Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 47758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47758 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“Food is food.” He scooped out a bowl and had a taste. “It’s not too bad. Stop being so hard on yourself.”
He left Jade to clean up the mess and found Tulip slumped in the chair.
Of course she looked red in the face but it didn’t detract from her beauty. She really was stunning to look at.
He sat back in his chair and she lifted her head. The shiner on her face glared back at him.
“My head hurts.”
“I’ll get you some painkillers, as soon as you eat something.”
“There you are, so bossy.”
“It runs in my DNA.”
“Yeah, well, if I was a witch, I’d curse your entire bloodline.”
“We’re already cursed.”
She blew a raspberry. “You’re cursed to now the woman you love. Such a bad curse, love.”
“It is actually.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. If you don’t think love is bad, you’re fucking delusional. Love is the end of the world. it’s fucking horrible. We’re at their mercy. I know who my true love is but the woman doesn’t have a clue. There’s no feeling there for her. I have to create it and if I don’t, I risk losing her.”
“You already had your love,” she said.
“Exactly, I had Sarah and she died. For a short time, I thought I wanted to die.”
“And now?”
“Now, there’s you.”
“Are you trying to tell me you’ve got feelings for me?” she asked.
He didn’t answer. Dipping the spoon into the bowl, he lifted some up. “I’m not going to lie, this tastes like shit.” He’d lied to Jade. “Her cooking is hit or miss.”
Tulip took some of the soup and scrunched up her nose. “That’s poison.”
“It’s not. Food is food, and you’re going to need it to keep your strength up.”
“I’ll eat more when you tell me the truth. You’re in love with me?”
He stared at her, wondering how best to word exactly how he felt, but there was no way to describe it. No subtle way to let her know she wasn’t going anywhere but be at his side for the rest of her life.
“Yes,” he said.
“You’re kidding, right? There’s no way you’re in love with me. You don’t even know me.”
“I do know you.”
“No, you think you know me. Who you really know is Sarah. The girl I look like.”
“You’re not her.”
“So what? You get a second chance, is that it?” she asked.
She was really starting to give him a headache with her constant questions he didn’t know the answers to.
“I know how I feel. That’s all I can tell you.”
“But it’s impossible. You don’t know me and I certainly don’t want to know you. I was happy in my little insignificant life and now you’re saying that because of some divine meaning or coincidence, you and I are destined to be together?”
“I know how it sounds.”
“Yeah, it sounds like a bunch of horseshit.”
“Horseshit or not, it is what it is.”
****
Never in all of her life had she been loved. No one had ever cared about her, loved her. She’d been nothing but a passing glance when some parents came to care or watched them. The foster parents, they weren’t always loving, and those that tried too much, well, they were the scary ones. Some kids were lucky. They got out of the system, into loving homes with people who cared.
She’d been cursed to a lifetime of regret, so having this guy look at her and say things like they were destined to be together or that he loved her was impossible to believe.
It just didn’t happen that way. She wasn’t a fucking idiot. She knew the way the world worked.
He fed her some food. It was really bad but after starving for some part of her life, she knew how to eat food in desperation. She needed her strength more than anything else.
Gripping the edge of the chair, she watched him.
He was easy on the eyes, that was for sure. Cute, sexy, and he was more muscular than he was in the picture she’s seen him in. He looked like a hero on a book cover, or at least the rebel.
What she didn’t know for sure was if this Sarah was really her sister.
Biting her lip, she glanced around the room. “Is it true?” she asked.
“Is what true?”
“If you have feelings for me, which I really don’t believe, then does it mean that Sarah, was she … really my twin?” She didn’t want to feel anything when it came to learning about Sarah. She had no understanding of a twin or a concept of what it meant to have a family member.
Landon put down the empty bowl. “Yes.”
Tulip nodded. It shouldn’t hurt.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine.”
She laughed. “You think you’ve got problems. You think knowing love and experiencing it is bad. How about not knowing what it’s like at all? In fact, you, your fucked-up uncle and brothers, none of them know what it’s like to have the mother lode dumped on you. Let me tell you, I don’t like it. Up until last week, as far as I was aware, I was just another unwanted baby. A nobody. I could live with it. No one wanted me, not even my parents. But now I learn I had a sister. A twin. Not only was I not wanted, my other half was. She got the parents, and the boyfriend, and I bet she had a good life, didn’t she? I bet she never knew what it was like to go hungry, or to be afraid because your foster dad’s steps stopped outside of your room and you know he’s been staring at you no matter how hard you try to hide your tits.”