Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
I roll my eyes, grabbing another box. Of course I know why she’s here. Does he think I’m a fucking idiot? Hell, I’ve been expecting her to come waltzing back into town sooner or later, and honestly, considering it’s already been a month since Olivia passed, I’m disappointed. Blair didn’t even make the effort to fly in for her funeral. But that leaves Olivia’s estate, and assuming there’s nothing else in this small town to entice her to return home, I can only assume that’s why she’s here.
The question is, how the fuck does Oxley know?
I turn my gaze on his blue eyes, eyes so similar to mine that it messes with my head sometimes. Hell, we could be brothers . . . if he wasn’t such a pretty boy, of course. “Of course I know why she’s here,” I mutter. “But how the fuck do you know?”
I know Blushing is a small town and all, but it’s not small enough that everyone shits in each other’s pockets. Oxley knows of Blair through me, and while I’ve made an effort to look out for Olivia these past few years, especially after Blair’s pop died, Oxley never really had much to do with her. Though the handful of times they spoke, Olivia wouldn’t be able to stop bragging about her hotshot granddaughter living out in the big city and conquering the world.
“I, uhhh . . .” A sheepish expression crosses his face, and as he cringes, I narrow my stare in silent warning. “I got a call from Sarah. She said a friend was stranded at the airport and needed a lift back into town. I was close by so of course I picked her up, and it wasn’t until we were halfway back to Blushing that I realized who she was.”
Clenching my jaw, I nod before letting my gaze fall back to the boxes, and it seems the more information he relays, the harder my heart booms in my chest. “So, she’s only here for a little while, then?”
Oxley shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t think she’s thought that far,” he says, and I quickly realize it was the wrong question to ask because the second the words come out of his mouth, a small beam of hope pulses in the pit of my stomach—a beam of hope that I need to crush as soon as I can.
“Cool,” I murmur, feigning indifference, but fuck, I know he doesn’t buy it. Apart from Blair, Ox is the only other person who’s ever been able to read me.
“Uh-huh,” he says, choosing not to call me out on my bullshit as he picks an invisible piece of lint from his stupid flannel jacket. “I just figured I’d warn you instead of letting you get blindsided when you inevitably run into her in town. You know, because we both know if that happened, you’d stand there gawking at her like a fucking idiot. But now that you know, you can practice your pleasantly surprised reaction in the mirror like a normal hung-up loser.”
“I’m not hung up on her.”
“Uh-huh. And I’m not my mother’s greatest disappointment,” he says, trying to make some stupid point. “Look, I’ve gotta go, but do yourself a favor and go say hi. Who knows? There might just be something still there worth exploring. And if not, you might just get the answers to the questions you’ve been needing to ask for six long years. Hell, you might even get the closure you’ve needed to move on.”
I scoff and shove another box onto the shelf. He couldn’t be more wrong.
Me move on from Blair Wilder? Fucking impossible. I’d have better luck trying to shoot myself into outer space using a slingshot and a homemade propeller. But he’s right about one thing—I have a shitload of unanswered questions, and every one of them revolves around how the hell she could walk away so easily.
Ox makes his way toward the door and pauses, glancing back and demanding my attention. “She looked fucking good, Nick,” he tells me. “Gorgeous. You’d be a fool not to at least try.”
With those parting words, he’s gone, leaving me to stew in a world of self-destruction. I finish stacking all the boxes in easy-to-manage rows for when John inevitably rearranges everything late tonight. I’ll have to be sure to stop by in the morning just to make sure he doesn’t need a damn ambulance.
After striding out of Hardin’s Hardware, I drop my toolbox into the bed of my red pickup before driving myself home. It’s fucking lonely here. I bought this property for me and Blair back when she was in her final year of college. It was going to be a surprise, our chance to start our lives together and build a home for us to raise a family, but she was gone before I could even tell her about it.