Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94012 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
At first I’d chalked it up to him being out late last night. Maybe he was just half asleep. But we’d been jogging for nearly an hour now, so the air should’ve woken him up.
When we stopped to take our usual break at the top of the hill, he remained silent.
“Is everything okay with you?” I asked.
“Yeah. Fine,” he panted. “Why?”
“You don’t have much to say. Normally, I have to scold you to keep you quiet during our runs.”
“I’m good,” he said curtly.
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Let’s go back to the house. I’ve got shit to do.”
Okay…
As we started our trek home, I decided maybe he was just in a crappy mood for no reason. That happens sometimes. We all have bad days.
When we entered the house, he went straight upstairs to shower without greeting anyone in the kitchen.
After a half hour, he came back down, all dressed up for his internship. He tried to sneak out without saying anything, but I caught up with him.
“Hey,” I called from the doorway. “Don’t forget. We have a session tonight,” I added in a low voice, not wanting his father to hear.
He scratched his chin. “We do? I would’ve forgotten.”
My heart sank. He forgot? “Um…yeah. We do. After dinner.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “I’ll be there.”
• • •
I spent the rest of the day anxious—and confused. I tried to keep myself busy by going to a local farmer’s market, but I mostly ruminated there as I picked fresh strawberries and petted the goats.
My date last night with James had been a lot of fun. We seemed to get along really well, and I did find him attractive. When we went to the rocks, he even gave me the most amazing kiss. But I remembered thinking about Archie in the middle of it, which was unsettling—and so dumb, considering what Archie had likely been doing with Bree at that moment.
I was attracted to Archie in a different way than I was to James. James was sweet, classically good-looking, and a seriously good guy. Archie, on the other hand, was heartbreakingly handsome and made my knees weak whenever he was around. He was also unattainable. That made any feelings I had for him futile. I was pretty sure Archie looked at me like some younger cousin he needed to protect.
That night at dinner, I realized I’d been looking forward to seeing Archie, but he never showed, not even in his usual fashionably late manner. That made me wonder if he planned to skip our session tonight, too.
After supper, I went up to my room and surfed the net for a bit. At one point, I heard Archie showering. Then about ten minutes later, there was a knock at my door.
Archie was dressed in black joggers and a fitted T-shirt, looking totally fuck-hot and smelling amazing. A piece of wet hair fell over his eyes, and a waft of his scent traveled over to me, putting my body on alert.
“You weren’t at dinner…”
“Yeah. I stayed at Rodney’s law office late.”
“Have you eaten?” I asked.
“I picked up a sub on the way home.” He cracked a smile.
I was instantly relieved that he seemed less on edge than earlier. “So, the big question… Did you do your homework?”
He moved to the corner of my bed. “I did.”
My pulse reacted. Today was the longest I’d been apart from him in a while. My body had apparently missed him. I cleared my throat. “Wonderful.”
Archie opened his notebook and showed me a long list of points he’d jotted down about his dad. Over the next hour, we constructed an outline of everything in chronological order and together began writing his speech. The plan was that eventually, he’d recite it over and over until he was almost bored with it.
After the hour was up, I nodded. “I think we made a good dent in things tonight. Your father has a pretty impressive background, I have to admit.”
“Yeah.” Archie fell back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Impossible to measure up to all that.”
“I can see why you’d think that. But you’re your own person. Regardless of how he makes you feel, you don’t have to measure up to anything.”
He sat up. “It would be nice if he felt that way.”
“Was your dad always tough on you, even when you were younger?”
He shook his head. “Something happened years ago, to me, that changed him.”
Dread filled me, and I didn’t want to prod him. Instead, I just waited.
“There’s something you don’t know about me,” he said. “No one knows, actually, because my parents don’t talk about it.”
My stomach sank. “What is it?”
He looked up at the ceiling again and expelled a long breath. “I may have to bring Fred out for this one.”
“Okay, Fred. Tell me. What happened?”
He met my eyes. “If I tell you, I need you to promise not to mention it to your parents. It’s not something my family talks about with anyone.”