Series: The Laws of Opposite Attract Series by Vi Keeland
Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
“Thank you. Thank you for always giving me your honesty.”
Too soon, Brayden had to get out of bed to get to Ryan’s House. The only other person with a key wasn’t going to be there today. The mood was heavy with melancholy as we got dressed. I was at least grateful this wouldn’t be the last time I’d see him. I wasn’t sure I could handle a clean break quite yet.
“Take your time getting to the house,” Brayden said. “We’re waiting on a few deliveries anyway.”
“Okay.” I tried to force a smile, but failed. “I’m going to go back to my room and shower. I’ll probably be there in about an hour.”
He nodded, pushing his hands into his pants pockets. A half hour ago, we’d been connected in a way I didn’t know existed, yet suddenly the interactions between us felt awkward, like neither of us knew how to end the night. This was my fault, so it had to be me. I pushed up and kissed his cheek. “I’ll see you later.”
Walking out of that hotel room felt nearly impossible. It didn’t get any easier over the next forty-five minutes either. I took a shower in a fog, couldn’t even remember drying my hair, and barely had the energy to put on a little makeup. Just as I was getting ready to leave, there was a knock at my door. I opened it to find Brayden standing there.
“I was just about to head out.”
He frowned. “Don’t bother. When I got to the house, I found this on the door.”
Brayden held up a piece of paper, the top three words in big, bold letters:
STOP WORK ORDER
I felt panic in my chest. “What is this?”
“The city building department also slid some papers under the door, violations for not having proper work permits. Apparently the electrician I hired didn’t file the paperwork he was supposed to, and the town is now saying we have an environmental issue. Some cesspool under the ground wasn’t filled in right years ago.”
“Years ago? But none of that is your fault. Can they do this? Make us shut down?”
“It’s a fifteen-hundred-dollar-per-day fine if we do anything more on the house and get caught. I can’t risk it.”
“What are you going to do?”
Brayden raked a hand through his hair. “I’ll call my lawyer first thing Monday morning and then go down to the building department, see how I go about getting this taken care of.”
“What about the volunteers? What will they do?”
“There’s nothing any of them can do this weekend. We’re done until I can get this fixed. I already sent out a group text, hoping maybe I’d catch some of them before they drove over.” Brayden looked into my eyes. “I guess everyone who’s already here can just go back home.”
CHAPTER 19
Alex
Three months.
That’s how long it had been since I’d looked into his eyes. Since I’d smelled him. Touched him. Heard his voice. Three months since he’d…been inside of me. Just thinking about the weekend Brayden and I had sex sent shivers through my body.
Not a day went by that I didn’t think about him. That’s for damn sure. Actually, not an hour went by. Brayden was still the first thing that popped into my mind when I woke up in the morning and the last thing I thought about as I drifted off to sleep at night. I missed him more every day. And I didn’t know if it would ever get any easier.
That last weekend in Seneca Falls, Brayden and I had gone our separate ways shortly after we got the stop-work order. I’d taken that unexpected development as a sign that ending things was still the right decision—even after the best sex of my life. Even after he’d told me he loved me. I’d kept those three words inside of me instead of returning them, despite longing to blurt them out before I left. There was still an ache in my chest from having to hold them in. And those words were still there, begging to come out. The love was still there. It was burning a hole in my heart.
What surprised me most about the past few months was that neither Brayden nor I had given in and contacted the other. I’d expected him to call or message me, but he hadn’t. It wasn’t that I wanted him to call, because that would complicate things. Lord knows I’d had to stop myself from calling or texting him multiple times. Every time I got the urge to contact him, I reminded myself that it would only make the current situation harder. We were done. There was no need to torture ourselves.
One of the things that worked best to remind me that I’d made the right decision was spending time with Caitlin. I’d been making more of an effort to schedule with her lately. Today she and I had gone to a local nail salon for mani-pedis.