Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 372(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Saying the words made them more real.
“That’s why you freaked out when I first touched you?” He swallowed. “When I touched you…that first time.”
I looked away.
“I needed to see your face…and when you tried to turn out the lights, I might’ve had a flashback. But you calmed me down, turned on the lights, and let me see your face. From that moment on, I was never scared of you again.”
I looked back toward him and wanted to run into his arms.
He was mad, though.
I could tell.
“I’m sorry for not telling you.”
He looked up at the ceiling, not accepting my apology.
“If I’d have known…”
I laughed harshly.
“I’m glad you didn’t,” I said honestly. “Right when I’d worked up the courage to tell you…Jay died. Then you would’ve stayed, because you felt pity. I get it. But if you didn’t want to stay, I didn’t want you to stay. I wanted you to live your life, and be happy.”
“That’s the thing.”
My eyes flashed up to his.
“What’s the thing?”
“The thing is that I wasn’t happy. Not even close. Tobias caught Jay…and then I got it in my head that I had to tell you goodbye. Kris, I haven’t been happy since you walked out the door that day.”
I wiped away the tears that were spilling down my cheeks.
“I guess that makes two of us.” I sniffled. “But Reed…it’s not enough. I want your love. Your time. Everything. I can’t do this anymore. I need to either have all of you or none of you. This in between…I don’t freakin’ like it. It literally hurts me to be around you. So, you need to make a decision. You need to figure out whether you want me and the babies, or if we should make a visitation schedule where you can see them, but I won’t be there.”
“You think I don’t love you?”
“A man doesn’t stay away from the woman he loves.”
I wanted to take the whispered words back before they’d even left my mouth, but now that they were out, I had to own up to the fact that they were true.
He gave me a kidney. He gave me half of his liver. He’d saved my life.
But saving someone’s life didn’t mean that you loved them.
Hell, people gave away kidneys all the time to a stranger. Sure, it’s rare, but it happened.
I was tired.
I was worn out.
I felt like nothing ever got any easier.
I wanted to see my babies.
It fucking sucked that I still couldn’t.
And I needed something more from Reed than just a shoulder to cry on.
I needed him to give me him.
To open up that steel-clad door and let me in.
And if he wasn’t going to let me in, then I needed to let him go.
Because I couldn’t do it anymore.
I needed something in my life to go right for once.
I needed Reed.
“You think I don’t love you?” he laughed. “A man that doesn’t love a woman would stay away from her. I can’t stay away from you. If you get too far away, like when you went to fucking Germany, my heart palpitates. I can’t function without knowing you’re okay. So, I followed you.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he shut me up by placing a finger to my lips.
“My turn,” he growled.
I bit my lip and leaned back in my new bed they’d transferred me into once I’d been let out of the ICU.
“What else?” he bit out as he got up out of his bed and started to pace. “I have parts on hand at Travis’s shop for your car. If anything goes wrong with that piece of junk, I have the parts in stock on the shelf for Travis to fix it. I think I have a few headlight assemblies in my Amazon cart right now because I saw that one of them was acting up again.”
My mouth fell open.
“I’ve been paying the old man that you bought your place from for ten years now. I didn’t want him to sell it, but I didn’t want to buy it, because you always said that you wanted to be there to sign the papers with me.” He turned around and started walking back. “Vet visits for Pepé. I paid for those, too. It wasn’t a kindness on their part since you adopted from one of their events. I made sure that I pre-paid. They still have my name on his records. That’s why, when they called a few days ago, I didn’t tell you who was on the phone. They were reminding me that Pepé had his annual check-up, and I didn’t want to see you cry.”
Because Pepé was dead.
Oh, God.
“Reed,” I breathed.
“You want more proof that I love you?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head.
“I can’t sleep. I don’t think I’ve slept a full night since you left my house.” He paused. “I followed you home. I made sure you got there safely, walking behind you in the rain. I saw you drop down onto your knees on your front lawn, and I dropped down on mine in the street.”