Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57499 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 192(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57499 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 192(@300wpm)
"Maybe she has other ideas, you guys think of that?" Like that was going to stop me.
"Are you that blind bro?" I looked at him at a lost; what was he getting at now?
"What do you mean?" He looked at me for a long while before answering.
"I mean it wasn't just me she'd been following around all those years."
"You mean..." I looked across the room at her before looking back at him.
"Yeah, you've wasted a lot of time, I was beginning to think you were one stupid fuck, until I realized you really didn't have a clue. You better get your shit together though man, almost lost her this last time." He walked off like he hadn't just changed my whole life.
I looked back to the corner where I'd last seen her, and found her looking at me. Then she smiled at me and pretty much sealed her fate.
Chapter 6
SHANIA
I knew the second he walked through the door. Every hair on my body stood up straight, my heart raced in my chest, and I started blushing for no conceivable reason. Nothing had changed there.
I saw him and my brother having an intense conversation, as I tried to pay attention to what Jennifer Moore was prattling on about. She hadn't changed much since high school either; only that wasn't such a good thing.
I couldn't believe he still held such a pull for me. I'd thought with time and distance, it would've abated, but no such luck. This is why I was so angry with myself concerning the whole Dorian debacle. The fact that I’d been willing to settle when all along I've always known where my heart laid.
Though he was way out of my league, he would never see me as anything other than his best friends' kid sister. Maybe if things had been different...no, there's no use in playing what if.
I’d played that game too many times to count. It was going to be hard being in the Cove though, knowing he was here and still out of my reach.
When I’d been away, it hadn’t been as hard. Life went on, and even though I’d had moments where I’d get lost in thought and his amazing face would fill my head, I always knew it was just a pipe dream. But how I wish…
I turned to watch him, just as he'd finished talking to my brother, and our eyes met. I felt the telltale hitch in my chest and the tingling down my spine, same as always.
The smile started in my heart and worked its way across my face. Before I knew what I was doing, I was walking towards him, Jennifer forgotten.
When he hugged me the tears came. I don't know what came over me, just the touch of his hands made everything rise up in me.
Where before I hadn't been able to cry, when it seemed like I was holding my breath, waiting for something, one look at him, one touch of his arms, and the floodgates opened up.
"Ssh, don't cry Princess, come on."
He led me out of the room full of people, who thankfully hadn't noticed my breakdown, and out onto the patio. I let the cool night air calm me down as I tried to repair my face the best I could. Great, the first time I’d seen him in years and I had to go and spoil it with stupid tears.
"I'm so sorry, I have no idea what's come over me." I tried laughing through my tears, as I dried my cheeks.
When he pulled me back in and kissed my forehead gently, it made me cry all the harder. Why couldn't he love me, why couldn't he feel anything more for me than just friendship? And why are you being such a ninny?
Like your life isn’t in enough turmoil as it is. I’m sure he’d moved on with his life and was making some other woman very happy.
I’d stopped asking mom about him a long time ago, when she’d last told me about his latest relationship. It had been too hard even then to hear about it. Still, I’d been set to marry someone else.
I selfishly enjoyed the comfort he offered, fantasizing for just a few brief moments, that he was mine and I had every right to be in his arms.
How often had I had that dream? A young girl’s wishful thinking! I wondered fleetingly if he’d ever guessed at my true feelings all those years ago. If that’s why he’d stayed away all those times when I’d been home? That thought had once made me sick to my stomach for days.
Thinking that he’d somehow seen me as nothing more than a pest back then had torn my heart to threads. Still, he’d always been the one that I’d measured everyone else up against. And in all this time no one had ever come close. I tried to steal a few more precious moments in his arms even though the well had dried up.