Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Hale with Blake Sharp.
The smiles.
The laughs.
The flirting.
Her heart squeezed.
Then she did the same with her eyes.
This…
Was not.
Good.
She ignored Hale’s text (again), changed clothes, carefully folded the Prada and stowed it in a duffel she bought at Target, turned out the lights.
And she was sure to lock up when she left.
* * *
September…
New York City
As the couple lay entwined in the bed under the mural of flowers in a thronged room two floors up, the book lay open to its last page on the table next to a microscope, that instrument’s sole purpose to magnify hope.
Along the opened spine of the book lay a drumstick.
On the left page was a photo of the vivid orange and shadowed clouds of an Arizona sunrise through the dark frame of a wild but tended desert garden. It was taken from low, pointing up, the sun seeming less of an inevitability and more of a destination. Less of a dawn, more of a launch.
On the right page was a picture of five kittens, their adorable heads tipped back, staring at something that had them in thrall.
Also on that side was a poem.
And Then Came You
And then came you.
But you were first.
Disarming me with devotion.
Leaving me.
Leaving me.
Lonely.
And then came you.
But you were always there.
Right there.
Far away.
Leaving me.
Leaving me.
Broken.
And then came you.
The first and the last.
Charming me with kitten fur.
Sticking.
Staying.
Making her bright eyes shine.
Giving.
Sharing.
A monster, gobbling me up,
Making me beg to be your meal.
And then came you.
Just through a touch,
And I had strength.
A look,
And I understood.
And then came you.
Disarming me with devotion.
The first, the last.
There you were,
In the sunrise.
There you were,
When it set.
There you were,
In my bed.
There you were,
In her life.
There you were.
Disarming me with devotion.
And then came you.
The End