Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
River
Not going to turn a blind eye when I know something’s up with you.
My throat constricted, and I stood there in the middle of my living room staring down at my phone. Having no clue what to say.
I knew what I should say.
I should end this. Put him off. Block him.
Forget that stupid kiss had ever happened.
Still, my imprudent fingers were moving across the screen.
Me
You don’t know me.
River
Nope, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see what’s written all over you. As defined as the words I forever marked on your skin.
Me
Why do you care?
So foolish, letting that question free, but I’d sent it to him before I could reel it back. Not sure if it was in defense or a plea.
Begging for a breaking.
But there was something about this man that compelled me toward his gravity. A magnet so strong it could rend me apart. Tear me to shreds.
But it seemed it was the raw, tender pieces that were reaching out.
River
That’s the whole problem, isn’t it? Why I haven’t been able to get you off my mind? Why I can’t look away? Why I feel like I’m going to go mad if I don’t get next to you?
Me
You should stay away from me.
River
I should stay away from you?
I swore, I heard his dark chuckle rumble through the air. A warning cut through the atmosphere.
River
Make no mistake, Little Runner, it’s you who should be running from me. I’m the last person you should get close to. Know it as well as you do. Yet here I am, standing across the street watching your apartment.
Chills flash-fired across my skin, lifting far and wide, and my stomach tilted as my attention lifted from my phone to the French doors that overlooked the street.
Compelled, I slipped across the floor, keeping my footsteps light, like I was worried he could hear my approach. I peeled back the sheer drape. Streetlamps shined over Culberry, and I could see a handful of people meandering the sidewalk and a few cars traveling back and forth.
It didn’t matter.
He might as well have been the only thing out there.
A silhouette on the opposite side of the street that had me stuck.
The man a pillar in the night.
He leaned against a plate-glass window with a single hand stuffed into his jeans pocket.
Even in the distance, I could see his violently beautiful face was tipped upward, and his stormy eyes raged where they were pinned directly on me as if he knew exactly where I’d been standing.
My heart beat manic, a brutal pound in my chest, and I realized right then I’d taken this too far and had placed myself in too precarious of a situation.
Toeing a line I couldn’t balance.
Gathering all my strength, I forced myself to type the words.
Me
Tonight was unlike anything I’ve experienced in a long, long time. Your son and your sister are amazing.
I didn’t tell him that there was a part of me that knew that under all the aggression he wore, I was sure he was, too. Instead, I told him what needed to be said.
Me
But I don’t have space for any more pain in my life. This needs to end here.
Then I pulled away from the drape, letting it drift closed behind me, and fumbled into my bedroom and flicked on the light.
It illuminated the small space. The queen bed sat against the wall and had a white metal headboard. I’d covered the mattress with a white and pink floral coverlet and pink sheets. Pink pillows in different sizes and shapes accented it, and small lamps glowed from the nightstands on either side.
I’d hung some floral paintings on the wall, making it comfortable and cozy, though there were no real traces of me.
Those were hidden in the top drawer of the white dresser that rested on the right wall.
The emotions I’d been trying to hold back hit me all at once, and tears began to fall as I crossed the room and slowly pulled open the drawer. I took out the small, lidded box, carried it to the bed, and crawled on top. Crisscrossing my legs, I set the box in front of me.
My spirit thrashed when I opened the lid.
I had so few things other than the memories I kept shored in my mind. But these two pictures? They were the only tangible things remaining.
Treasures that I protected at all costs.
I pulled out the stack. My mouth tweaked in love and sorrow as I looked at the picture of me with my parents. They both were standing on either side of me at my high-school graduation. They’d been so proud. So excited. So unaware.
If only I’d been brave enough to tell them then, but I’d thought what I’d been doing was protecting them.
I set that one down so I could look at the next.
A grief so severe slammed me that my entire being swayed to the side. Dizziness washed me through as my heart gripped and bled with looking at the image.