Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
My forehead wrinkled. “But that doesn’t make any sense. Your parents were the happiest people I knew. They were so in love.”
He nodded and let out a hefty sigh. ‘That’s what I thought, too. But apparently, my father had some sort of midlife crisis—thought he was missing out on something better since he didn’t know what else was out there. He’d been with my mom since high school.”
We fell silent. I needed to let what he’d said sink in. It seemed unimaginable that either of his happy parents had cheated. But I suppose some people would have said the same thing about my marriage.
“Are you sure?”
He shrugged. “She admitted it. It went on for years.”
While the news was mind-blowing, I had to wonder why he hadn’t told me before now. Of course Ryan had been home when Ford returned from his trip, but we’d spent that last night together and had plenty of time to talk.
Then it hit me, the words he’d used. Things started to click into place.
My dad thought he was missing out on something better since he didn’t know what else was out there. They’d been together since high school.
I’d been telling Ford all summer how I needed to experience life because I didn’t know what else was out there. Finding out about his father must’ve made him think the same thing would happen between us if we didn’t separate.
I looked up into his sad eyes. “I didn’t want things to end. I tried to tell you that on our last night together.”
He nodded. “I know. But I thought that was how it had to be. Thought maybe next summer…after you’d had some time.”
“You wanted me to date until next summer?”
He scoffed. “Fuck, no. But I thought that was the way it had to be…what was best for you.”
I shook my head, afraid to ask the question. “And now? Do you still think that’s the way it has to be?”
“It probably should be.” He paused for a long time and then looked so deeply into my eyes, I felt him inside of me. “But I’m so damn in love with you, I just can’t.”
Tears filled my eyes. “You love me?”
“I loved you almost from the beginning. It just took me a while to admit it to myself because you were so sure we shouldn’t be together.”
“I was afraid to get hurt again. I thought if we physically stayed apart, my heart wouldn’t get broken. But being physically separated doesn’t mean your heart can let go.”
Ford took a deep breath in and seemed to brace himself. “Are you and Mark…together?”
I shook my head. “No. Not at all. I went to dinner with him, Allison, and Desiree. He just gave me a ride home.”
“And the guy the other night?”
“What guy?”
“The one Eve posted on Instagram?”
“That’s her weekend manager. It was taken a year or two ago on his birthday, and we’d just sung to him after the restaurant closed. He’s happily married with four daughters. I don’t even know why she posted it the other day. It was so random.”
Ford let out a long whoosh of air and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been a wreck ever since you reactivated your Match.com profile.”
I furrowed my brow. “I didn’t reactivate my profile.”
“No?”
“I haven’t signed on since before the summer.”
It hit me that I wasn’t the only one with access to that account. Eve had set it up. A reactivated profile, posting a picture of me on Instagram smiling while sitting next to another man…something told me those weren’t a coincidence. I started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“You, jealous.”
His brows rose. “You think me going out of my mind is funny?”
“I do. It serves you right for dumping me. I’m thinking I should go out on a few dates and post a pictorial on Instagram just for you.”
Ford’s jaw clenched, but he also had to work to hide a smirk. He leaned forward, bent me over his shoulder, and lifted, flipping me onto my back in some stealth move.
Hovering over me, he pushed a stray hair from my face. “Can we pick up where we left off?”
“You mean sneaking around like teenagers and hiding from my son and your sister?”
He rubbed his nose with mine. “No, I mean falling more in love.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I can, Ford.”
His face dropped, and the pain in his eyes was truly real. I couldn’t hurt him like that, even after what he’d put me through.
Reaching up, I stroked his cheek. “I can’t because I’m not sure it’s possible to fall more in love with you.”
His chin dropped to his chest, and he let out a deep, low chuckle. “You’re going to make me pay for a long time, aren’t you?”
I grinned. “Oh yeah.”
Ford pressed his lips to mine. A warmth that had been missing since the summer immediately spread through my body. God, I’d missed him so much.