Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88408 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
“Me, too,” I murmured, leaning forward to kiss her gently. “You wanna take a nap with me?”
“Can’t,” she said with a shrug, her face stiff. “I have to catch a plane.”
“What?” I asked, unable to stop from blurting out the word. “Now?”
“Yeah.” She took a deep breath. “I need to get back before all of my professors fail me. I can only use family emergencies so many times before they start to get suspicious.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said, shaking my head. “You’re barely better.”
“I’m good enough to fly,” she said gently. This time it was her leaning forward to kiss me. “I don’t want to do the whole goodbye thing, okay?”
“Have your doctors cleared you?” I asked, unable to comprehend that she was leaving, just like that.
“Yes,” she replied. “I’m not doing the long goodbye,” she repeated. “I’ll see you soon, okay? I love you. I’ll call you when I get home.”
She left me standing there with my heart thundering and my stomach rolling like I was going to heave all over the floor.
We’d spent the last few days together. I’d held her while she slept and I’d cooked her and Gray dinner while they laid in bed watching cartoons. She hadn’t said anything about flying back to Connecticut. She hadn’t said anything about going back to Yale at all.
I strode out of my room and across the common area as fast as I could without running. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I had to do something. She couldn’t just take off. That wasn’t how it worked.
Her dad’s truck was just pulling out of the gate as I hit the forecourt, and I stopped moving when I realized that she was actually gone.
That’s when I began to debate shit in my head. I was acting on emotion. That wasn’t how I was supposed to do things. I’d told her to go back to Yale. I’d told her that was what I wanted for her. Just because we’d lived through something big didn’t change that. I was being a pussy because I wasn’t ready for her to leave, but I knew that’s what was best for her.
She deserved to go to that school. She deserved to have those doors opened for her. She deserved the world. And just because I’d forgotten for a moment that she belonged somewhere else didn’t mean that I had the right to drag her back home.
I spun toward the garage and found Cam staring at me.
“Did Lily leave?” he asked, wiping his hands on a rag.
“Yeah.” The word came out choked and I cleared my throat to disguise it.
“She’ll be back.” He turned and walked back into the garage.
Chapter 25
Lily
It had been three weeks of talking with professors, and packing, and long conversations with the admissions people in Oregon, but I was finally home.
Well, sort of.
I was actually standing in the middle of Leo’s kitchen with my bare ass hanging out of the back of my apron as I waited for him to get home. I’d been standing there for almost an hour, and even though I’d figured out my sultry pose and couldn’t wait to see his face when he saw me, my legs were starting to get tired from standing in one position so long and I kind of had to pee.
I cocked my head toward the door as I finally heard his key in the lock, then turned toward the stove so that the first thing he’d see when he came in the door was my bare backside only covered with some apron strings.
“I’m tellin’ ya, that F250 is fuckin’ toast—”
I spun around with my eyes almost popping out of my head at the same time Leo saw me and froze, except for the arm that he used to shove whoever was behind him away from the door.
“Leave,” he ordered, taking a step forward and slamming the door shut behind him.
“Honey, I’m home,” I said with an embarrassed snicker. “That was not how I planned for that to go.”
“What’re you doin’ here?” he asked, striding toward me.
“I’m back for good,” I replied, a smug smile on my mouth. “I transferred to the University of Oregon and I start next term.”
“No, you didn’t,” he argued as he reached me.
“Yep.” I stood quietly as his hands slid around my hips and came to rest on my ass. “And there’s not a fucking thing you can do about it.”
“We’re discussing this,” he said seriously, his hands starting to wander. “Once I can focus.”
Then he threw me over his shoulder and strode toward the bedroom as I laughed.