Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 87573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87573 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“It’s just…do you ever feel like no matter how hard you try at something, it isn’t good enough?”
Whitt clucked his tongue, as if he were really contemplating the question. “Well, I did. All the time growing up.”
I turned slowly. “Really? Mr. Responsibility?”
“You don’t know what it was like growing up with my dad. West and I, we were always trying to be the family he wanted to come home to. There was nothing we could have done differently to make him choose us. And we didn’t even know he had a whole other life.”
I hugged my arms around my waist. “Yeah, that sounds terrible.”
“Eve, what’s going on?”
I opened my mouth to tell him, but the words wouldn’t come out. Whitt could talk about everything so easily. Could discuss being the other family like it was some minor thing that had happened to him. I couldn’t even bring myself to utter my dad’s name. I hated talking about him. I hated him. I swore under my breath as the shaking took over my limbs.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, taking my hands. “It’s okay. Breathe.”
But I couldn’t breathe. Tears were threatening to fall again. I had to hold it together. I had to be strong. If I let go, even for a second, I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to get myself back together.
“Baby,” he crooned softly.
He tipped my chin up to look into his bottomless ocean eyes. Tears lined my bottom lids. I blinked rapidly to clear them, but it did no good, as they collected in my lashes.
“You don’t have to shoulder everything alone.”
“Don’t I?”
“Not anymore.”
“We’re not even…” I trailed off. “We’re not…”
“It doesn’t matter,” he told me. “Whatever we are isn’t what’s important right now. I’m here for you regardless.”
At those words, the tears finally did spill down my cheeks. I leapt forward, throwing my arms around his shoulders. He wrapped his tight around my waist. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried. I hadn’t even done it at Gram’s funeral. I’d held it all in and let it simmer on low. For so long, the world had gotten the hardened version of my vulnerable heart. I hated showing it to anyone, and yet here I was, unleashing on Whitt.
When I tried to pull back, he scooped me up in his arms and carried me in a cradle to the couch.
“I don’t…you don’t have to…”
“I know. I want to.” He brushed my tears aside with his thumb. “Let me take care of you. You’re safe.”
I was safe.
I was safe here with him.
That was why I had come in the first place. Despite the distance I’d put between us, there was something more here. A new fear arose at that thought, but I smothered it. I needed this tonight. I needed it more than I’d even known. I could feel that fear another time.
For now, I leaned back against his broad chest and let him hold me. We could figure the rest out some other time.
16
Whitton
“Remind me again why I missed you.”
Harley cackled as we strode into Thai Pepper for lunch. “Because I’m awesome, obviously.”
“Obviously,” I grumbled.
Harley waved frantically at West, seated at the back corner table. West saluted her with a bemused smirk on his lips. A few girls were not-so-surreptitiously snapping pictures of him from nearby tables. Consequences of celebrity.
“God, you’re obnoxious now,” Harley said as she plunked into the seat next to West. She crossed her long legs, dangling a Doc Marten boot.
West laughed. “Uh, thanks? Missed you, too.”
“Of course you did. Both of you did.”
“We did,” I agreed with a shake of my head.
We were quite a trio. West in his unshakable rockstar garb—ripped jeans, band black T-shirt, and Vans. Harley dressed like she was on her way to Coachella in cutoff jean shorts, some kind of bra top, and a sleeveless crocheted jacket that I had no name for, but I’d guess she’d made herself. And then there was me, in a suit. No one would fit us together, and yet we’d always been inseparable. So much so that I hadn’t even moved to Lubbock when West did because I wanted to wait until Harley graduated and could come with me.
Harley ordered for all three of us when the waiter appeared, insisting we try this dish she’d eaten daily while interning at a law office in Seattle.
“So, still law school–bound?” I asked.
“Can you leave the five-year plan for a whole minute?” West asked with a smirk.
“He really can’t,” Harley said. She pursed her lips and shrugged. “I think so. I sort of hate lawyers. They’re scum. But I could change the world.”
“You don’t have to go into law to change the world,” West said.
“Don’t discourage her.”
West rolled his eyes. “Then, don’t encourage her to do something she doesn’t love.”
Ah, the tried-and-true argument.
“Y’all both shut up,” Harley said with a laugh.