Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
I made my way over to my couch on legs that felt like rubber and sunk down onto it, not even bothering to take my jacket off.
I let out a short growl that faded away into a groan. Why did I have to run into him again? Why did he have to live in Vegas? And just around the corner for Pete’s sake! I had been going along happy…fine! And suddenly he was back, shaking my life up, making me question things again, just like he had the first time. Damn him! I grabbed my phone out of my purse. I was going to call him and give him a piece of my mind. Who did he think he was exactly anyway? How arrogant could one person be? Asking me to call off my engagement five minutes after he walked back into my life? Seriously? The nerve! I stared at my phone and then threw it down on the couch when I realized I didn’t even have his number anyway. I slumped back. That was probably for the best. Angry calling could be as bad as drunk texting. Bad idea all around. I went to my room and got ready for bed. This day needed to end.
__________
My alarm went off at five a.m. and I dragged myself out of bed. I had not slept well. I was cranky and still deeply perturbed. I couldn’t identify exactly what I was so restless about other than the fact that Carson had managed to tilt my world on its axis—again. I should have bolted out of that hotel like a bat out of hell the second I laid eyes on him, standing there in all his muscled, male beauty, flashing that damn dimple for good measure.
“Stupid dimple,” I muttered through a mouth of foamy toothpaste.
I took a shower and wrapped a towel around my hair and my body, and then plunked myself down on my bed. You’re being overly dramatic, Grace. Okay, so he had taken me off balance. But so what? All I had to do was make it clear to him that I was happy with my life. I was not going to call off my engagement for him, a man whom I had spent one weekend with once upon a time—a man I really didn’t know when you got right down to it. Or did I? Well, anyway, that didn’t matter.
I paused, confusion swooping in again as I considered what I knew about Alex, the man I was planning on spending my life with. I knew his family. They lived in San Francisco and I had met them several times when they visited Alex in Vegas. Lovely people. Upstanding. I knew that Alex had wanted to be a lawyer since he was a kid. He was kind, gave to charities, and loved to read cozy mysteries. He was a brilliant attorney. We never fought and he was always considerate. Was he boring like Abby had said? Okay, maybe a little, if I was totally honest. But so what? He was also stable and solid, and he didn’t have my emotions in a constant free fall like some people did. I wouldn’t hurt Alex—I couldn’t.
How’s the sex?
I shot up off the bed and dressed in my dark gray suit, and then did my makeup and hair, deciding to leave it down. Then I pulled my jacket on, grabbed a bagel, slid my heels on by the door, and locked up behind me. On the way to work, I pulled through a Starbucks drive-through and ordered a grande latte.
By the time I had drunk half my coffee, I felt better, calmer. I just needed to remember a few important facts. Carson had fulfilled his role in my life all those years ago. He’d been a positive influence. But he was my past. Alex was my future. Alex also wasn’t a prior porn star like Carson, who probably had a different woman in his bed every night of the week. A horn blared, and I realized I’d started drifting into another lane and made a quick correction, my car whipping back the other way as the remainder of my coffee tipped onto the passenger seat. “Great!” I yelled. I gripped the steering wheel, feeling another surge of anger. I wanted to scream at him. Look what he was doing to me! I didn’t even recognize this version of myself.
I made a spur-of-the-moment decision.
After a series of turns, I pulled into the garage at Trilogy. I needed to get this over with right now. He needed to know exactly how I felt about him. I would be kind but firm and reiterate to him the fact that I was one hundred percent certain about marrying Alex. I couldn’t live, couldn’t focus, if this wasn’t put to rest. I just wanted my life to go back to the way it had been two days ago. Easy. Calm. Predictable.