Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
“And Charles?” she asked hesitantly.
“He was fired. I went to resign, and when my boss asked why, I told her. She wouldn’t allow me to resign, and the next day Charles was gone.”
“Nash never let you tell him all this?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No. He had already been acting strange. I knew he was jealous of Charles. I’d told him about Charles. I didn’t keep secrets. Every time Nash came to Chicago, Charles made it a point to drop by my office and say hello. I think he knew Nash was jealous of his being around me. He played off that. I was so damn blind.”
Riley stood up and moved over to sit beside me on the sofa. She reached for my hand and held it firmly in both of hers. “You’re kind and have a big heart. That was taken advantage of by an asshole.”
I sniffled. It didn’t make this better. I had still lost Nash. My heart was still damaged beyond repair.
CHAPTER THREE
NASH
It looked like a training facility. Two football fields, four field houses, stadium lighting, and equipment lined up ready to be used. Yet I could still see the field that it had been. The one with the bonfire, the trucks, the old tires and logs brought out for seating, and the keg that sat in the middle of it all. So many memories were on this land, some of the best and the worst. We had all grown up together out there, and now it was over. We were no longer kids but adults with different lives.
“We did it,” Ryker said coming to stand beside me. “Hunter would be so fucking proud of this.”
Hunter. The only one of us that would forever be a teenage boy in our heads. He wouldn’t grow old and age like the rest of us. The hate crime that had gotten him shot as he had stood to defend Ryker made him a hero that died tragically. My gaze moved to the stone memorial with his name that sat in the spot where he’d taken his last breath. It was there to remind us all of the boy who was a part of us but didn’t get to stay.
“I’m glad Aurora is going to speak. Hunter would want her to be the one to unveil the memorial and talk about him,” I said.
“She’s nervous, but she wants to do it. She still worries about how her voice sounds, even though I tell her daily how fucking beautiful it is.” Ryker sighed. Although she had the hearing implant she still heard things differently. Including her own voice. “Her parents are all going to be here, and she wants to do it for her mom and dad enough that she will overcome her nerves.”
I nodded but said nothing. We stood there awhile, staring out over what we had spent the last year working toward. I had thought it would bring me some kind of joy. Some happiness even. But the hole in my chest made that impossible.
“When are you going to talk to her? You sent her the invitation. She came. Now follow through,” Ryker said.
I had fought with myself all damn day about going over to her mom’s house. I just hadn’t been able to do it for fear that seeing her would be more than I could take. I felt like I was on a ledge and I was holding on the best I could. Tallulah was the only one I feared could push me off the damn ledge. She was the reason I struggled to hold on in the first place.
“I talked to Brady. Riley went to see her,” Ryker said.
“They were close once,” I reminded him.
“Which is why you need to go see Tallulah. She talked to Riley, and Brady said you needed to talk to her too.”
I gripped the railing in front of me and glared out straight ahead. They didn’t understand. They had no fucking idea how hard that would be. Neither of them had faced the pain I’d been through this past year. “I can’t,” I bit out through my clenched teeth.
“Then why did you invite her? And don’t give me that we all belong here shit. That’s not why you did it.”
“Too many shots of Patrón,” I replied.
“You can blame it on the damn tequila all you want, but we both know you sent it because you wanted to see her. You miss her. You aren’t the same person without her. If there is a chance that you could fix this, that you could have her back, then don’t waste it. You walked away last time and didn’t give her a chance to explain. It’s been a year. It’s time now. It’s fucking past time.”
I shoved away from the railing and ran my hands through my hair as a growl of frustration rose in my chest. “ALL I CAN SEE IS HER FUCKING LIPS ON HIS!” I yelled and kicked the wall, then slammed both my palms flat against it as the image replayed in my head. Taunting me like it always did. “I can’t see anything else,” I choked out then and laid my forehead on the cool bricks. “Daily it rips me apart, but then I miss her so damn much, I think I can forget it. If she’d just come back to me,” I admitted.