Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 162138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 540(@300wpm)
“You should go to Fairview in a few days,” I say, looking back at Marissa.
“Why?”
“Don’t your parents still live there?”
“Yes. . .” she says tentatively.
“You should go.”
“What’s in a few days?” she asks.
“That’s when I’m marrying Lyla.”
“You’re getting married there?” Her eyes widen more than I thought possible. She takes a step back, setting a hand on her chest, and breathes. “Holy shit, Lachlan. Does she know?”
“She knows we’re getting married.”
Marissa looks at me, and I wish it was anger that I found in her eyes. Instead, it’s disappointment. She thinks I deserve it, I know. I’d once promised to protect her best friend and now I’m doing this, which she sees as the complete opposite. I am protecting her, though. Once I’m done in Fairview, she’ll no longer have to hide. She can go back to being Lyla James. Hopefully Lyla James Duke.
“We won’t be in danger,” I say.
“Lach.” She frowns. “She was run off the road. She’ll be in danger the moment she gets there.” She looks away momentarily. “Why would you make her marry you in the one place she hates?”
“What does it matter where we get married?”
“That’s the point, isn’t it?” Her jaw drops, but she recovers quickly. “You want her to suffer. Do you know how much she. . .” She shakes her head, taking a breath. “Forget it. You don’t deserve to know.” She meets my eyes again. “You know, after the accident, after Luke, I had to endure her tears and screams, and then nothing. Fucking nothing, until you came along and made her feel all of these different emotions. God, I’ve known her since we were born, and I have never seen her as happy as she was with you.” She looks over to where Lyla is. “I was so grateful for you, but now it’s clear that you’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to her.”
I swallow the knot of emotion that creeps up my throat. This isn’t news to me. Lyla told me herself that I made her feel, after she’d been numb for so long. I’d reveled in that. It made me feel like a fucking king to know that I got a version of her that no one else had. I got her tears, her smiles, her laughter. I had her completely. Until I didn’t. Hearing the person who knows her quite possibly better than I do say this is harder than I care to admit. It doesn’t matter, because it goes both ways. We both made each other experience things we never had before, and then she fucking left like it meant nothing.
“Well then, I guess we’re even,” I manage to say. “She’s the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
Marissa shakes her head and starts to leave.
“Wait,” I say before she takes another step.
She turns to face me again. “What?”
“Who’s that guy?” I nod toward the dad.
“Oh, really?” She laughs humorlessly. “Now you want me to help you identify men who are a threat to you?” She scoffs and starts walking away, but thinks better of it and turns to me again. “That is a single dad who’s been waiting patiently for her to sort out her shit so he can finally make his move. He’s also her boss, but now that she’s done with her internship, he can ask her out.”
I knew I hated the guy.
“Why doesn’t he?”
“He won’t bring any woman, even Lyla, to his house around his daughter unless he knows it’s serious.” Marissa shrugs. “He must see Lyla as a possibility, since he hasn’t even gone on a date in like eight months.”
I glare at him again. “He told you all of this?”
“No, but people talk. Everyone knows it,” she says. “Just like they know that Wade is in love with her. They have a bet going in the center about when she’ll finally cave. Cooper isn’t participating for obvious reasons.”
I feel my jaw tick. If she’s trying to make me angry, she’s succeeding and she knows it.
“She doesn’t like either of them,” I say, like a fucking child in the playground.
“You’re right.”
I take a breath. “She seems happy here.”
“What would make you think that?” Her brows pull together, and her voice finally softens.
“You’re her best friend. I guess you’d know a lot better than I would.” I look at Lyla again. She’s picking up the cones while Wade talks to the group of moms. “She just seems happy.”
Marissa doesn’t say anything. She just stares at Lyla with a sad expression on her face that I don’t understand, so I keep talking, because I need to know her thoughts on this.
“She smiles here,” I say.
“She smiles here?” Her wide eyes shoot to mine, “She has her moments, sure. She’s happy when she’s with the kids.”
“I’ve seen her smiling.” I stare at Lyla. “The other day Prescott posted a picture where she was laughing while shit-head number one was carrying her.”