Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93453 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Charlie
It was supposed to be a regular day out.
Three couples celebrating the last days of summer.
When tragedy struck.
I thought I was going to marry her.
Instead, I was burying her.
I blamed the world for my pain.
I buried it all.
I became a man I didn’t even recognize.
Autumn
In a blink of an eye, everything changed.
My best friend was gone, and I was responsible for it.
I may not have been driving the truck, but I didn’t stop it.
Escaping the town was the only thing I could do to survive the guilt.
I thought I was strong enough to go back.
I was wrong.
One look from him and I knew I wasn’t welcome.
But this is my home, and I wanted to come back.
One night turned into more. But at the end of the day, I know he’ll never love me.
Besides, we all have shattered dreams.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Charlie
“You ready?” Jennifer asks when she walks into the walk-in closet as I pull on my white T-shirt. I smile at her standing there in jeans and a white T-shirt, matching me.
“I’m ready,” I reply, grabbing my baseball hat and putting it on my head. “I was waiting for you.” The small smile I had on my face widens as she closes the distance to me and puts one hand on my stomach, while the other hand grabs the hat off my head.
“I like it when you don’t wear this ratty thing.” She waves the hat in her hand, looking up at me, her golden-brown eyes warm like whiskey. “I like to run my fingers through your hair.” She drops the hat from her hand and proceeds to do exactly that through the top of my wettish hair.
“You win.” I lower to kiss her, wrapping an arm around her waist, then bending her back to kiss her lips. “You always win.” I pull her closer, burying my face in her neck and smelling her.
“Not always.” She smirks at me and she’s about to give me another kiss when we both hear the honking from outside. “Shall we finish this when we get home?” she asks with a twinkle in her eye as she leans forward to kiss my neck before I let her go. She turns in my arms, my hand reaching for hers as we walk out of the closet and head to the front door, going through the house. Picture frames of us are scattered throughout every single part of the house, something she did when she moved in a month ago. Even though I’ve been begging her to move in with me as soon as I moved here. Even though she would be here five days out of seven, she never gave in until she was ready.
She’s almost to the front door and about to unlock it when the doorbell rings twice, and she pulls it open. “Hey, can I use the bathroom?” Autumn practically barges in, hopping from one foot to the next.
“Go ahead,” Jennifer says, and Autumn comes down the hallway. When she spots me, her blue eyes light up.
“Hey.” She quickly comes over to kiss me on my cheek. “Got to use the bathroom,” she mumbles, then turns and rushes toward the bathroom.
“I’m going to go wait in the truck!” Jennifer yells, grabbing her green jacket and slipping it on. “You’ll close up?”
“Will do.” I nod at her, going to the back door and making sure it’s locked before walking over and checking the window above the kitchen sink that she likes to keep open so she can hear the birds.
I’m walking to the front door when I hear honking again. “He’s in a great mood today,” Autumn mumbles sarcastically behind me, making me laugh because Waylon is almost always in a great mood. “Tonight is going to be fun,” she says over her shoulder as she walks out of the house. I follow her, closing the door behind me.
“Took you long enough,” Waylon snaps when Autumn opens the passenger door and then looks over at me. I look around her to see he’s got his baseball hat on backward, his blondish hair sticking out from the back of the hat.
“You sit up front.” She tries to hide that she’s pissed off at him and his words, but she fails miserably as she walks over to the back door and opens it, sliding in and slamming the door, not giving me an option.
“Hey,” I greet, getting into the truck and looking over to see the four of them are squished in the back. “How’s everyone doing?” I ask Brock, who is sitting with his girlfriend Everleigh’s ass practically in his lap, his arms wrapped around her to keep her safe. I barely have my seat belt on before Waylon drives off, making Brock shake his head. “Good times,” I say, looking at Jennifer and winking at her. She scrunches up her nose at me and then smiles before turning to Everleigh and saying hello, and the two of them start chatting. Autumn is looking out of the window and not talking to them.
We head over to Waylon’s family hunting cabin, some fifteen minutes away, on the outskirts of town. The log cabin is painted red, with a wraparound porch and four rocking chairs on it. Waylon and I became friends two years ago when I came into town and went to the town hall to apply for permits to start building my barn here. My family and I bought property with a barn on it, but I wanted to expand it. Waylon’s family has been around this town, dating back to the 1920s, when his great-grandfather started a construction company and went into lumber trading or something like that. Now, they just do construction. If a building goes up in town, it’s always with the Cartwright family building it. They were the ones who did all the renovations to the barn.