Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Rhodes dropped his hands about halfway through me talking. Just as I was finishing, those big, booted feet led him over, and from one blink of an eye to another, he was crouching in front of me, his face right there, those intense eyes boring a hole straight into me. Two hands I didn’t see coming were on my cheeks before I could react, keeping me there as he said in a voice rougher than I’d ever heard, “You’re mine. Just as much as Am is. Just as much as anybody will ever be.”
A tear slid down my cheek, and he wiped it off, his eyebrows dropping low.
“You are a part of us,” he said gruffly. “I told you before, didn’t I?” One of the hands on my cheeks moved, and he took my earlobe between his fingers. “I don’t know how anybody would let you walk away, and it isn’t going to be me. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Are we clear?”
I leaned forward and let my forehead drop to his shoulder, the weight of his words settling around me. The hand he had on my ear fell away and dropped to my back. He stroked it.
His breath tickled my ear as he whispered, “I’m not some rich guy, Buddy. I’m never going to be . . . I can’t imagine what you were used to—no, don’t start shaking your head. I know now that I had time to think about it that that doesn’t matter to you . . . but I’ve got a lot more I can give you than that moron ever did. I know it. You do too. No, don’t cry. I can’t stand it when you cry.”
“You’re using your bossy voice again,” I said into his shirt as more tears slid out of my eyes, and I swore some went down my throat, and it was okay because those arms of Rhodes’s closed around my body and pulled me into his chest. Into him.
His voice dropped. “I’m sorry I was jealous. I don’t give a shit about your money or your notebooks or if you never write a single word down again.” Rhodes’s arms tightened around me, and I was pretty sure all of the muscles in his upper body did too as his voice got even more quiet. The soft puff of his breathing tickled my ear as he whispered, “We love you—I love you—because you’re mine. Because being around you is like being around the sun. Because seeing you happy makes me happy, and seeing you sad makes me want to do anything I have to to get that look off your face.
“I want you to come home. I don’t want you thinking these things that aren’t true at all, about us not wanting you around or wanting you to be with us for the wrong reasons. You matter, angel, and I want you here with us. You decided, remember? You don’t get to change your mind anymore. I’m not your ex, and you don’t get to leave. We go through things together, we don’t give up on one another, and not over something like this. Isn’t that right?”
I nodded against him, swallowing back my tears before sliding my arms around his neck. He kissed my forehead and cheek, the stubble on his chin rubbing my face in a way I loved.
“Are we back on the same page?”
I sniffled and nodded again.
“Did you finish dinner? Can you come home?” he asked, his palm moving up and down my spine.
Home. He kept saying it, and my soul gobbled it up. I pulled back a little and nodded up at him. “I can come. Let me just—”
I turned around to see Clara and Jackie at the door, looking at us. Clara held my purse out with a sweet smile on her face.
Rhodes helped me up, his hand touching my lower back briefly before I made my way toward the front door, where Jackie handed me my jacket and Clara gave me my purse and keys. Her eyes were shiny, and I felt so bad.
But she started to shake her head the second I opened my mouth. “I’ve had something special like this before. Go home. Trust me. We’ll have a sleepover another day. That out there matters more. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I hugged her tight, having a small figment of an idea of how she had to feel saying those words. Of losing someone you loved very, very much. But she was right.
I should go home.
Smiling at Jackie, I backed up and turned around to find Rhodes standing in the same spot. I didn’t imagine the faint, pained smile that took over his mouth as he looked at me.
The second I was close, his hand slid over my hair. Just as smoothly, it moved over my face, swiping under my eye as he frowned. “I don’t like to see you cry.” The pad of his thumb moved again, over my eyebrow before sliding back over my head once more and curving down my back. “I would ride with you, but Am—”