Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
She hung up before I could ask her what the hell she was talking about.
I couldn’t hold back the scream this time. Stupid woman, how the hell can I convince Ryder that I’m carrying his child when he hasn’t touched me in five years?
Chapter 39
*Ryder*
It’s time. I’m as nervous as a hooker in church, but there was no way I wasn’t going to go through with this. “Do you remember everything we told you?” “Yeah, but I still don’t know how you know what the inside of her house looks like.” “You really wanna have this conversation now?”
“No, I guess not.” I wasn’t in the mood for a tongue-lashing from Zak, and we both knew I was just talking to hear myself speak because it’s a given that I don’t know how they know half the shit they do. They still haven’t come right out and said it, but my money is on military.
“Just breathe, kid; it’s gonna be fine.” Yeah, that’s what they’ve both been telling me for the last hour or so. I don’t know why I feel so sick to my stomach. This is what I’ve been striving for since my return, but now that the time was near, I wasn’t sure I could go through with it.
I knew it was fear of her reaction that held me in its grip, but still, I couldn’t figure out how to shake it off. There was so much at stake here and way too much uncertainty.
“Maybe I should give it some more time, you guys.”
“If you’d like.” Zak, the less amiable of the two, started to turn the car around while Tyler turned to look at me in the backseat.
“What did I tell you about that Band-Aid, kid? Just rip it off. You can do this; you’ve been practicing for a whole week. Just keep your head down, and remember, you were wrong. There’s no scenario here in which you were not totally responsible, so don’t even think about defending yourself.”
I nodded my head and wiped the nonexistent sweat from my brow. “She’s going to have a lot to say; let her rant all she wants, and don’t say a damn word in your defense. If she hits you, which I’m pretty sure she will, and you raise your hand to her, they won’t ever find your body, you understand?”
“Yeah, I won’t hit her; how could I?” I was actually appalled that he would even suggest such a thing, but he must’ve heard about Elena’s fiery temper from somewhere because even he knew there was a pretty good chance she was going to either hit me or throw something at my head.
I almost balked when we pulled up to her house, but on the backside where there was no traffic and no lights back there. I felt like a damn criminal, but this was the only way to do it. Tyler and Zak had gotten everyone out of her house somehow, and this was my only chance unless I chickened out and we had to do this all over again.
I can’t put it off, though, because things had become way more dangerous than I’d expected. Janie was slowly losing her mind, and whoever was behind her pushing was coming down hard, it seemed.
Her actions in the last few days have been more erratic than usual, and the spies these two have running around my house have been reporting on her drug use which seems to have ramped up a whole lot these days, which made the situation that much more unstable.
I think I was more nervous, though, about seeing Elena than any fear of rejection. Rejection I can handle because I don’t plan on taking no for an answer, not once I explain my side of the situation, at least. It was seeing her in the flesh after being apart for so long that had me worried.
It reminded me of the first time we met. I’d idolized her back then, though she didn’t know it. She was someone I’d had a crush on from afar, like most men my age, and when the time came to actually meet her, I thought I was going to be sick. She was so put together, even at a young age, that she kind of intimidated me even then.
I’d been nervous as hell then too, and it had taken me at least until the third or fourth date to stop expecting her to tell me to get lost. If only I could be sure that this time was going to turn out as beautiful as the past.
After those first few dates, it was as if we’d known each other all our lives. She became my person, and I was most definitely hers. Two inseparable kids in love with each other until we were both silly with it.