Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91270 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
She was a strange one, but I was willing to bet a million dollars that there was a wildcat somewhere beneath those layers of tweed.
Bull lit his cigar and the sweet aroma of fine tobacco filled the room as we all followed suit. We all stood and raised our glasses.
“To Jackie,” Bull said.
“To Jackie!” We threw back our whiskey. It was warm and smooth, and the room rippled with twelve grown men sighing in satisfaction.
“Let’s make sure tomorrow goes without a hitch,” Bull said, looking around the table. “Thankfully, this isn’t something we have to do all the time. So let’s make it a good one.”
With a smack of the gavel, chapel was over.
I didn’t stick around at the clubhouse for any longer than I needed to. The entire time I was away from her, all I could think about was Indy and how I wanted to get back to wherever she was. I ran into Lady talking to Mrs. Stephens, and she said Indy was at home watching old movies. That there was an 80’s movie marathon on. I knew they were her guilty pleasure. Breakfast Club. Pretty in Pink. Some Kind of Wonderful. She would be glued to that TV screen all night.
I grabbed some Chinese takeout and a bottle of wine on the way, looking forward to spending some time with my girl.
Except when I got to her house, Indy wasn’t alone.
She was with a guy.
And he had his arms around her.
I saw them through the open curtains when I pulled my bike up to the curb and climbed off. They were on the couch and he had his arm draped over her shoulder as she leaned forward, her face in her hands.
When she heard my bike, she raised her head and looked out onto the street in my direction.
I just stood there like a dick, watching some guy rub her back as she stared out the window at me. When he leaned forward and planted a kiss on that exquisitely tender spot between her ear and jaw, the bottle of wine dropped from my hand and smashed to the ground. Red wine splattered like blood across the concrete. Last night I had buried my face in that exact spot when I’d come inside her, and now he was kissing it?
Anger tore through me. My initial reaction was to rip open the front door and pull him away from her, and then beat the absolute fuck out of him so he would never touch her again. But an overwhelming sense of betrayal froze me to the spot. Indy wasn’t fighting him off.
She wanted him to touch her.
Gutted, I watched her stand up, say something to him and then disappear from the room. The front door opened, and after closing it behind her, Indy made her way down the driveway to me.
“What are you doing here, Cade?”
I wasn’t one for beating around the bush, so I basically got straight to the point.
“Why is he touching you?” I asked, feeling so full of anger and grief I had no idea how I was going to contain it. “Is he your boyfriend?”
My nostrils flared and I couldn’t keep the sharpness out of my voice.
Indy sighed. “He’s not my boyfriend, Cade.”
I relaxed a little, letting the relief flood through me.
But it was short lived.
“He’s my fiancé.”
It was like a bomb went off inside of me.
Heart. Obliterated.
“Your fi—are you fucking kidding me?” Rage tore through me. My anger was ferocious and knew no bounds. I kicked the already broken bottle of wine across the driveway and punched the Chinese takeout sitting on my gas tank, across the yard.
Indy just sighed. “Can we not do this here? Not now.”
“Yes, here. Yes, now!” I strode right up to her, but she didn’t flinch. She would never flinch. Because she knew that no matter how angry—how volatile I got—I could never hurt her. And I was as pretty volatile as I had ever been. I was ready to go medieval on someone’s ass.
She put her hand on my chest and pushed me back. “I will talk to you tomorrow.”
She was trying to get rid of me.
So she could spend the night with him.
The pain that shot through me almost blinded me.
“Are you fucking him?” The words launched themselves out of my mouth before I could stop them. And then the realization hit me. Of course, she was fucking him. He was her goddamn fiancé.
Indy stopped walking away and turned back to look at me.
“Go home, Cade.”
But I couldn’t let it go. I stepped into her, grabbing her hand to stop her from turning away from me again.
“Indy, please—” I was ready to fucking beg.
What the fuck was going on?
“I didn’t know he was coming,” she said. “But he is here now. And he is here for me.”