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)
Instead, she’d closed herself off. Gone was the vibrant girl that I’d fallen for over the last couple of months. The one who made me laugh and want to spend every moment with her. In her place was the girl who I’d first met. The one I’d wanted to crack open and see what made her tick. Except, now, she was using that hardened shell to push me away. In fear for her sister perhaps, but it didn’t feel good either way.
“She’ll call,” I muttered as I pulled out of her house.
It was my mantra throughout the day.
She’ll call.
As I put my running shoes on and clocked six miles.
She’ll call.
As I showered away my run.
She’ll call.
As I watched a replay of the final game in the Seattle Kraken season.
She’ll call.
As I sat at my desk in my home office and tried to get ahead of work.
She’ll call, I thought, even when she hadn’t called.
“Fuck,” I growled, pushing away from my desk.
She wasn’t going to call.
I was trying to feel better about all of this, and no matter what I did to distract myself, I wasn’t okay. After the night we’d had, I’d thought we were stronger than ever. I’d thought that she’d want my help with something like this. That I could be here for her. But that wasn’t what she wanted.
It wasn’t about the phone call.
I was certain that she was busy and freaked out and dealing with all this stress. That was the problem. That she had to deal with it alone. I knew that she could, but that didn’t mean she had to.
Yet I couldn’t barge down there and insist that I could help. That would be a dick move. I just had to sit here and hope that she knew I was waiting for her.
It was bad enough that my phone kept dinging with texts from my dad, telling me he’d be in town tomorrow and asking when we could meet up. As if I didn’t have better things to do. I ignored his latest text and dialed my brother’s phone number instead.
He answered a few rings later. “Yo.”
I shook my head. “Let’s go get a drink.”
After a pregnant pause, West asked, “What happened?”
“Can I tell you about it over a beer?”
West sighed. “Should I come over or—”
“Sure. Bring some beer with you.”
“Okayyy,” he said. “I’m going to pick up Harley on the way.”
“She can’t drink.”
West snorted. “She’s in college. She absolutely can drink.”
“Fine. I don’t even care.”
“Christ, what happened?” West asked, as if my dismissal of Harley’s alcohol consumption made it worse.
“I’ll tell you when you get here.”
Then, I hung up and went in my fridge in search of a beer to get started.
West and Harley appeared a half hour later. They’d gone to the grocery store and picked up beer and some kind of seltzer for Harley. I didn’t bother asking. Just took a Stella out of West’s hand and popped it open. Harley and West exchanged the look that I was normally my go-to.
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“Were you fired?” West asked.
I nearly choked on my beer. “No.”
“Did Eve break up with you?” Harley asked.
I tipped my bottle at her. “Not exactly.”
West’s eyes widened. “That doesn’t make sense. You two were all perfect together.”
“What did you do?” Harley demanded. “I like Eve.”
“I like Eve, too,” I snapped back. Then sighed. “I might love her in fact.”
Harley popped a seltzer and sank cross-legged onto the couch. “Wow.”
West similarly sat down at that declaration. His lips forming an O.
The word I hadn’t been able to say to her last night but had been thinking for weeks. The words that stuck to the roof of my mouth every time I opened them. As if, at any moment, she’d read them in my eyes when I stared down at her in adoration. I hadn’t wanted to scare her away. We hadn’t been officially together for that long. Not that it mattered. I’d felt it long enough to know it was true. The might in my statement was the only lie I’d told.
I absolutely loved Eve Houston.
And watching her drive away without me had driven a stake through my still-beating heart.
I lifted my beer to them. “So, yeah.”
“What happened?” West asked.
I explained as much as I could. I didn’t want to divulge Eve’s secrets, especially since she had spent so much time trying to hide what had happened with Bailey. But I gave my siblings enough details to understand that she was gone.
“But she’s coming back,” Harley said. She looked to West. “She’s coming back, right?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a shrug.
West crossed his arms. “You know what the problem is?”
“What?”
“You’re completely out of control.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does that mean?”
“Come on. Don’t bullshit us. We know the real Whitton Wright. You’re the five-year-plan guy. You have to be in control of everything and everyone around you. And now, everything that fit into place is all disrupted, and you can’t do anything about it.”