Total pages in book: 16
Estimated words: 14860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 14860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 74(@200wpm)___ 59(@250wpm)___ 50(@300wpm)
“Do you want to talk here?” Hudson asked. He was rubbing his big hands up and down my arms. It was comforting but it didn’t exactly help ease the tightness behind my zipper that had begun the moment Hudson had dragged me into the barn and sealed his mouth over mine.
“Can we go to your room?” I asked. As badly as I wanted to get this part over with, I didn’t want to do it in a kitchen where anyone could walk in on us.
Hudson took my hand again and led me up the stairs and past several closed doors. His master bedroom took my breath away from the moment I crossed the threshold. It was huge with high ceilings, a fireplace, and a long balcony that overlooked the back of the property. The king-size bed looked positively tiny in the room. There were a few books and a laptop sitting on the nightstand but otherwise the room was pretty bare looking.
“They’ve been gone more than ten years, but I still can’t make it feel like my own,” I heard Hudson say from behind me.
“Your parents?” I guessed.
“Yeah.”
I felt Hudson’s body press up against the back of mine but as badly as I wanted to lean back against him, I couldn’t. I stepped away from him like I was going to check out the view through the glass doors of the balcony.
“What happened, Andrew? What happened because you didn’t stay home that night?”
Somehow, it didn’t surprise me in the least that the man remembered how I’d answered his question on the dating app about going back in time and making one different choice.
“They died. I snuck out to go drinking with my friends instead of staying home like I was supposed to. By the time I got home, the whole house was engulfed in flames. I couldn’t get them out. Just Jennie and that was by pure luck because she’d passed out from smoke inhalation on the stairs. I went back in but the stairs… the stairs were just gone. I could… I could hear them… I could hear them—”
Strong arms wrapped around me from behind. I began to sob as I remembered the sounds of my mother screaming for me and Jennie. “All the bedrooms were on the second floor. I couldn’t get to them. What if they went to my room, Hudson? What if they thought I was in there and that’s why they didn’t get out—”
Hudson turned me around and pulled me into his arms as I let out every ounce of pain and guilt I’d been feeling from the moment I’d woken up in that hospital bed so many years ago.
“Maybe if I’d been there…” I began to say.
“If you’d been there, you and your sister would probably both be gone as well as your parents. None of what happened to your mom and dad is your fault.”
They were the same words Jennie had been telling me for years but hearing them from Hudson didn’t really change anything. I doubted it ever would. I would have to live with the guilt of never really knowing what had truly happened on the second floor that fateful night.
“What happened after?” Hudson asked.
I unashamedly wiped my face on the expensive shirt that covered his broad chest. “A beam fell on me as I was trying to get out of the house and back to Jennie. I’m not sure how long I was in there for but when I woke up I was in the hospital—the burn unit.” I paused to wait for what he would say next. To wait for him to ask the inevitable question with disgust.
How bad are your burn scars?
“How was Jennie?” he asked, catching me off guard.
“She… she’s good. She had smoke inhalation but luckily, she doesn’t really remember anything about that night.”
“How old was she?”
“Seven at the time. She’s fifteen now.”
“So this happened eight years ago. That means you were the same age she is now—fifteen.”
I managed a nod. I allowed Hudson to take my hand and lead me to the bed. He sat down and tugged me down to sit next to him.
“What happened after you recovered?” Hudson asked.
“Hudson…” I whispered with a shake of my head. What he was asking me for was so much harder than what my intent in bringing him up here had been.
Instead of answering his question, I quickly stood up and faced him. The light on the nightstand was turned on so he was able to see me as I slid off my cheap blazer and began unbuttoning my shirt. Every button was harder to undo than the next.
“Hudson,” I said again, though this time for an entirely different reason.
Hudson stood and stepped into my space. His fingers worked slowly but confidently to finish unbuttoning my shirt for me. He didn’t push it off my shoulders though. Instead, he took several steps backward until he was sitting on the bed. He pulled me forward until I had no place to go but astride his lap. Instead of just pushing my shirt off, he began exploring my chest with his calloused fingers. Then my abdomen. His eyes were focused on my body like he’d never seen anything like it before.