was hard on her heels.