Total pages in book: 171
Estimated words: 164459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 822(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 822(@200wpm)___ 658(@250wpm)___ 548(@300wpm)
“Seven?” I am surprised to hear that. It’s much less than I thought it would be, but seven is still a lot. I only slept with one guy after Drake and that is Shane. I fidget in my chair, tucking my hair behind my ear.
“Too many?”
I half-shrug. “Not really.”
“I didn’t love any of them, Jenny. Most of them I was with for show. So no one would think I was against women.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“I’m serious.”
I bob my head. “Okay. I believe you.”
He rests his hands on top of the table, and I feel him looking at me, but I don’t bother meeting his eyes. Instead I focus on my cuticles and then twist the rings on my fingers.
“Jenny, I mean what I’m saying. I know I fucked up back then. I really fucked up. I forgot all about the people that cared, even the twins. My own cousins. I was selfish as hell for what I did to you and I regret it. If I could go back, I would. I swear I would. Give me a fucking time machine and I’m there. I’m there and I’m never leaving your side.”
When I reach for my water, he stretches his arm over the table and rubs the back of my hand. I look down at our fingers, how his are much larger than mine, tanner, and rougher.
They are just as warm as they were years ago.
Strong.
Protective.
I once allowed these hands to capture me in my best and worst moments. I let these hands hold and caress me, and make me his. I let these hands own every part of my body, and each memory that involves these hands is sweet, but it also stings a little.
“I tell you what,” he murmurs, leaning forward. “You spend the next two days with me in Vegas, and I will make it up to you as much as possible. I will make sure you have the time of your life, and you have my word that I will never leave you again. If I don’t come through with my word, then you can leave. And you’ll never have to hear from me again. I won’t try and reach out to you. I won’t bother you. But I will tell you one thing.” He grabs my hand and squeezes it. “I will be heartbroken. But I guess I deserve some more of that too, huh?”
“What do you mean more?” I ask quietly.
His eyebrows draw together, as if my question is the most bizarre thing he’s ever heard. “You’re not the only one who’s been dealt a bad case of heartbreak, Jenny. It broke my heart in two, knowing how you’d react to me not showing up that night. I swear, I could feel your heart breaking. That’s how bad it hurt me.”
“So why didn’t you just come then? You could have showed up—maybe not at that exact time, but any time, Drake. I waited there for hours and you never showed up.” I jerk my hand away and he looks down at his lonely hand on the table.
Sitting back, he focuses on my face, every feature of it. “You asked me if I didn’t show up because of fighting.” He pauses, nostrils flaring. “Yes, that’s the reason I couldn’t make it.”
“Why not? What happened?”
He pulls his line of vision away, focusing on a wall across from him and then down at his lap. I can tell he’s ashamed to admit to it, but I need details and it better be a damn good excuse for the four years of hell I went through, just thinking about his betrayal.
“I was on my way to Fox River. I was driving from Lumber and that was an hour drive.” He pauses, blinking slowly, his long, black eyelashes touching his cheekbones. “I got a call from a guy I was working with at the Dawg Pit. His name was Leo. He used to come to the gym a lot. Talked a lot, said he could be a good manager for me—that he could turn me into something big. He always offered, but I would always decline.
“Before that, I told him I didn’t need a manager, that I was fine with where I was, but it was bullshit. I only rejected him over and over again because I didn’t want to leave Grandma Marie…but then she passed away…and I knew I couldn’t stay in that house anymore—that I needed to get as far away as possible.
“So I called up Leo that next day and told him I wanted better things. Funny thing is, he asked me why, and I told him the truth. I told him I wanted to have something to offer Jenny and myself, for the future. He asked me, ‘Who’s Jenny?’ and I said ‘My girlfriend.’”
I look away when he says that, unable to ignore the delight I feel from his statement.